Royal College of Nursing urges ministers to improve 3.6% offer to avoid industrial action ballot later this year
Nine out of 10 nurses have rejected a 3.6% pay award for this year and warned they could strike later this year unless their salaries are improved.
In an indicative vote among members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, 91% said the 3.6% rise was not enough.
Continue reading...Matt Wrack wins ballot for NASUWT general secretary after legal challenge to executive’s earlier decision
Matt Wrack, a former leader of the firefighters’ union, has been elected as permanent general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union after a ballot in which less than 5% of eligible members voted.
He beat his challenger, Neil Butler, winning 5,249 votes to his rival’s 3,126, after the NASUWT’s first contested leadership election for a generation.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Analysis shows covering part of salaries from first day off can boost productivity and employee retention
Changes to sick pay to cover part of workers’ salaries from the first day off could end up benefiting British businesses by as much as £2bn, according to analysis commissioned by the UK’s main union body.
The Trades Union Congress (TUC), which is pushing for the government to stick with its plans for workers’ rights, said modelling showed businesses would gain benefits of £2.4bn thanks to productivity boosts, while facing direct costs of £425m to pay for extra sick days.
Continue reading...Resident doctors have voted to strike over pay but how much has their real-terms earnings changed since 2008?
Resident doctors in England have voted to strike for five days from 25 July, reigniting one of the NHS’s most bitter industrial disputes.
At the heart of the row is pay: the British Medical Association (BMA) says resident (formerly known as junior) doctors have seen their real earnings fall by more than a quarter since 2008. The government says the union’s demands are unaffordable, and they’ve already received generous rises in recent years.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Tom Dolphin says rise needed to redress real-terms earnings loss since 2008 and strikes could last years
Resident doctors’ 29% pay claim is non-negotiable, reasonable and easily affordable for the NHS, the new leader of the medical profession has said.
Strikes to ensure resident – formerly junior – doctors in England get the full 29% could drag on for years, according to Dr Tom Dolphin, the British Medical Association’s new council chair.
Continue reading...The Royal College of Nursing and Unison are undertaking indicative ballots to assess members’ willingness to strike
A looming fresh wave of strikes by resident doctors could encourage other NHS staff including nurses to take industrial action over pay, health service bosses fear.
Resident doctors, formerly junior doctors, in England are threatening to stage stoppages until January in pursuit of their demand for a 29% pay rise, after 90% voted in favour in a ballot on a 55% turnout.
Continue reading...Stephen Morgan, the early education minister, would not confirm every child who has an EHCP would continue to keep the same provisions
The Conservatives will try to change the government’s welfare Bill to tighten up access to personal independence payments (Pip) and universal credit, PA Media reports. PA says:
Kemi Badenoch will pledge that the Tories are “now the only party committed to serious welfare reform” after Keir Starmer shelved plans to restrict eligibility for Pip in the face of a backbench revolt this week.
The Tories will look to lay amendments to the legislation – set to be renamed the universal credit bill – and party leader Badenoch is due to deliver a speech on welfare on Thursday.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Letter from six top figures says more walkouts by junior colleagues would help those who oppose the NHS
Six senior figures in England’s medical profession have criticised potential strikes by resident doctors as “a futile gesture” that will harm patients and help those who oppose the NHS.
The move is the first public evidence of the significant unease many senior doctors feel about the possibility of their junior colleagues staging a new campaign of industrial action in England.
Continue reading...Appointment of leftwinger with no teaching background is controversial in traditionally moderate NASUWT
The leadership of the NASUWT teaching union has been thrown into doubt after a legal challenge was issued over its appointment of a new general secretary.
The application for an injunction, filed with the courts on Wednesday, came after a potential candidate was barred from running for the post, denying members the chance to vote in an open election.
Continue reading...Union welcomes announcement company is closing consultation on laying off up to 2,700 Scunthorpe workers
British Steel will not continue with a consultation on making up to 2,700 steelworkers at its Scunthorpe plant redundant, after the government took control of the firm earlier this month.
The Chinese company Jingye, which promised a “new chapter” when it bought British Steel in 2020, last month proposed closing Scunthorpe’s two blast furnaces, putting the roles under threat and ending Britain’s ability to produce steel from scratch.
Continue reading...Emergency repairs and quality checks for 5m people in Scotland will not be done on Tuesday and Wednesday, union says
Scottish Water staff will strike for two days from the early hours of Tuesday as a standoff over pay continues at the state-owned company.
The striking workers’ union warned that emergency repairs and quality checks to water supplied to 5 million people across Scotland would not be carried out during the action on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Continue reading...Meeting called with justice secretary after attack on three guards at HMP Frankland
Prison officers will demand the immediate issue of electric stun guns to protect staff guarding Britain’s most dangerous jails when they meet the justice secretary this week.
Wednesday’s meeting with Shabana Mahmood was called after the attack on three guards at HMP Frankland, allegedly by the convicted terrorist Hashem Abedi. Two were seriously injured after being doused in hot cooking fat and stabbed, one five times in the torso, in a sustained assault.
Continue reading...NASUWT conference votes to launch strike ballot if spending review does not top up school budgets in full
A second teaching union in England has vowed to strike if the government fails to compensate schools in full for next year’s teachers’ pay award.
The NASUWT union’s annual conference voted to reject any pay offer from the government that did not top up school budgets in June’s spending review, and to “move immediately to ballot members for industrial action”.
Continue reading...Business select committee chair joins calls for Scunthorpe steelworks to be taken into public ownership
The government is under mounting pressure to nationalise British Steel if crunch talks aimed at a rescue deal fail, as the chair of the influential business and trade select committee added his voice to those calling for the Scunthorpe steelworks to be taken into public ownership.
Jingye, the Chinese owner of the company, and the UK government were not able to reach a deal on Thursday to supply the Scunthorpe plant with crucial raw materials, with talks expected to restart on Friday.
Continue reading...Head of National Education Union calls for statutory ban on phones in schools and social media ban for under-16s
Almost all schools in England have banned mobile phone use by pupils, according to the first national survey conducted, as the leader of the largest teaching union called for a statutory ban owing to the “damaging impact” on young people.
The national survey, ordered by Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner for England, showed that headteachers have swiftly instituted bans on smartphone use during school hours. The survey of more than 15,000 schools found that 99.8% of primary schools and 90% of secondary schools have some form of ban.
Continue reading...Unions urge energy giant EDF to take action as concerns mount over health of construction staff
Workers building the troubled Hinkley Point C nuclear reactor in Somerset have raised concerns that the construction site is overrun by rats.
The Unite and GMB trade unions are understood to have warned the developer, the French energy giant EDF, that urgent action is needed because the rodents are “everywhere”.
Continue reading...Survey says queues outside emergency departments are leading to ‘car park care’ and fatalities
Paramedics across England are watching patients die in the back of ambulances because of delays outside emergency departments, according to a survey by Unison.
The gridlock of patients in some of the country’s hospitals has led to queues of up to 20 ambulances outside casualty departments in certain areas. In a number of cases, crews have been forced to wait more than 12 hours before handing over patients.
Continue reading...Uncollected food waste ‘poses public health danger’ as 400 workers take indefinite action over pay and conditions
A bin collection strike in Birmingham could lead to rats thriving on a “banquet” of food waste and pose a public health danger, pest controllers have said.
About 400 council bin workers in Birmingham began an indefinite strike on Tuesday as part of a dispute over pay and conditions.
Continue reading...RMT union wins 87% backing from members for improved package for train managers at Avanti West Coast
Train managers on Britain’s biggest intercity service, Avanti West Coast, have settled a dispute over rest-day working, ending a series of weekend strikes.
The RMT union said 87% of its members had voted to accept a deal including additional pay for working weekends and an agreement on the allocation of staffing for extra shifts.
Continue reading...Exclusive: union umbrella body calls for new cooperation agreement ahead of Keir Starmer’s reset talks with Brussels
The UK should forge much closer ties with Europe amid an increasingly “volatile and unpredictable” global economy, Britain’s biggest trade unions will argue as they push for new workers’ rights across the continent.
In its first major intervention on Europe in five years, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) will call for a “much-needed” closer relationship with the EU, in a joint statement with European counterparts.
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