Steve Sinnott

Following the sudden death at the weekend of NUT General Secretary Steve Sinnott, ACM has written to the union asking for our condolences to be passed to his wife Mary and their family, and also to the executive, members and staff of the NUT.

General Secretary Peter Pendle said, “We were all very sorry to hear the sad news about Steve Sinnott. Steve was an extremely well respected and hard working trade union leader. His commitment to the NUT was widely recognised, and he was a skilled and principled advocate for the teaching profession. I know he will be sadly missed by all who knew him.”

College Fined For Breaking Safety Law

City of Bristol College has been fined £14,000 and ordered to pay £18,000 costs for a breach of health and safety law. The case, brought by the HSE, related to the College’s failure to ensure the safety of its employees, particularly with regard to the use, handling and storage of hazardous substances and to the provision of appropriate training and supervision.

Further details are available on the UCU website.

Search For Lost Adult Learners

Over the past two years there has been a fall of nearly one and a half million adult learners on publicly funded courses. This week the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) is launching a nationwide search to find out what has happened to those adults.

NIACE is exploring how the cuts in publicly funded adult learning have impacted on individual learners and wants to hear about what people have done without publicly supported classes. In particular NIACE is interested in finding out from learners, tutors and providers.

Alan Tuckett, Director of NIACE, said, “These are challenging times for adult learners. Because of our ageing population we need more – not fewer – adults of all ages learning. Learning increases confidence, reduces isolation and has positive effects on your mental health, particularly as you get older. This is why we want to hear about how adults are learning now – if not on publicly-funded courses.”

Anyone interested in sharing their experiences should contact NIACE at: lostcourses@niace.org.uk or write to: Lost Classes, NIACE, Renaissance House, 20 Princess Road West, Leicester LE1 6TP.

EHRC Publishes Single Equality Scheme

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has published its first single equality scheme.

The scheme lays out the practical steps the Commission will take to promote equality and human rights in everything it does. The document will be the starting point for its three-year scheme which will be developed during 2008/9. All public authorities have a duty to produce an equality scheme.

Because of the Commission’s unique remit, the scheme goes beyond the legal requirement to address gender, disability and race and also covers issues around age, sexual orientation, religion or belief and human rights.  The Commission has a special position among public authorities as these duties are identical to its own remit. The Commission is also responsible for ensuring other public bodies meet the legal requirements of the equality duties.

A copy of the scheme can be found on the EHRC website.

TUC Calls For Stronger Apprenticeships Strategy

The TUC has published its response to the Government’s consultation on World Class Apprenticeships; and it can be downloaded in PDF format from the TUC website.

In summary, the TUC welcomes the government’s strategy. However there are a number of areas where it has concerns, as well as recommendations for strengthening the strategy.

Indeed, the TUC is concerned about measures that would create additional responsibilities for apprentices, and it opposes any weakening of apprentice rights. It also says stronger levers should be used to boost employer-based places, including through the use of public procurement in all public sector contracts. The TUC wants to see sector levies as well as statutory rights to collective bargaining over training. It also calls for a further expansion of Adult Apprenticeships.

Sexism and the City

Today (Tuesday) the Fawcett Society launches a major new campaign, Sexism and the City, calling for tough action to stamp out sexism in UK workplaces.

Why? Because nearly 40 years on from the outlawing of discrimination against women in the workplace, sexism remains rife:

• Only 11% of FTSE 100 company directors are women
• 30,000 women lose their jobs every year in the UK simply for being pregnant
• Two thirds of low paid workers are women
• Women working full-time are paid on average 17% less than men
• 18% of sex discrimination compensation awards are for sexual harassment
• The first UK lapdance club opened in 1995. There are now over 300 lapdance clubs in the UK

For the first time the Fawcett Society is joining the dots between women’s experiences in the workplace and a wider culture in which women are subject to sexist stereotypes and are increasingly sexually objectified.

Sexist workplaces: Attempts to shoe-horn women in to workplaces designed by men for men have failed. The result? Motherhood carries a penalty and poverty has a female face. Fawcett is calling on the Government to extend the right to work flexibly to all so that flexible working is not seen as the “mummy track”, and ending the opt-out of the EU Work Time Directive in order to curb the destructive long working hours culture.

Sexist attitudes: All women are now subject to a damaging culture of sexual objectification, waved in by the normalization of the sex ‘industry’. Women in the workplace experience worrying levels of direct sexual harassment, and visiting a lapdance club has become an increasingly normal way for companies to entertain clients. Yet polling carried out by Ipsos MORI and published today shows:

• 60% of women would be very or fairly uncomfortable working for an organisation that allows its employees to use lapdancing venues for entertaining clients.
• 52% of men and 59% of women believe it is not acceptable for businesses to use lapdance clubs as venues for entertaining clients.

As a first step to challenging the objectification of women, Fawcett is calling for lapdance clubs to be licensed as Sex Encounter Establishments (as sex shops currently are) instead of the current Premises License (like ordinary pubs and clubs), enabling local authorities to place greater restrictions on the clubs.

TUC Response To Immigration Report

Commenting on the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee report on ‘The Economic Impacts of Immigration’, TUC General Secretary, Brendan Barber, said:

“The TUC has always said that on balance immigration has been good for the economy and good for society. Without the contribution of migrant workers important parts of public services and the private economy would collapse.

‘This does not mean that there have been no problems associated with recent patterns of migration, but the solution is to deal with these issues, rather than abuse migrant workers.

‘Where public services are under strain, then there should be more investment, given the extra tax revenue generated from migrant workers.

‘The Committee is absolutely right to endorse the TUC view that unscrupulous employers have used the availability of migrant workers to abuse employment standards such as the minimum wage. The Government should act on the Committee’s recommendation to crack down on these bad bosses and agencies who use migrant workers to undermine decent secure jobs.”

CEL Equality and Diversity Conference

The Centre for Excellence in Leadership (CEL) is holding its first Equality and Diversity Conference on 21 May 2008. The conference offers the opportunity to engage with the sector on equality and diversity matters; hear the findings of CEL’s equality and diversity research, soon to be published; participate in workshops with key sector agencies to capture and share good practice; and talk about and work through challenges and the strategies to address them.

More details can be found on the CEL website.

Male Apprentices Better Paid than Women

Female apprentices are still being left far behind their male counterparts according to a new TUC report.

The report Still More (Better Paid) Jobs for the Boys shows that while more apprenticeship places have opened up for women in general, this has not happened in better paid male-dominated sectors such as engineering and construction.

The TUC report shows that little has changed - and in some cases the situation has worsened - in the three years since the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) completed its report looking at this issue in detail.

The proportion of men and women entering into apprenticeships overall are fairly even - 54.2 per cent of people starting apprenticeships in 2006/07 were men, and 45.8 per cent were women - but apprenticeships are still strongly divided along gender lines. In 2006/07, the worst industry culprits were construction with only 1.3 per cent women apprentices, vehicle maintenance (1.4 per cent female apprentices) and engineering (2.5 per cent).

During the same period, 97.1 per cent of apprentices in childcare were female and 91.7 per cent of hairdressing apprenticeships were women, the two lowest paying sectors. This divide was identified by both the EOC and the Women and Work Commission, but this new TUC report shows that there has been virtually no change since 2002/03. In engineering the situation has actually worsened, with the proportion of women apprentices falling from 4.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent between 2002/03 and 2006/07.

TUC Deputy General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Apprenticeships are an excellent route into work and we want to see more and more employers offering high quality places.

“But this report shows there is still a huge gender divide in apprenticeships. Too many young women are being limited to apprenticeships in low-paid traditionally female occupations like childcare and hairdressing, and are unable to break into better paid male occupations like engineering.

“Low pay in apprenticeships happens much along gender lines. Women receive on average 26 per cent less pay than men so action needs to be taken now to tackle this divide once and for all. Government and, in particular, employers need to take this seriously and make equality a major priority.”

The TUC report also shows that big employers - often said to be better at tackling issues such as occupational segregation - are amongst the worst culprits. Of the large employers who contract directly with the Learning and Skills Council’s National Employer Service (NES), women only comprise around one fifth (20.1 per cent) of all apprentices taken on.

Of the ten most popular apprenticeships taken up by NES employers, six had less than 11 per cent female apprentices. Even more strikingly, four of the five most popular apprenticeships taken up via the NES have less than four per cent women - construction (1.2 per cent), vehicle maintenance (1.3 per cent), engineering (3.5 per cent) and electro-technical (1.5 per cent).

The TUC report suggests a six-point plan to tackle this growing inequality:

• The Government should set a national equality and diversity strategy to target particular groups, sectors and localities where gender divides exist.
• The Government should make more use of means such as procurement policies to promote equality and diversity in apprenticeships and could put targets in place for Sector Skills Councils (SSCs), linked to Government funding of SSCs.
• As women are more likely to be in low paid apprenticeships than men, increasing the £80 minimum pay rate for apprenticeships would benefit women most. The minimum apprentice wage should urgently be raised to £110 per week.
• Joint work between unions and employers on equality and diversity should be encouraged and supported by the Government.
• Adult apprenticeships should be expanded. Research shows older women are more likely to take up apprenticeships in non-traditional female roles, so expansion of the programme would help break down occupational segregation.
• The Government should fully explore how the public sector gender equality duty can ensure gender equality in apprenticeships.

To view the report in full please visit: http://www.tuc.org.uk/extras/genderreport.pdf

TUC Reaction to White Paper

Commenting on the Government White Paper Raising Expectations: Enabling the System to Deliver announced today (Monday), TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

“Many of the proposed reforms, such as giving local authorities a greater strategic role for young people, should help more employees get the skills they need. But with two in five workers still not getting any regular training at work, this organisational reform must not divert attention from the wider skills challenge - getting more employers to offer quality apprenticeships and training opportunities.

“It’s vital that as well as meeting the skills needs of employers, more individual employees are helped to get new skills under these new arrangements. Unions can help to do this, both at a strategic level and on the ground, through the 18,000-strong network of union learning reps.

“The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) has played an important role in supporting the Government’s skills strategy in recent years. Ministers must ensure that the expertise built up by LSC staff is utilised in any future arrangements, without recourse to redundancies.”

Plans Published To Raise Particpation Age

LSC to be abolished in major shake up

The Government today set out the details of the transfer of £7 billion to local authorities to help colleges and sixth forms deliver the reforms needed to raise the education and training leaving age to 18.

At the same time the Government will direct £4 billion a year through a new agency to provide training and skills for adults. The intention is to transform the system to be responsive and demand-led.

The proposals were published in a by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills in a joint White Paper, Raising Expectations: enabling the system to deliver.

The plans will mean the dissolution of the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) by 2010 and instead make local authorities responsible for offering all young people in their area a full menu of choices - both the new Diplomas and Apprenticeships alongside GCSEs and A levels.

The DCSF, DIUS and local authorities will work together to deliver the main points set out in the White Paper.

For 14-19 year olds:

• It will put local authorities firmly in the driving seat to deliver education and training for children and young people aged 0-19, supporting the Government’s commitment to raising the participation age to 18 by 2015;
• It will make local authorities responsible for delivering the full range of 14-19 entitlements including the new Diplomas, Apprenticeships and the Foundation Learning Tier;
• Local authorities will be able to commission provision to meet demand from young people and employers.
• Local authorities will work together with national agencies and the Regional Development Agency who will co-chair the regional level, to provide a coherent planning and funding system for FE colleges and providers.

For adult learners it will mean:

• the creation of a streamlined Skills Funding Agency to route funding to FE colleges and other providers to meet the demands of employers and learners;
• giving the Skills Funding Agency the lead role in sponsoring colleges and providers
• the new Agency managing the creation of the new England-wide adult advancement and careers service, which will play a key role, with Jobcentre Plus, in boosting individual demand for skills and guiding people to the right training to meet their needs and help change their lives; and
• the new Agency eventually taking over from the Learning and Skills Council the management of the new National Apprenticeship Service, with end-to-end responsibility for the Apprenticeships programme, including ultimate accountability for national delivery of targets.

The White Paper was presented to Parliament in Written Ministerial Statement by Ed Balls.

He said, “We want every 16 and 17 year old to participate in education and training. And we want every adult to have the chance to improve their skills to get a job, a better job, or have a more successful economic life.

“The key proposals in the document will help to deliver our ambition to raise the participation age and transform attainment by age 19 and underpin our aim of a demand led system and the integration of employment and skills.

“The consultation document sets out how for young people, we aim to place leadership of the system, accountability for outcomes, duties and the funding to deliver, at a local level - local authorities will have the responsibility and duties to deliver for everyone from birth to 19.”

The White Paper is now out for consultation and comments must be submitted by Monday 9 June 2008.

UCU strike ballot before pay talks start

Although pay negotiations have yet to start between the Association of Colleges (AoC) and the six FE unions in England, the UCU today began balloting members on possible industrial action. If the ballot supports industrial action, UCU’s FE members in England will be asked to begin this with a strike on Thursday 24 April, 2008.

The UCU move is unilateral. There has been no consultation with the other five unions, including ACM, who are party to the joint FE pay claim; and the fear now is that employers will refuse to negotiate until the action is lifted.

Meetings with the employers have been scheduled, and any subsequent pay increase would not take effect until August. The claim is for a 6% increase or £1500, whichever is greater.

UCU are seeking to co-ordinate their action with the National Union of Teachers. The NUT are also balloting for strike action on 24 April, in pursuit of their pay claim for school teachers.