Paul Sellers's Archive — Page 2
Paul is TUC Policy Officer dealing with working time and the minimum wage. He focuses on combating the long hours culture, campaigning for better laws on working time, and promoting collective bargaining and best practice.
He also focuses on influencing the Low Pay Commission and the Government, and works to promote better awareness and enforcement of the minimum wage.
Paul Sellers
A new study published today reaffirmed the link between long working hours and depression. As the evidence of serious health risks continues to pile up, why on earth do the Government and the CBI continue to oppose strengthening the Working Time Directive?
It seems to have become like an article of faith, making their stance difficult to shift with even the most rational argument.
Paul Sellers
It has not been widely reported, but in last night’s keynote speech Mervyn King argued that the economy has been held back by a combination of high inflation and weak wages growth. Take note, ye pay-rise naysayers!
King’s argument was that inflation had been kept high by the rise in VAT, higher import prices and soaring energy costs.
“The consequence has been a ferocious squeeze in the purchasing power of take home pay. That led to a fall in consumer spending which accounted for much of the weakness in growth in 2011″
Paul Sellers
The Chancellor has asked the public sector pay review bodies to look at how public sector pay can be made “more responsive to local labour markets.”* Most people, including trade unionists, would say that it is fairest to pay people for what they do, not where they live.
Perhaps the Chancellor is just toying with the idea of tweaking around the edges of the public sector pay scales. Certainly to push for full localisation would be foolhardy, as it would cause significant detrimental economic side effects and would be likely to lead to the Government having much less control over the public sector pay bill.
Paul Sellers
On a lighter note, a study of working practices in offices commissioned by the Mars company is reported in the Daily Mail.
The tone of the piece is that we are all working longer but that we are reasonably happy about it. However, reading between the lines there is a more interesting story here – “the average worker …. is made to feel angry by bosses once a day.” – sounds like there is still a strong need for trade unions here!
Paul Sellers
The National Minimum Wage (NMW) rates will increase again on Saturday 1 October. We have strong arguments for a more generous increase, especially in these time of relatively high inflation, but we should perhaps also just take a moment to celebrate the fact that every increase that has been achieved has been fought for by the trade union movement. The Low Pay Commission (LPC) estimates that the latest rise will benefit around 890,000 employees – certainly worth a quick cheer.
Paul Sellers
Today is the last chance for interns to have their say in the survey organised by campaign group Interns Anonymous. Please fill in today if you are, or have been an intern. You can find the survey here: http://internsanonymous.co.uk/
The BBC Panorama programme also wants to hear from those who have been wrongly denied the National Minimum Wage – contact: panorama.reply@bbc.co.uk in the next week or so.
Paul Sellers
“The impact of the public sector cuts on private sector jobs remains a concern. A total of 20% of private sector employers now say they will have either a quite serious or serious impact on them.” - Recruitment and Employment Confederation Jobs Outlook survey, 23 August 2011
The impact is twofold:
No surprise then that employers organisations (such as REC) are belatedly starting to worry about Government policy.
Paul Sellers
New figures published today by the Council of Mortgage Lenders show approvals for house purchase and remortgage loans continuing to decline in the year up to June 2011 - down by 11% overall and down 8% for first time buyers. Furthermore, today’s release also shows lenders continuing to demand an average deposit of 20% from first time buyers. The banks are clearly determined to replace their pre-recession profligacy with excessive parsimony.
In my view, the snag is that we cannot have a stable economic recovery until the banks are once again willing to lend reasonable amounts of money.
Paul Sellers
“It is a fact that the aggressive cuts Osborne laid out last year are … hampering our economic growth”.
Not my words, but those of Jim Armitage, business correspondent of the Evening Standard – usually rather a fan of Government policy. There are many straws in the wind that suggest that the business community is getting twitchy about the direction of government policy, having belatedly woken up to the fact that public sector cuts will both depress consumer demand and reduce the number of contracts let to the private sector. As this will in turn reduce tax revenues, there is a real danger of that the economy will enter a “vicious circle”.
Paul Sellers
Accountants UHY Hacker Young claim that welathy and poor“face among the highest taxes in the world” in Britain in a very irritating story in today’s Metro newspaper.
My nasty suspicious mind can’t help thinking that it must be first group that the authors are really worried about – after all, the poor are rarely known to hire accountants.
