Rights at work

Hugh Robertson
High heels: Lies, damned lies and politics

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It is always said that you should never let the truth get in the way of a good story, and while we might expect that of some tabloids, what about when it is politicians? Today the health and safety Minister, Chris Grayling is making a speech to the Policy Exchange where it’s reported he will say:

“It baffles me that at a time when we face a huge jobs challenge across Europe, that someone thinks it is sensible for the EU to be spending time legislating to ban high-heeled shoes in a hairdressers.”

Now the implication of this is that the EU is planning legislation on this. Well that is news to me, and it is news to the European Commission.

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Posted on April 18th, 2012 by Hugh Robertson filed under: Rights at work
Carl Roper
The end is nigh for unpaid internships

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On Monday the TUC, NUS and intern campaign groups launched a year of activity aimed at finally ending the practice of non-payment of people on internships. Deputy General Secretary Frances O’Grady for the TUC and Dannie Grufferty, VP Society & Citizenship, for the NUS formally launched the campaign. We were joined by Hazel Blears MP, Michelle Stanistreet General Secretary of the NUJ and Gus Baker from Interns Aware. Interns past and present made up a significant proportion of the audience and a number shared their (mainly bad) experiences (being told to walk your ‘employer’s’ dog and clean up its mess anyone??!!).

Our campaign will put pressure on employers by naming and shaming those who willfully break the law and exploit interns – the NUS will be targeting employers who use student employment agencies. Unions and the TUC will be making sure that interns not only know their rights but just as importantly, have a way of enforcing them. The TUC will be launching its Rights for Interns smart phone app via the Apple and Android App Stores at the end of March.

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Posted on February 14th, 2012 by Carl Roper filed under: Rights at work
Owen Tudor
Stronger unions depend on what happens in Europe

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We’ve co-published a pamphlet on European social and employment laws this morning with our friends at the Foreign Policy Centre (and in partnership with the European Commission). It sounds like a pretty dry read (honest, it isn’t!) but the issues addressed are fundamental to future union organisation and our ability to deliver for working people.

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Posted on February 10th, 2012 by Owen Tudor filed under: Rights at work
Hugh Robertson
Workers’ rights to compensation under threat from all sides

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Workers are facing an onslaught by the government on their ability to claim compensation. There are three proposals to strip us of our rights being considered at the moment.

While chief executives seem to manage to get huge sums of compensation when they are sacked or resign after screwing up, us lesser mortals have only been able to look on with envy. However when we are sacked unfairly we have at least been able to rely on our unions and, as a last resort, an Employment Tribunal. The government wants to either stop that or make it more expensive. As well as changing the time you have to have been working for your employer to be able to make a claim to an Employment Tribunal from one year to two years they plan to charge us for the pleasure of seeking any form of justice. Applicants will be obliged to pay the costs of an unfair dismissal claim which will only be refunded if the employee wins.

The government is proposing to charge £200 to lodge a claim and £1000 for a hearing, They have given another option of an upfront fee of £500 to access the Tribunal that can rise to £1750 if the employee is claiming more than £30,000 in compensation. The fees will be even higher if a worker believed they were sacked because of their sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation or religion and belief.

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Posted on February 1st, 2012 by Hugh Robertson filed under: Rights at work
Hugh Robertson
Health and safety culture? I wish…

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Today we have seen a speech from David Cameron and an article by him in the London Evening Standard, saying he wants to end the health and safety culture and the burden on business that it creates. They represent probably the biggest verbal assault on health and safety by a senior politician for many years, which is saying something, given that only last summer the PM was blaming the English riots on our health and safety culture.

I wish we had a health and safety culture in the UK. Instead we have two million people with an illness or injury caused by their work, and every year well over 20,000 people who die prematurely because of their work. The vast majority of these could have been prevented had their employer had taken the correct precautions.

Both the speech and the newspaper article are a response to grumbles from the business lobby and the rantings of right-wing commentators.

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Posted on January 5th, 2012 by Hugh Robertson filed under: Rights at work
Owen Tudor
Who’s got the toughest labour laws? IMF says it’s whoever they’re looking at right now…

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An interesting footnote to the global union submission to the autumn meetings of the International Financial Institutions (the IMF and the World Bank) might be of interest to trade unionists constantly being told that they need to give up their hard won employment rights to be competitive in global labour markets. Basically, the IMF can’t make up their mind who’s got the toughest labour laws at the moment.

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Posted on September 19th, 2011 by Owen Tudor filed under: Rights at work
Sam Gurney
International labour standards: creating space to organise?

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Domestic workers celebrate the passing of Convention 189 on Domestic Workers at the ILO's 100th Session in Geneva in June this year. Photo: © International Labour Organization

Last week, I had to give a presentation to the Solicitors International Human Rights Group (SIHRG), on the topic ‘International Labour Standards: How effective is the current system?’ The main temptation was to simply say ‘not very’ and leave it at that, but the calibre of the audience demanded a rather more structured response.

When it comes to actually establishing international labour standards, the system might not be the Rolls Royce of global governance structures, but it’s definitely in the high end range compared to many of the other areas where we’re crying out for globally agreed standards, such as finance sector regulation or controls on tax evasion and avoidance.

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Posted on September 16th, 2011 by Sam Gurney filed under: Rights at work