Category Archives: Workers’ rights

US added to international watchlist for rapid decline in civic freedoms

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Civicus, an international non-profit, puts country alongside Democratic Republic of Congo, Italy, Pakistan and Serbia

The United States has been added to the Civicus Monitor Watchlist, which identifies countries that the global civil rights watchdog believes are currently experiencing a rapid decline in civic freedoms.

Civicus, an international non-profit organization dedicated to “strengthening citizen action and civil society around the world”, announced the inclusion of the US on the non-profit’s first watchlist of 2025 on Monday, alongside the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Italy, Pakistan and Serbia.

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Protests by fruit pickers and farmers put spotlight on price of cheap food in UK

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In two actions, migrant workers claim exploitation while farmers demonstrate against inheritance tax plan

This is a tale of two countrysides. One was featured prominently on Saturday by broadcasters as farmers held demonstrations throughout the UK against inheritance tax plans they believe will cripple family farms.

A smaller protest staged a day earlier outside the Home Office received almost no attention. A small band of fruit and vegetable pickers, mainly from Latin America, were highlighting their battle against what they call the exploitation of migrant workers.

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Frasers Group says two-thirds of retail staff are still on zero-hours contracts

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MPs examining plans for legislation were told 11,500 staff on the contracts, which do not guarantee weekly shifts

The owner of Sports Direct has confirmed that two-thirds of its retail workforce remain on zero-hours contracts ahead of new legislation designed to limit their use.

Frasers Group told MPs who are examining plans to strengthen protection for employees that 11,500 staff were on the contracts, which do not guarantee any weekly working shifts, and did not receive compensation even if shifts were changed at the last minute.

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Give working parents help with childcare and commuting costs, UK thinktank says

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Child poverty plan must address the 70% of families with at least one parent in work, Resolution Foundation says

Labour must offer extra support to working parents, including with childcare and commuting, if it is to fulfil its promise of cutting child poverty, the Resolution Foundation thinktank has argued.

The government’s manifesto promised an “ambitious strategy” on child poverty, and ministers have said they will publish a 10-year plan in the spring.

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Counselling charity Relate set to be rescued from insolvency

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Deal under which Family Action takes over Relate’s counselling services will save up to 185 jobs, say administrators

Britain’s biggest relationship counselling charity looks likely to be rescued from insolvency under plans for it to be taken over.

Last month, Relate was put into administration after a collapse in its funding from NHS, school and local authority contracts.

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Counselling charity Relate set to be rescued from insolvency

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Deal under which Family Action takes over Relate’s counselling services will save up to 185 jobs, say administrators

Britain’s biggest relationship counselling charity looks likely to be rescued from insolvency under plans for it to be taken over.

Last month, Relate was put into administration after a collapse in its funding from NHS, school and local authority contracts.

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Amazon workers in 20 countries to protest or strike on Black Friday

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Workers and their representatives to press US retailer to respect their rights and take action on the climate crisis

Thousands of Amazon workers are expected to protest or strike in more than 20 countries during Black Friday to press for better workers’ rights and climate action from the US retailer..

Workers and representatives from unions and workers’ groups intend to join protests against the Seattle-based company’s practices between Black Friday and Cyber Monday (29 November and 2 December), one of the biggest shopping weekends of the year.

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Starmer steps into cabinet row over P&O to rescue global summit in London

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The PM has backed transport secretary Louise Haigh after she called ferry firm a ‘rogue operator’, threatening investment summit

Keir Starmer expressed his full confidence on Saturday in the transport secretary, Louise Haigh, after an explosive cabinet row cast fresh doubt over his Downing Street operation and threatened to overshadow a key international investment summit in London.

Government sources said the prime minister and Haigh had spoken and made up on Saturday after Starmer appeared to rebuke her on Friday for branding P&O Ferries a “rogue operator” in a statement and then calling for customers to boycott the company in a subsequent media interview.

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Calls for investigation of Uber Eats and Deliveroo after raid on Bristol caravan camp

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Migrant workers accuse Home Office of targeting the victims of labour exploitation rather than companies profiting from them

Migrant workers living in a caravan encampment raided by immigration enforcement officers have accused the Home Office of targeting the victims of labour exploitation rather than companies profiting from the hidden economy.

The Observer reported in August that about 30 mainly Brazilian delivery riders working for large companies such as Deliveroo and Uber Eats were living in dilapidated caravans in the centre of Bristol. Many claimed they were, in effect, earning below the minimum wage and could not afford to rent in the city.

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Employers must protect workers from sexual harassment in new employment bill

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Bill will give new rights to millions of workers including protection from third-party harassment

Employers must protect their workers from sexual harassment – including from customers and clients – under the government’s sweeping new employment rights bill.

The new obligation is part of a series of measures published in Thursday’s landmark employment bill, which Labour had promised to lay before parliament within 100 days.

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One Nation Tory group refuses to back Badenoch or Jenrick in party leadership race – UK politics live

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TRG says both candidates have ‘used rhetoric and focused on issues which are far and away from … the values we cherish and uphold’

Robert Jenrick, one of the final two Tory leadership candidates, is delivering a speech in London. There is a live feed on his X account.

Jenrick started by promising “a complete break with Labour’s failing agenda”. He said:

The real choice this country faces is between Labour’s failing agenda and the new approach I want us to take, the new approach we need as a country.

Because if I am chosen as the next leader of this party we will stand to offer a complete break with Labour’s failing agenda.

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New enforcement agency will protect workers’ rights as part of ‘watershed’ bill

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Employment rights legislation has been widely heralded by trade unions despite some commitments being watered down

Rogue employers will be targeted by a beefed-up new enforcement agency to protect sweeping changes to rights at work for millions of Britons, set to be outlined in a “watershed” bill published on Friday.

The Fair Work Agency will be created as part of the government’s employment rights legislation, which will include stronger protections against unfair dismissal and exploitative contracts.

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Tesco boss says new workers’ rights laws must not hurt growth

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Bill is likely to include measures such as ending ‘exploitative’ zero-hours contracts and changes to sick pay

The boss of Tesco has called on the UK government to work with business to ensure new legislation to improve workers rights also increases productivity and growth as the retailer revealed better-than-expected profits.

Ken Murphy, the chief executive of the UK’s biggest supermarket, said he was keen to use a planned consultation on the wide-ranging employment rights bill, announced by the government in the king’s speech in July, to “make sure that whatever the government decides to put forward has the intended consequence of stimulating productivity and growth and protecting workers at the same time”.

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‘Davos on the Mersey’: key conference takeaways as Labour tries to woo business

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As the budget looms, where the party stands on investment in the UK economy, workers’ rights and more

For a second year running, corporate Britain descended on Liverpool for Labour’s annual conference, in an event so packed with executives that some insiders joke the socialist gathering has developed into a full-blown “Davos on the Mersey”.

Like last year, the exhibition and conference fringe had sponsored events, lounge areas and advertising from exhibitors including Gatwick, National Grid, Ikea and Specsavers. This year, however, business leaders were looking for clues about how Labour will govern after July’s election landslide.

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‘We need to hear about hope’: unions greet Keir Starmer TUC speech with mixed emotions

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Enthusiasm for public sector pay awards tempered by concern over winter fuel payment cuts and job losses

“We’re hearing an awful lot about tough times: it’s like being in a Dickens novel. What comes after the tough times? We need to hear about hope.”

Onay Kasab, the national lead officer for the Unite trade union, was addressing a leftwing fringe meeting, but similar sentiments reverberated through the bars and coffee shops at this week’s TUC congress in Brighton.

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Ambulances called to Amazon’s UK warehouses 1,400 times in five years

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GMB union urges Health and Safety Executive to investigate ‘shocking’ figures revealed by the Observer

Ambulances have been called out to Amazon warehouses more than 1,400 times in the past five years, the Observer can reveal. The figures, which were described as shocking by the GMB trade union, raise fresh questions about safety at the American giant’s UK workplaces.

Amazon centres in Dunfermline and Bristol had the most ambulance callouts in Britain, listing 161 and 125 across the period respectively.

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UN envoy calls Canada’s use of migrant workers ‘breeding ground for slavery’

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Tomoya Obokata’s report finds power imbalances and discriminatory practice exploits workers from global south

Canada’s reliance on temporary foreign workers is “breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery”, a UN special rapporteur has warned, amid growing calls to overhaul the controversial program.

The damning report from the UN investigator Tomoya Obokata found that deep power imbalances and discriminatory practice in Canada cuts costs for companies but exploits against workers from the global south.

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Trump claims he’s pro-worker. Project 2025 will gut labor rights

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Far-right plan for a Republican presidency would undercut unions, strip child labor laws and boost corporate profits

Donald Trump proclaimed he was for “all the forgotten men and women”, in his acceptance speech at the Republican convention. His vice-presidential pick JD Vance consistently portrays himself as a pro-worker populist. But an analysis of the labor chapter of Project 2025 – an ambitious rightwing plan to guide the next Republican presidency – found it has little to offer them.

Project 2025’s labor section proposes hardly anything to improve workers’ wages and working conditions. It is, however, chock full of recommendations that would boost corporate profits, undercut labor unions and advance the rightwing culture war.

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Hidden cost of UK workplace sickness rockets to £100bn a year, report finds

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Rising bill largely result of ‘staggering’ levels of presenteeism causing loss of productivity

The hidden cost of rising workplace sickness in the UK has increased to more than £100bn a year, largely caused by a loss of productivity amid “staggering” levels of presenteeism, a report warns.

Analysis by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) shows the cost of staff sickness has grown by £30bn a year to £103bn in 2023. The annual bill was £73bn in 2018, its study found.

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Stop Shein listing on the FTSE, workers’ rights campaigners urge

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Groups issue call to next government amid criticism of online fashion retailer’s labour practices and accusations of copying

Workers rights campaigners have called for the UK’s next government to oppose the online fashion business Shein joining the FTSE, arguing that a London listing would be “yet another betrayal to working people everywhere and the planet”.

Alena Ivanova, campaigns lead at Labour Behind the Label, said it had heard the news of senior British politicians courting Shein’s £50bn listing “with dismay” given what she claimed was a lack of transparency about its supply chain and ethical concerns.

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