It’s often said that it takes two sides to make a dispute; it certainly takes two sides to end one. Last week during talks at ACAS, the RMT offered to suspend strike action at Southern Rail if the company matched an offer on guards and safety that’s being made in a separate dispute by ScotRail. The…
There was a lot in the Labour Party’s Manifesto for Work that echoes things unions have been calling for for a long time now.
Cabinet Secretary Francis Maude yesterday made an impromptu statement to Parliament. He claimed to have delivered for the tax payer by reducing civil service union facility time. While this may play well to the right wing of the Conservative back-benchers, the reality is his constant attacks on trade unions can only cause further harm to industrial relations across…
When the Health and Safety Executive was set up, almost forty years ago, it was considered important that it had the confidence of both employers and employees and rightly so. For that reason the Health and Safety Commission was set up to agree any new regulations. There were three worker representatives (proposed by the TUC),…
It is worth a short reprise of last week’s verdict on the government’s strategy: GDP down by 0.3% in 2012, still lower than 2008; manufacturing down 1.5% and services flat; the only positive boost coming from a fortunately timed Olympic games. The coalition government founded on the need to turn around the economy, is failing…
Tomorrow, just ahead of the parliamentary recess, public sector pay review bodies will report to the chancellor the results of their consultation and deliberations concerning the introduction of localised or regionalised public sector pay. This issue was put on the table by the Chancellor who suggested that public sector pay ought to be more ‘market…
This weekend sees the 128th Durham Miners Gala, or the ‘big meeting’ as it’s known. The popularity of the Gala has grown and grown in recent years, it is literally the biggest trade union gathering in Europe with over 100,000 trade unionists descending on the Cathedral and University City so closely associated with the heart…