The high foreheads down at the Bank of England are stumped, confuzzled. Employment is up, output is up, economic growth is up but productivity is stubbornly stalled. In fact, it remains well below the pre-crisis peak. Such a scenario in economics is what Jack the Ripper is to murder mystery. There’s a definite culprit, but […]
Posts under ‘Rights at Work’
Tories’ latest bid for elderly vote: collective defined-contribution pension schemes
Jun 8th, 2014 by Michael Meacher.Pension schemes can be guaranteed to cause a deep yawn, if not escape into outright sleep. So the government has decided to pep up its grey vote with some exciting new pension proposals. Do collective defined-contribution pension schemes get you tingling? Me neither. But it’s important to understand them because they will affect the lives […]
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Farage wants workers’ votes but offers no workers’ rights
Jun 2nd, 2014 by Adrian Weir.Compared with its 2010 General Election Manifesto, UKIP’s manifestos for the recent Euro and local elections were remarkably light on detail but long on saloon bar, right wing sentiment – open borders/immigration, leave the EU, allow smoking in pubs and the sort of petty nationalism that allows us to see some similarities – but not […]
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Miliband’s linking minimum wage to earnings could benefit up to 5m low-paid
May 20th, 2014 by Michael Meacher.Low pay in Britain is scandalous, and it has got considerably lower since 2010. Low pay is conventionally defined as the number of workers paid less than the Living Wage of £7.45 per hour outside London and £8.80 in London, and on that basis workers on low pay have increased by almost 2 millions since […]
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Boycotting Qatar World Cup 2022
May 19th, 2014 by John Millington.Sport and the left have not always been the most comfortable of bedfellows. Despite many famous left leaning sports stars over the years, sport remains associated with individual achievement and cut throat competition. Yet the major international trade union campaign set to dominate the rest of the 2020’s involves arguably the biggest sporting event; the Qatar […]
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Turkish mine disaster: unions blame “murderous” lack of safety & privatisation
May 15th, 2014 by John Millington.Turkish trade unions are staging a one day strike today in protest at the Soma mine disaster which has left over 200 dead. An as yet unexplained explosion took the lives of 246 miners and around 700 may still be trapped underground. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the area but had his car attacked as […]
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Might AstraZeneca break the capitalist drug that money always wins?
May 13th, 2014 by Michael Meacher.Dare one say it, but the tide is slowly but perceptibly moving in AstraZeneca’s direction. A week ago, despite Pfizer being untrustworthy with flimsy pledges on jobs and R&D which could be ‘adjusted’ if ‘circumstances significantly change’ and despite the deal being more about US tax arbitrage than the British national interest, it looked a […]
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International Workers’ Memorial Day
May 5th, 2014 by Grahame Morris.This week workers and Trade Unionists around the world held events, demonstrations and vigils to mark International Workers’ Memorial Day on Monday 28 April. The day intended to serve as a rallying cry to remember the dead, but also to fight for the living. Every year, two million men and women die worldwide as a result […]
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Remembering the tragedy of Rana Plaza
Apr 24th, 2014 by Jeremy Corbyn.A year ago the world learnt of the horror of the deaths of clothing workers in Rana Plaza in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi government recorded 1,100 deaths, and 2,500 people were rescued. Dangerous buildings collapsed, fire escapes were locked, there was no safety procedure and the survivors lost their jobs and faced destitution. The cheap clothes these workers were producing were destined for […]
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Legal loophole used to exploit agency workers must be closed
Mar 31st, 2014 by Billy Hayes.Day-in, day-out agency workers doing exactly the same job as their colleagues are receiving up to £500 less in their pay packet every month. Why the gaping disparity? Because employers are using a clever legal loophole to undercut permanent employees and exploit temporary workers. This week is part of Fair Pay Fortnight and the Communication […]
