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Network Journal Issue 04 |
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TUC – news in brief
British workers putting in unpaid overtime, employers are increasingly testing employees for drink and drugs, Working and Child Tax Credits and ‘out of work’ benefits must be increased, the TUC and trade unions have been active in enabling members to address literacy and numeracy problems, employees in small firms are still being denied a voice at work, the Government’s Employment Relations Bill given a mixed reception by the TUC and widespread abuses of the Working Time Directive in the UK has been exposed by the TUC. Full details below.
- British workers, often accused of clock-watching, are putting in unpaid overtime worth £23 billion a year, according to the TUC. A survey found that more than five million of the UK's 28 million workforce regularly do unpaid overtime, averaging more than seven hours a week.
- Over zealous employers are increasingly testing employees for drink and drugs, says the TUC. It wants workplace policies on drug testing drawn up by employers and unions, with individual confidentiality and an emphasis on help and advice, rather than discipline, at the heart of any agreement. Further information at www.hazards.org/testingtimes
- Working and Child Tax Credits and 'out of work' benefits must be increased to meet the government's target of eradicating child poverty by 2020 and halving it by 2010. In its submission to the Government's child poverty strategy review, the TUC says that 'making work pay' through tax credits has lifted thousands of families and children out of poverty, but children in families reliant on benefits are being left behind.
- Since 1999 when a report identified seven million adults as lacking literacy and numeracy skills - 3.5 million in employment - the TUC and trade unions have been active in enabling members to address literacy and numeracy problems, and a number of good practice models and strategies have emerged. A recent follow-up survey showed that there have been improvements, with the figure now estimated at 5.2 million.
- Three years after the majority of UK workers won the right to be represented by a union, six million employees in small firms are still being denied a voice at work, says a report from the TUC. The next step: Trade union recognition in small enterprises, says current UK union recognition law is 'arbitrary, discriminatory, irrational, inconsistent with international law and out of step with other countries'. Although unions have no legal right to recognition in small companies, it is often workers in this sector who are in need of the most protection. With low union membership and recognition levels, smaller enterprises usually have lower rates of pay, bigger gender pay gaps, and poorer health and safety records than larger companies which recognise unions.
- The Government's Employment Relations Bill has been given a mixed reception by the TUC. Brendan Barber welcomed the plans to tighten up collective bargaining and recognition legislation, but said that the Bill did not go far enough to bring UK workers in-line with their European counterparts. While employees' rights to information and consultation will be improved, people working in small firms will still be denied the right to union recognition says the TUC.
- A previously unpublished report of widespread abuses of the Working Time Directive in the UK has been exposed by the TUC. Commissioned by the EU, the report revealed some companies forced, or put pressure on, staff to sign the opt-out on the right to work no more than a 48 hour week. Other companies illegally asked staff to give up rest breaks and ignore limits on night shift working.
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