Employers To Recommend Pay Rise

The Association of Colleges (AoC) has confirmed it will now recommend that its members in England implement the pay offer that has been accepted by all but one of the six unions on the National Joint Forum.

The pay rise is for 2% from August 2007 and 1% from February 2008. It was accepted by ACM, ATL, Unison, Unite (TGWU) and GMB, but rejected by the UCU. The UCU decided to reject the employers offer at a special conference, despite the results of its branch consultation that showed a majority in favour of accepting. UCU are now planning a strike ballot.

A growing number of FE colleges had already implemented the pay award through local agreements, but the AoC decision opens the door for discussions on a number of other important elements of the joint trade union claim, including action on dealing with excessive working time.

Cancelling Christmas

According to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, every year, a local authority or public body like a school or college falls prey to the accusation of “cancelling Christmas” and PC run amok. The resulting media furore, say the Commission, is now a regular ritual of the holiday season itself.

Indeed, a couple of weeks ago one broadcaster made a real splash about schools “banning” nativity plays for fear of offending people from other religions. Not surprisingly, outraged viewers contacted the station condemning political correctness while others laid the blame at different faiths.

In response to such reporting, the Commission has joined with high profile faith leaders to claim Christmas back. In a joint statement, senior figures from the Hindu, Sikh and Muslim communities have joined with the Commission to say: Let’s stop being silly about a Christian Christmas.

Trevor Phillips, Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said last week,”A lot of these stories about Christmas are the usual silly season stuff. But I can’t help feeling there’s sometimes an underlying agenda to use this great holiday to fuel community tension. That’s why I asked leaders in different religious communities to join me in saying: It’s time to stop being daft about Christmas. It’s fine to celebrate and it’s fine for Christ to be the star of the show.”

Anil Bhanot, General Secretary, Hindu Council UK said, “Hindus celebrate Christmas too. It’s a great holiday for everyone living in Britain. We would like Christians to continue to carry Jesus’ message of love. Barring the faiths of others does not fit in with the Hindu religion.”

Dr Indarjit Singh, Director, Network of Sikh Organisations UK said, “Every year I am asked, ‘do I object to the celebration of Christmas?’ It’s an absurd question. As ever, my family and I will send out our Christmas cards to our Christian friends and others. In the spirit of Christmas, we in the Singh family will, as usual, force ourselves to have extra turkey, Christmas pudding and mince pies, the lot – all in the cause of inter-faith harmony. No one can say Sikhs don’t go the extra mile!”

Shayk Ibrahim Mogra, Chair of the Inter Faith Relations Committee, Muslim Council of Britain said, “To suggest celebrating Christmas and having decorations offends Muslims is absurd. Why should Christmas not be celebrated openly and wholeheartedly in our country when a vast majority of people are Christians? Why can’t we have more nativity scenes in Britain? It would be wonderful to show my children what Jesus means to Christians and to learn the different beliefs we all hold.”

LSC Learner Figures Released

Official statistics released this week by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) show a marked increase in participation rates for both young people and adults in Further Education and Work Based Learning. The figures show:

• The number of young people in FE funded learning by the LSC is higher than ever
  before at approximately 753,000
• A 3.3 per cent increase in the number of young people participating in full level 3 programmes (367,000) and a 1.9 per cent increase in the number of young people participating on full Level 2 programmes (314,000 learners).
• An increase of 41.6 per cent in the number of adults undertaking full Level 2
  programmes.
• That 350,900 adults enrolled on Skills for Life programmes during 2007/06, an increase of 15 per cent.
• An extra 10,000 Apprenticeship starts during 2006/07
• Approximately 220,000 learners enrolled on Train to Gain

However, the figures also show that the total number of LSC-funded adult learners has decreased by 18.5 per cent.

Commenting on the LSC figures, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

“It is encouraging to see that the number of young people and adults achieving accredited vocational qualifications through FE colleges and workplace training programmes continues to increase.

‘But today’s figures also show that the pace of progress must increase rapidly if we are to reach the long-term skills targets set out by Lord Leitch.

‘Trade unions, employers and the Government all have a role in increasing the number of skilled workers. The Government must be prepared to use statutory measures to drive up the availability of high-quality, employer-based Apprenticeships and give more employees the right to paid time off to achieve a minimum skill level.”

Speak Up For Public Services

At 11.00am today (Tuesday) in Westminster, the TUC and its 26 member unions representing the UK’s public sector workforce (including ACM), launched a major new campaign urging the Government not to impose below inflation public sector pay increases in the coming year.

All the unions have signed a statement (the full text of which appears below), which calls on ministers to accept in full the recommendations that the various pay review bodies are due to make in the coming months and so avoid any repetition of the anger that provoked a wave of strike ballots across the public sector earlier this year.

Text of public servants deserve fair pay statement:

The TUC launches the Speak Up for Public Services campaign today to urge the Government to think again about imposing below inflation pay increases on public servants over the coming year.

The Government’s target of two per cent pay rises across the public sector represents a cut in living standards when the cost of living is rising at around four per cent a year.

Our public services bind the nation together. At times of emergency - whether from natural disasters such as flooding, terrorist outrages or threats such as avian flu, bluetongue or foot and mouth - the nation depends on public servants working beyond the call of duty. The social fabric and welfare of the people depends on the daily commitment of those who work in health, education, the justice system and all the many other public services - many of which people only notice if they stop.

Public servants do not understand why they are facing cuts in their pay. In the current financial year many are having below inflation rises phased, thus further reducing their value. Ministers should remember that they inherited a demoralised and under-resourced public sector from the previous government where below inflation pay had led to difficulties in recruitment and retention, and badly hit the quality of service to the public.

This Government deserves praise for ending the cycles of boom and bust in the wider economy, but it looks as if we are now returning to bust in public sector pay.

Ministers risk doing damage to the structure of industrial relations in the public sector and jeopardising good work to promote partnership working. Pay Review Bodies cover large parts of the public sector, and were established to reduce conflict and introduce integrity and impartiality into settling pay in the public sector. By not accepting their recommendations, or interfering in implementation, ministers have already provoked strike ballots and damaged the public sector ethos.

Nor do public servants or economic experts accept that public sector pay is driving inflation, or that cutting the living standards of public service workers will make any significant contribution to reducing inflation.

The TUC and public sector unions call on ministers to step back and think again about public sector pay before resentment further builds and the current concerns over recruitment, retention and morale become embedded.

The Speak Up for Public Services campaign, which we launch today, will closely monitor developments across each area of the public sector and support unions in their negotiations for fair pay. Unions will be working together to co-ordinate pay strategies within local government, education, the health service, the justice system and the civil service to build support among members and put forward early claims to employers. Regular updates and bulletins will be issued to exchange information on progress across the public sector and the TUC will be organising a series of informed debates, led by independent pay experts and helping unions to exchange information on arguments and evidence. The campaign will also continue to co-ordinate action by public sector unions in defending their services and their members from unjustified budgetary cuts and privatisation policies.

The TUC campaign will also call for pay increases to reflect the true cost of living in the UK. The Government insists on using the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which currently stands at 2.1% as its target for pay awards. Yet working people are currently facing real inflation levels of 4.1% according to the Retail Price Index (RPI). This measure, which includes housing costs, is a more accurate and realistic reflection of the rising cost of living than the CPI.

The TUC and the unions will be producing regular updates for the media, the public, MPs and union members on the campaign, seeking to ensure that ministers understand why public sector workers deserve fair pay and asking them to support trade unions and to Speak up for Public Services.

Controlling Managers Hinder Productivity

New figures show that performance levels in workplaces across the UK are suffering as overbearing and dogmatic management practices top the list of management styles. The Quality of Working Life report, which questioned 1,511 managers, also found a high rate of sickness and absence levels in organisations exhibiting ‘negative’ management styles.

The report, published by the Chartered Management Institute and Simplyhealth, assessed the impact of differing managerial styles on motivation, health and productivity.

The most widely experienced management styles in UK organisations are bureaucratic (40 per cent), reactive (37 per cent) and authoritarian (30 per cent). Worryingly, all three have become increasingly common; the top two have increased by 6 per cent since 2004, with authoritarian leadership also rising 5 per cent.

Only 1 in 10 respondents said absence increased in organisations with ‘innovative’ and ‘trusting’ cultures. This was in contrast to 45 per cent suggesting sickness rates have gone up where employers were ‘suspicious’.

Jo Causon, director, marketing and corporate affairs, at the Chartered Management Institute, said: “The effect of management styles on performance can be marked and has a direct bearing on the levels of health, motivation and commitment linking employers and staff. Of course, improving the sense of wellbeing, determination and productivity is no easy task, but one that cannot be ignored. Left alone, it will only serve to reduce morale and lower the quality of working life.”

Bad Day For Rights At Work

Commenting on the outcome of yeterday’s meeting of Europe’s Social Affairs Council, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said,

“This is a bad day for rights at work across Europe, but especially in the UK. It is very disappointing that there has been no progress on the agency working Directive. There is real anger among unions that the UK Government played the pivotal role in blocking progress on this modest measure to improve workplace justice.

‘Contrary to business scare-mongering, this Directive would not stop agencies providing temporary staff to employers who need them. What it would have done was both make it more difficult for employers to undercut wages and conditions and help slow the growth of a two-tier workforce.

‘But unions will not give up the campaign to deliver justice for agency workers.”

Pay Deal Moves A Step Closer

Settlement of this year’s pay claims in both England and Wales has moved a step nearer. Until now, the AoC in England and Fforwm in Wales had been insisting that all unions must accept the offer before the pay rise can be recommended to colleges.

To take matters forward those unions who had accepted the employers’ offer have agreed to press for its implementation. The move has the backing of ACM, ATL, Unison and all other trade unions with the exception of the UCU. Indeed, despite a majority of their branches agreeing to the offer in England, UCU decided to go ahead with a strike ballot anyway. A separate strike ballot is also planned for Wales.

If the pay increase of 2% from August 2007 and a further 1% from February 2008 is recommended to colleges in England, it opens the door for national negotiations on a number of important non-pay items such as working time and training. Without a settlement then all these items would be lost.

In Wales the offer is 2.5% from August 2007.

The Effects of Festive Hangovers

It’s that time of year again when companies publish their more unusual survey results. The latest, reported by People Management, looks into the effects of hung-over workers, including where in the workplace they have been sick!

Indeed, according to research by Travelodge, hung-over workers will cost the UK £790 million this Christmas.

A poll of 4,500 employees revealed that the average worker wastes two-and-a-half hours staring into space the day after the office Christmas party because they are too hung over to work. And 21 per cent said they had been sick in the workplace as a result of ill-effects from the night before. While over three-quarters (77 per cent) said they made it to the toilet in time, the remaining respondents, somewhat worryingly, admitted to being sick at their desk, in the car park or even during a meeting.

You can read more at People Management Online.

Call For New Deal On Agency Workers

As the TUC publishes new evidence of the abuse of migrant workers by employment agencies, the TUC is today (Monday) calling on Gordon Brown to break a longstanding European deadlock and agree a new deal for agency workers at a crucial EU meeting on Wednesday. So far the UK Government has been part of a blocking minority that have stopped moves by the majority of EU member states to ensure agency workers are treated the same as permanent staff doing the same job.

In advance of a meeting of the EU Social Affairs Ministers on Wednesday (5 December) the TUC has joined with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, the Scottish TUC and the Wales TUC to call on both the UK and Irish governments to end their opposition to the Directive.

The European Council has been discussing a new Directive on Agency Workers since 2002, which would give temps in the UK the right to equal treatment with a comparable permanent employee on issues such as pay, working time and holidays, maternity rights and protection against discrimination. The majority of EU states back these proposals. However, the British Government, in a minority with the Irish, German and Danish governments, is standing in the way of the Directive being adopted.

The TUC is concerned about the vulnerability of all agency workers in the UK with their current lack of rights in employment law. Most EU states - both old and new - have introduced individual measures giving temps equal rights in advance of the Directive, but the UK Government has refused to do this.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “There is a perfectly legitimate role for employment agencies in providing workers with short-term availability to employers with short-term needs.

‘But too many unscrupulous bosses are replacing permanent staff - with reasonable terms and conditions - with insecure agency staff. They regularly earn less than directly employed staff , are not allowed to benefit from an employer’s contributions to a pension scheme, are given less holiday, little if any access to training, and tend to get no contractual sick pay. There is a new underclass of temps who cannot get permanent work and who have no loyalty to their employers.

‘But there is a simple solution to this problem - the Directive, which most of the EU is now backing, could give UK temps new rights to equal treatment from the first day they are taken on. Day one rights would also avoid the danger that unscrupulous employers would get round the law by taking on temps for one day short of the qualifying period.

‘Agency workers have been vulnerable to real injustice for far too long. The Government should understand the strength of union feeling on this issue. There will be a political price to be paid if the UK government simply follows the business agenda - and not the social justice agenda - and they fail to grasp this new opportunity to break the EU deadlock.”