Category Archives: Trade unions

TUC chief calls for directors of P&O Ferries to be disqualified

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Francis O’Grady writes to Insolvency Service, which is investigating the sacking of almost 800 crew

The head of the Trades Union Congress has written to the Insolvency Service calling for it to disqualify the directors of P&O Ferries after they sacked nearly 800 crew without notice.

In a letter seen by the Guardian, Frances O’Grady, the TUC’s general secretary, said the Insolvency Service should “initiate disqualification proceedings against the directors of P&O Ferries Division Holdings Limited”.

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Plans to keep passengers moving and shelves stocked as rail strike looms

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With 40,000 RMT members voting, union warns of ‘potentially biggest rail strike in modern history’

Contingency plans are being drawn up to try to keep passenger and freight trains running and prevent empty supermarket shelves after unions warned of “potentially the biggest rail strike in modern history”.

The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) is balloting 40,000 members on the industrial action, which network sources have reportedly said would create “serious challenges” in keeping goods moving and supermarket shelves stocked.

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Royal Mail ‘at crossroads’ as pandemic parcel boom fades

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Postal service says it needs to adapt to post-Covid business world amid near-9% drop in profits and union pay battle

Royal Mail has warned that the company is at a “crossroads” and needs to urgently adapt to the post-pandemic environment as parcel deliveries, originally boosted by Covid lockdowns, continue to wane.

It piles further pressure on the postal company, as it struggles to reach a pay deal with unionised staff who are pushing for an inflation-based pay rise as the cost of living soars.

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Boris Johnson ‘choosing to let people struggle’ with cost of living says Keir Starmer – as it happened

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Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the international trade secretary, has warned that inflation will experience a further “bump” before prices are likely to stabilise.

In a Q&A after delivering a speech on green trade at Bloomberg’s HQ in London, she said countries around the world were facing a “a global battle against inflation”. She went on:

This is something we have to tackle across the board.

And the worry we always have is that inflation tends to have two bumps to it.

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Unite union seeks talks with Sturgeon over Grangemouth refinery

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Union says oil refinery’s ‘strategic importance’ means talks about possible threats are urgent

Trade union bosses are seeking an urgent meeting with Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon amid uncertainty surrounding the future of the Grangemouth oil refinery.

Grangemouth is one of just six oil refineries in Great Britain and supplies two-thirds of the petrol and diesel for forecourts in Scotland as well as large volumes for the north of England and Northern Ireland.

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Most Britons back curbs on bosses’ pay, survey finds

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Sixty-three per cent of people said CEOs should be paid no more than 10 times earnings of lower- or mid-ranking employees

Six in 10 people think company bosses should be prevented from earning more than 10 times the average paid to employees, according to polling shared exclusively with the Guardian.

A poll for the High Pay Centre, a thinktank that campaigns for fairer pay for workers, found that 63% of Britons said chief executives should be paid no more than 10 times the earnings of lower- or mid-ranking employees.

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‘Condescending’: Jacob Rees-Mogg leaves notes for WFH civil servants

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Cabinet minister accused of ‘crass’ behaviour in his campaign to get staff back in the office

Jacob Rees-Mogg has been called “condescending” after leaving notes deemed to be passive-aggressive on civil servants’ desks in an effort to stop them working from home.

As part of his campaign to push workers back into offices, the cabinet minister has toured Whitehall buildings and published a league table of government departments based on how many staff are present.

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Union threatens ‘biggest rail strike in modern UK history’

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RMT to ballot more than 40,000 workers at Network Rail and train firms in dispute over jobs and pay

More than 40,000 railway workers are to be balloted in a dispute over jobs and pay that a union says could result in Britain’s biggest rail strike in modern history.

The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) said staff would be asked to vote on strike action over Network Rail’s plans to cut at least 2,500 maintenance jobs as part of a £2bn reduction in spending on the network.

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UK teachers popping pills as workload grinds them down, union told

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NASUWT conference delegates condemn non-stop culture that puts colleagues on long-term sick leave

Teachers are “popping pills” and are on long-term sick leave, ground down by a culture of non-stop school emails and WhatsApp messages that “ding and ping” day and night, a conference has been told.

Delegate after delegate took to the platform at the annual conference of the NASUWT teachers’ union in Birmingham to condemn the increase in workload and describe the devastating impact on health and wellbeing.

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Police examining contracts related to Unite’s £98m Birmingham hotel project

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Union’s offices raided as part of investigation into allegations of bribery, fraud and money laundering

A police inquiry involving a Unite union official is examining contracts related to the construction of a £98m hotel and conference centre in Birmingham, the Guardian has learned.

South Wales police and HM Revenue and Customs raided the union’s offices in central London on Thursday as part of an investigation into allegations of bribery, fraud and money laundering.

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Union rejects pay rise of £1,500 for BT staff and plans strike ballot

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CWU bosses say increase is relative cut in salary but BT says it is its biggest award in two decades

BT has given 58,000 workers a £1,500 pay rise that it says is its biggest award in two decades, despite its largest union rejecting the deal and saying it intends to ballot members over strike action.

Last week BT had a £1,200 pay rise offer rejected by the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents about 40,000 of the company’s 100,000 employees, with union bosses describing it as “insulting” and a “relative pay cut” as soaring inflation fuels a cost of living crisis.

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Unions call for Westminster ban for MPs accused of sexual misconduct

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Move, after accusations against David Warburton, would help ‘bring parliament into the 21st century’

Unions representing parliamentary staff have called for MPs accused of sexual misconduct to be excluded from the Westminster estate while investigations take place, after allegations against the Conservative backbencher David Warburton.

The joint call by unions representing parliamentary workers – Prospect, the FDA, the Public and Commercial Services Union and the GMB – comes after Warburton was accused of sexual harassment as well as alleged cocaine use and potentially failing to declare a loan.

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Strikes in UK at highest in five years as pay is hit by inflation

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Country’s biggest trade unions are taking on scores of employers to challenge low wage and salary offers

Unionised workers are increasingly prepared to challenge inadequate pay offers and take strike action to ensure wages keep up with the sharply rising cost of living, amid signs that workplace militancy is growing in parts of the economy.

Some of the UK’s biggest unions are battling scores of firms at the same time, with the number of industrial disputes well above pre-pandemic levels. GMB members entered into dispute with 42 employers between October 2021 and March 2022 – seven times the number of disputes in the same period in 2019-20. Unite members are currently involved in 30 disputes in England – almost four times the reported number involving the union three years ago.

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Government dropping employment bill would ‘betray’ workers, says TUC

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Unions have been pressing for promised bill to be brought forward after sacking of hundreds of P&O staff

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has reacted with fury to a report that an expected employment bill has been postponed despite anger over the sacking of hundreds of P&O workers.

TUC said dropping the bill from next month’s Queen’s speech would “betray” workers.

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Pizza Express waiting staff win back bigger slice of tips

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Workers took action after share of tips paid on credit and debit cards was cut from 70% to 50% in 2021

Pizza Express waiting staff have won back a bigger slice of their tips after a year-long campaign against a change that handed more to kitchen staff.

The restaurant workers were forced to take action after their share of tips and service charges paid on credit and debit cards was cut from 70% to 50% last year at a time when pay was already under pressure from social-distancing measures that limited the number of diners.

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Royal Mail told workers may strike over alleged ‘fire and rehire’ plans

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Union says company aims to sack nearly 1,000 managers and bring in lower rates of pay

Royal Mail is being warned it could be hit by strikes over plans to cut managers’ jobs.

Unite said the company was aiming to sack nearly 1,000 managers and bring in lower rates of pay in another case of “fire and rehire”, which Royal Mail denies.

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Replacements for P&O Ferries crew paid £1.80 an hour, unions say

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RMT says agency rates for seafarers are ‘gut-wrenching betrayal’ of 800 sacked British staff

Seafarers from abroad brought in to replace the 800 sacked British P&O Ferries crew are being paid as little as £1.80 an hour, unions have claimed.

The news emerged as Labour accused the government of doing “absolutely nothing” when it learned of the planned sackings, as a memorandum with the “game plan” of P&O was circulated on Wednesday evening.

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Labour urges Kwasi Kwarteng to launch legal action against P&O Ferries

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Letter to business secretary calls firm’s sacking of 800 workers ‘scandalous’ and a criminal offence

Labour has urged the business secretary to launch legal action against P&O Ferries over its “scandalous” decision to sack 800 workers without warning, which the party said is a criminal offence.

Shadow transport secretary, Louise Haigh, deputy leader Angela Rayner and shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds have written to Kwasi Kwarteng, asking if he will begin proceedings for what they called the “scandalous action” of the ferry company.

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P&O Ferries scandal must be turning point for workers’ rights, says TUC

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Union leaders call for employment bill and accuse ministers of failing to challenge sacking of 800 staff

Ministers have serious questions to answer on the growing scandal at P&O Ferries and must make it a catalyst to improve workers’ rights, the Trades Union Congress said on Sunday.

The TUC accused the government of sitting on its hands and failing to protect workers after P&O sacked 800 staff on Thursday with a plan to replace them with cheaper agency workers. It has emerged that ministers were informed in advance about the mass redundancies.

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Ministers ‘told in advance about P&O mass sackings’

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Government accused by Labour of complicity in ferry company’s shock decision to cut 800 UK-based jobs

Government ministers knew about P&O Ferries’ plan to slash 800 jobs before staff were informed but were told by officials it would ensure the firm remained “a key player in the UK market for years to come”, it was claimed on Saturday.

A leaked memo, apparently written by a senior Whitehall official, justified the mass redundancies, stating that “without these decisions, an estimated 2,200 staff would likely lose their jobs”.

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