Government attack on strike rights - £500k for victim of Labour MP - Modern slavery at NHS supplier

16 - 22 May

**The Week in Work is on holiday for two weeks - the next newsletter will be sent on 13 June**

Just weeks after the government dropped plans to include employment law reforms in this year’s Queen’s Speech, it has announced that it is looking to further curtail rail workers’ right to strike. As several people have mentioned, for years the UK has had has some of the most restrictive strike laws in western Europe. But even in that context, the government has continued to pass regulations to constrain trade unions, most recently with the establishment of a levy, and the expansion of the Certification Officer’s powers to investigate unions.

There are many more stories this week, including an employment tribunal awarding £435,000 to a woman that was sexually harassed by a former Labour MP, a legal challenge against the government over its decision to buy rubber gloves from a company that is being investigated over modern slavery, and tube workers gearing up to strike during the Queen’s Jubilee. 

But in light of the government’s attempts to clamp down on rail unions, it feels appropriate to share a video from 2014 of the former General Secretary of the RMT, the late Bob Crow, explaining why his members go on strike to a perplexed Jeremy Paxman, who is convinced of the “marginalised role” of unions.

GOVERNMENT AND POLICY

Attack on strike rights: Transport secretary Grant Shapps says the government is considering imposing “minimum service levels” on trains, effectively curtailing rail workers’ right to strike, the Guardian reports. The RMT, which is expecting the results of its national rail strike ballot on Wednesday, says that any attempt to “make effective strike action illegal on the railways will be met with the fiercest resistance”.

In response to the announcement, the International Transport Federation’s legal director, Ruwan Subasinghe, says the UK already has some of the most restrictive strike laws in Western Europe, and the Trade Union Act 2016 was found to be in breach of an ILO convention.

91,000 civil service cuts “plucked from thin air”: Civil service are asking for an urgent meeting with Cabinet Office minister Steve Barclay on the proposed 91,000 civil service job cuts, Civil Service World reports. Unions say the figure decided by the government appears “plucked from the air”. 

Education cuts: Education Minister Nadhim Zarhawi has said the government is examining civil service staff cuts of up to 40% at the Department for Education, iNews reports. After the government’s return-to-the-office orders, Department of Education staff had to work in corridors and canteens,because the ministry has twice as many workers as desks, according to an investigation by Schools Week.

Pay down, costs up: New ONS pay data shows that in the 12 months to March 2022 real pay fell by £68 per month, the worst pay growth in over ten years, according to a tweet by the TUC’s Alex Collinson. In the public sector it has fallen by £131 per month.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies points out that while average inflation reached 9% in the year to April, the poorest households faced higher inflation of around 10.9%.

Crippling pay for apprentices: Almost half of all apprenticeship opportunities pay the legal minimum of just £4.81 per hour, according to an investigation by FE Week.

Red Wall wants 4 Day week: New polling by Survation has found that two-thirds of red wall voters support a four-day, 32 hour work week, with 44% saying they would be more likely to vote for the Conservatives if the party implemented it.

Suffolk council rejects living wage: Suffolk County Council has rejected a proposal to pay care workers a living wage of £9.90 per hour, the BBC reports. 

Minimum wage doesn’t push up lowest paid: The increase in the minimum wage did not negatively impact jobs, but also failed to increase household incomes for the lowest paid, because it was accompanied by freezes to the level of benefits, the FT reports.

DISPUTES

Jubilee strike: London Underground staff working on Euston and Green Park stations will take strike action on the day of the Queen’s Jubilee unless action is taken against a bullying manager, the RMT says. 

Postal workers will be on strike on two other days of the Jubilee weekend, as part of their dispute over pay, the CWU says. 

ScotRail strike ballot: RMT will ballot ScotRail workers for strike action, following the company’s 2.2% pay offer, the union says. Last week, we shared the news that Aslef had said it would ballot its ScotRail members.

Heathrow grounded: Unite and GMB are balloting Heathrow check in and ground staff, after pay cuts introduced by British Airways over the pandemic have not been reversed, Unite said. 

Co-op to face empty shelves: Hundreds of GXO workers delivering to Co-op stores across the UK will be on strike for 40 days between the end of May and the end of August, Unite says. The drivers are paid £14.77 an hour while those on comparable contracts are on £17, the union says.

Northern gig workers strike: Food delivery drivers across several towns in the North of England have been on strike, the Big Issue reports. The IWGB union said that workers in five cities were boycotting Stuart and JustEat, but in Darlington they were also refusing to log onto UberEats and Deliveroo.

IWGB members also attended the Greggs AGM to question the company over its relationship with JustEat and Stuart delivery.

Last orders: Budweiser staff working at the company’s site near Preston will go on strike in June in a dispute over pay, the GMB says. 

School’s Out: Workers at colleges across the North West have taken strike action in disputes over pay, UCU says, with a separate strike being announced at a college in Furness. Meanwhile, a strike at Bury was called off after a deal was agreed.

Staff at Richmond upon Thames College are also on strike over fire and rehire plans, the union says. 

School cuts strike: Drapers’ Pyrgo Priory School workers in Romford are striking over reduced pay grades and hours, the Romford Recorder reports.

“Derisory” offer for builders: Dozens of construction workers gathered in London outside a Construction Industry Joint Council meeting, to protest the “derisory” pay offer from the body that represents building and civil engineering groups, Construction News reports.Vacancies in the sector reached a record high of 48,000 in the three months to October.

Cadent strike: Thousands of Cadent Gas workers are going on strike over two days. The GMB says the industrial action could potentially cause outages at homes and businesses throughout five English regions.

Marking boycott kicks off in face of threats: Marking boycott is set to kick off this week 20 at universities despite threats by universities of 100% pay deductions, UCU says. The Guardian reports that the union’s decision to let individual branches decide whether to participate or not in the boycott is a climbdown from its earlier position of treating it as a national dispute. The newspaper also highlights how some universities, including Roehampton and Wolverhampton, had announced redundancies or restructurings. 

Hospital cleaners on strike: St George’s hospital outsourced workers are going on strike over pay, the GMB says.

WINS

College staff win: Bury College staff called off their strike after securing a pay offer of between 6% and 6.2%, UCU said. 

LEGAL

MP’s victim wins claim: A woman that was repeatedly sexually harassed by former Labour MP, Mike Hill, has been awarded nearly £435,000 by an employment tribunal, the Guardian reports.

USS whistleblower pulls case: Professor Jane Hutton has withdrawn her claim for unfair dismissal against the USS pension scheme, the FT’s Josephine Cumbo says in a tweet, but the reasons behind this decision are unclear. 

Food bank whistleblower wins: A sacked food bank worker, who was made redundant after whistleblowing about a priest having a relationship with a vulnerable member of his congregation, has won £8,000 in an unfair dismissal claim, Glasgow Live reports. 

Redundancy legal action: Staff sacked after modular business House by Urban Splash went into administration have begun the process of taking legal action, Construction enquirer reports.

HEALTH AND SAFETY

Covid safety failures at college: An investigation launched after the death of a teacher from Covid-19 found multiple health and safety failings at Burnley College, LancsLive reports. This is the first time an education sector employer has received a notice in relation to Covid failings.

Menzies takeover raises concerns: US union SEIU has raised concerns with investors on the impact that Agility’s takeover of the Edinburgh-based outsourced airport services provider, Menzies, could have on worker rights and health and safety. Menzies has a “troubling” history of health and safety violations, the union says.

Waste plant death: The death of a worker at a waste management company in Barrow is being investigated by the Police and the Health and Safety Executive, the BBC reports.

GIG ECONOMY

Riders question Deliveroo at AGM: Ten Deliveroo workers attended its Annual General Meeting on Friday to demand transparency over pay and clarity over the reasons behind the signing of a partnership agreement with the GMB, ShareAction reports. The riders pointed out that Deliveroo had previously spent hundreds of thousands of pounds fighting collective bargaining cases in UK courts.

Workers earning less than minimum wage: A new study in the U.S. has found that gig delivery workers make less than minimum wage after expenses on average in Seattle, GeekWire reports.

MODERN SLAVERY

NHS modern slavery case: The High Court has granted permission for The Citizens to challenge the government’s decision to continue using Malaysian company Supermax as a supplier of disposable gloves for NHS workers after authorities said they were investigating claims of modern slavery made against the company, the Independent reports.

WHAT’S COMING UP

Ongoing: Action short of a strike in seven colleges across the North West

Ongoing: Coventry refuse worker strike

Ongoing until mid-June: Caterpillar strike in Northern Ireland

Every Friday and Saturday until 19 June 2022: London night tube strike

23 May: Start of marking boycott by university staff

23 May - 15 June: Rugby refuse workers on strike

23, 27, 30 May and 3 June: C2C rail line Alstom engineers strike

23 - 27 May: Richmond upon Thames College strike. Rally on 23 May

24 - 26 May: Scottish college lecturers strike

24 - 25 May and 7 - 8 June: Drapers’ Pyrgo Priory School workers on strike

24 May: DHL workers on JCB contract go on strike. 

24 - 27 May: Richmond upon Thames College staff on strike

24 - 26 May: PCS annual delegate conference

25 May: Resolution Foundation panel on launch of Low Pay Britain report

30 - 31 May: Cadent Gas workers on strike

30 May and 6 - 7 June: Outsourced workers at St George’s Hospital in Tooting go on strike 

31 May: PSI Webinar “Government Responses to the Care Crisis”

31 May: Start of series of 48-hour strikes by GXO workers that stretch into August

3 June: Underground workers on Euston and Green Park are on strike

4 June: Post Office counters staff on strike

6 June: Post Office supply chain and admin workers on strike

8 - 9 June: Furness college workers on strike 

9 June: LLRN online seminar: The future of unions and their role in the gig economy

9 - 10 June, 5 - 6 July: FCA workers on strike 

18 June: National Demo on the cost of living

FEEDBACK

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