One of the strongest themes we’ve heard on the North West leg of our Britain Still Needs A Pay Rise tour has been what’s happening to wages in the public sector. Traditionally seen as a sector of “good jobs”, the years since the crash have seen a dramatic reversal. In Wallasey, I talked to council…
MPs from the cross-party Exiting the EU Select Committee today heard evidence on how Brexit could affect the world of work, from the TUC’s Frances O’Grady, CBI’s Carolyn Fairbairn and former BCC Director turned Brexit campaigner, John Longworth. We’ve heard a lot of promises in recent months from the PM and minsters that our employment rights…
As someone working in digital services in trade unions, the legal ban on using online voting for union statutory ballots has always wound me up. So I’m very pleased at the news that the government are finally starting their promised independent review into online voting for unions. Sir Ken Knight, the government’s former Chief Fire…
Sir Martin Sorrell is the Chief Executive Officer of WPP, the multinational advertising and PR firm. He’s also retained his place this year as Britain’s highest paid CEO, drawing nearly £70 million in 2015. For those who are used to somewhat fewer zeroes on their pay slips, this might be hard to take in, but…
The Conservative Party leadership election has been rapid, dramatic and completely bewildering. And now with the withdrawal of the last remaining challenger to Theresa May it looks like there won’t even be a vote at all. But there’s one thing in this campaign that has been overlooked in favour of the more sensational stories dominating the media for the last…
Prominent Brexiteer Priti Patel MP joined the growing number of her colleagues who’ve let the Leave campaign’s cats out of their bags yesterday, in her speech to the Institute of Directors. “If we could just halve the burdens of the EU social and employment legislation we could deliver a £4.3 billion boost to our economy…
We’re nearing the end of the parliamentary process of the controversial Trade Union Bill. It has been a bruising experience for the government, lasting longer than they had hoped, and with a successions of embarrassments, defeats and concessions along the way. Much is still up for grabs, but as things stand at the end of…
Boris Johnson and Michael Gove have been hitting the Brexit campaign trail to claim that quitting the EU would free up the £350m a week they say we spend on the EU to give instead to the NHS. It’s hard to know which end of this one to doubt first. The BBC’s fact checkers were…
Members of the House of Lords voted to defeat the government three times inside three hours tonight during the report stage debate for the trade union bill. The votes concerned substantial amendments to the bill over electronic balloting for strike votes (introduced by crossbench Peer Lord Kerslake), central government-imposed caps on facility time for union…
Zero-hour contracts may be a dream for cost-cutting employers. But they are all too often a nightmare for workers. And despite widespread condemnation from politicians, they’re growing, with this year’s official statistics showing a 15% rise. 104,000 more people are now employed on zero hours contracts, bringing the total to 801,000. If you don’t get…