TUC new year message

In his new year message to trade union members, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:
'2008 may be a rocky year.
'After a decade of steady economic growth and stability, prospects for the economy are distinctly uncertain. The full effects of the credit crunch triggered by irresponsible lending in the USA sub-prime mortgage market have yet to work their way through the economic system. Northern Rock has already been taken in its wake.
'But it is important that we do not talk ourselves into thinking the economic situation is worse than it is. The truth is that instability has not come from events in the real economy where people trade goods and services, but from the world of finance. Employment remains at record levels, and businesses say they are optimistic for the year ahead. Lower interest rates can only help. The greatest threat would be to confuse the difficulties now being suffered by banks with the economic fundamentals.
'But there are lessons to be learnt. For many years we have been told that over-regulation and red tape are the biggest barrier to economic growth. Yet the biggest threat to the world economy has come from a failure to regulate the US mortgage market, and its biggest victim here flows from a regulatory failure in UK banking system oversight. No-one should support outdated or over-bureaucratic regulation, but perhaps it's time to celebrate the role that appropriate regulation plays every day in maintaining economic stability, protecting consumers, workers and the environment and ensuring that we live in a civilised society with rules. Let's make 2008 the year we stop having lazy debates about red tape, and start talking about getting the balance right - more regulation where we need it, and less where we don't.
'My other big worry for the year ahead is the simmering resentment across the public sector at government pay policy. Public servants have already suffered a cut in their living standards this year. But the Government is planning a further three years of reduced living standards. The arguments for doing this do not stack up, and the risks are big. It does not just threaten the recruitment, retention and morale of public servants but will damage an industrial relations system that has minimised conflict in the public sector. Ministers say that real wage cuts in the public sector are needed to fight inflation, yet all the evidence shows that public sector pay follows inflation not causes it, and that bearing down on public sector pay has had no impact in the private sector. In any case experts agree that pay is not currently driving inflation. It is not too late for ministers to think again.
'But what about some hopes for the year ahead.
'If I had one wish it would be that 2008 was a year that we had a proper political debate about making Britain a fairer society. It is a big agenda.
'It means more help for those at the bottom. We need to see faster progress on the Government's pledge to end child poverty, and recognise that this carries a price tag. It means making workplaces fairer. This requires proper enforcement of the rights that vulnerable workers are meant to enjoy, but too often do not. It also means closing what is now the biggest source of abuse and exploitation - agency working. There is nothing wrong with supplying people with short-term availability to employers with short-term needs, but almost every media exposure of exploitation at work has featured agency working.
'At the other end of society it is time for a proper debate about inequality. We now have a growing group of the soar-away super-rich, who live lives cut off from the rest of us. Many take advantage of private equity and non-dom tax loopholes. This is not just bad for social cohesion, but distorts the economy.
'This is why I hope that in the year ahead we can have a proper debate about tax. We need a campaign for fair tax. If the super-rich and big companies are not paying their fair share it means that the rest of us - including small and medium sized businesses are paying too much, that public services are not getting the growth they need and that we do not have the resources to end child poverty. Simply closing the non-dom loophole would raise enough to halve child poverty. No-one particularly enjoys paying tax but it is the price tag for a civilised society, and it's about time that we had a proper debate about whether those who can afford it are paying their fair share.'

Union leaders speak up for public services

(18/12/07) UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis joined other trade union leaders and public-service workers today to start the fight-back against the government's 2% public-sector pay limit.
Dave Prentis joins TUC general secretary Brendan Barber and public service workers to launch the Speak Up for Public Services pay campaign"A 2% pay limit, for each of the next three years, will mean a pay cut for the UK's six million public-sector workers," Mr Prentis said."It represents a real cut in living standards and could cause long-term damage to industrial relations, recruitment, retention and morale."Launching the Speak Up for Public Services campaign at Westminster, the TUC and its 26 member unions called on ministers to accept in full the next round of recommendations from the various pay review bodies, if they wanted to avoid a repetition of the anger that provoked a wave of strike ballots across the public sector in 2007."The government must remember what a demoralised, under-resourced public sector it inherited from the Tories," Mr Prentis warned. "We cannot go back to those days."UNISON and other public-sector unions will be working together over the coming months to campaign for pay rises that reflect the true cost of living in the UK, he said.The TUC has published a new report, Six million pay cuts, to coincide with today's campaign launch.Debunking the myth that public-sector pay fuels inflation, the report points out that the government's arguments for the freeze do not add up. Holding back public pay will also widen the pay gap between men and women, it says.For more information about the Speak Up for Public Services campaign, read the full text of the statement signed by all 26 member unions of the TUC: Public servants deserve fair pay. Download the TUC report here: Six million pay cuts [PDF] More on UNISON's Positively Public campaign

Fight for free speech continues

(17/12/07) 150 mental health workers in Manchester who have been on strike in support of their branch chair returned to work today.However, UNISON has pledged to fight on in defence of Karen Reissmann, the award-winning psychiatric nurse sacked for speaking out against health cuts.The union will take up Ms Reissmann's case with an employment tribunal, after she lost an internal appeal against her dismissal.Manchester Mental Health Trust has refused to reinstate Ms Reissmann, despite a prolonged campaign backed by UNISON, which won widespread public support.Ms Reissmann chairs her local health branch and has been a vocal opponent of government health policies and local cuts.The trust claims she brought it into disrepute by talking to the media.UNISON believes she is being victimised in an attempt to silence her and other union activists.General secretary Dave Prentis said: “UNISON will not be silenced and we shall continue to campaign through all available channels to obtain Karen’s reinstatement.”

de deux with the far right

The ballerina Simone Clarke, has taken a leading
role in a nationalist organisation with links to the
British National party. Clarke was revealed to be a
member of the British National Party (BNP) during
a Guardian investigation into the far-right organisation
last year. She drew widespread criticism, with
anti-racist protesters staging a demonstration when
she took to the stage in English National Ballet’s
production of Giselle.
Now the ballerina, who is expected to retire soon,
has been elected to the executive board of Solidarity,
a so-called trade union which says it aims to
protect the rights of British workers. In a posting
on Solidarity’s website Clarke said: “Last year a
newspaper “exposed” my BNP membership. Some
politically motivated malcontents tried to have me
sacked, hence my interest in a British workers’
union.”
She was elected to Solidarity’s board last month
and, according to BNP leader Nick Griffin, has
given a speech at a BNP event in the Midlands in
recent weeks.
Solidarity’s general secretary is Pat Harrington,
a long-time far-right activist and former National
Front organiser. Critics say the organisation, which
is not affiliated to the TUC, is a front organisation
for the BNP. Solidarity denies the charge, claiming
it is an independent trade union.
When her membership of the BNP was exposed
Clarke claimed the organisation was the only party
willing to “take a stand” against immigration. “I’ve
never been clearer in my head that I’m moving in
the right direction and at the right time,” she told
the Mail on Sunday, adding that her conversion to
the far right was prompted by watching the news
and reading the BNP manifesto.
“I am not too proud to say that a lot of it went over my
head but some of the things they mentioned were
the things I think about all the time, mainly mass
immigration, crime and increased taxes. I paid my
£25 there and then.” On its website Solidarity says
it was formed “as a reaction against the betrayal
of the Unions affiliated to the TUC”. It adds it is a
“National Movement that actively recruits UK and
Irish Workers into it’s [sic] ranks”.
In its 2006 annual return to the union watchdog the
Certification Officer, its declared membership totalled
just 42 — all but two of them men. Its income
was £1,105.
Harrington became general secretary and treasurer
at the end of 2006 replacing Lee Barnes — the
BNP’s legal adviser — and the BNP’s treasurer John
Walker respectively.
Vice president Kevin Scott — a BNP regional organiser
— was replaced by Tim Hawke — said to be an
Ipswich BNP member — on the same date.

Unions vow to fight on

(07/12/07) UNISON and other trade unions are angry at the government's part in blocking EU legislation to protect vulnerable agency workers.Employment ministers from across Europe failed to thrash out a deal to implement the Agency Workers Directive when they met this week.The deal, which has been stalled for the past five years, would give agency workers the same employment rights as permanent staff.The issue is a key one for UNISON, which has been pressing the government through the TUC to break the European deadlock and agree a new deal, or to honour its Warwick commitments to introduce UK legislation.Addressing a packed fringe meeting at TUC Congress earlier this year, UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis said: "It is a disgrace that in the fourth richest economy in the world, 10 years into a Labour government, vulnerable workers can be exploited and abused they way they are."Mr Prentis is also president of the TUC, which said the lack of progress on the Agency Working Directive was disappointing."There is real anger among unions today that the UK government played the pivotal role in blocking progress on this modest measure to improve workplace justice," said the TUC's Brendan Barber.The directive would have helped slow the growth of a two-tier workforce, and made it more difficult for employers to undercut wages and conditions, he said.However, he pledged, "unions will not give up the campaign to deliver justice for agency workers."

Strike deductions success

Employers must include annual leave and bank
holidays when calculating how much pay to deduct
for strike action, the High Court has ruled. UNISON,
the UK’s largest public sector union, brought the
test case, Cooper v Isle of Wight College, following
strike action to protect members’ pension rights in
March last year.
The decision means that the Isle of Wight College
should have deducted only 1/260th of the annual
salary of a striker for the one-day strike not 1/228th.
The ruling has implications for all employers making
deductions from employees’ wages for taking
strike action.
The union has consistently argued that the correct
method of deducting salaries during strike action
is to deduct the weekend and other non-working
days — but not annual leave or bank holidays — resulting
in a formula of 1/260th of the annual salary
for a day’s strike.
UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis said: “The
amount of money may seem small but the principle
of the case is much bigger. The strike action last
year was to defend pension rights and it involved
30,000 members in the further education sector.

Concessionary Bus Travel Act 2007
Introduction
1. The Concessionary Bus Travel Bill was introduced in the House of Lords on 27 November 2006. The Department's press release of 27 November 2006, announcing introduction of the Bill, can be found at the following link:http://www.gnn.gov.uk/content/detail.asp?ReleaseID=245891&NewsAreaID=2&NavigatedFromSearch=True
2. The Bill received Royal Assent thus becoming an Act on 19 July 2007.
3. The full text of the Act and Explanatory Notes can be found on the Office of Public Sector Information website: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/
4. The final Regulatory Impact Assessment for the Concessionary Bus Travel Act 2007 is at:http://www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/aboutria/ria/riaconcessbustravelact07
5. The full text of the Commencement Order for the Act, including a short Explanatory Note, can be found on the Office of Public Sector Information website: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/. The title of the Order is 'The Concessionary Bus Travel Act 2007 (Commencement and Transitional Provisions) Order 2007' (Statutory Instrument 2007 No. 2799 (C. 109)).
What the Act does
6. The Concessionary Bus Travel Act provides that everyone aged 60 and over in England, and disabled people in England, will get free off peak travel on all local buses anywhere in England from April 2008. The existing statutory entitlement allows these groups to travel for free, but only on buses within their local authority area.
7. The Act will achieve social inclusion benefits for older and disabled people in allowing them greater freedom to travel, for free, by local bus. This is a key part of the Government's wider recognition of the importance of public transport for older and disabled people, and the role access to transport has to play in improving social inclusion and maintaining well being.
8. The provisions in the Act:
Guarantee free bus travel for those eligible from 9.30am until 11pm on weekdays and all day weekends and bank holidays, across England.
Provide a power to allow, via regulations in the future, for mutual recognition of national concessionary bus passes across the United Kingdom.
Allow flexibility for Ministers to change the mechanism for reimbursement of bus operators in the future and enable streamlining of the administration of concessionary travel.
Retain Ministers' ability to adjust the scope of the concession in the future via regulations.
Enable local authorities to continue to be able to offer benefits above the statutory entitlement to their residents, such as travel before 9:30am and concessions on other modes like trams, as well as alternative forms of travel scheme, like tokens for use on taxis or community transport.