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Category: trade unionism

UK retailers accused of recruiting young shop workers without rights over Christmas
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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/dec/15/uk-stores-gig-economy-workers-retailers-christmas-unions
Uniqlo is among the retailers using gig economy apps such as Temper and YoungOnes to draft in shop assistants for the busy Christmas run-up. Photograph: Iain Masterton/Alamy
Lush and Gymshark among chains using apps promoted by TikTok influencers to take on gig economy assistants lacking basic protections, say unions
Unions have accused high-street retailers of drafting in young gig economy store assistants without basic employment rights in the run-up to Christmas.
The Observer has found large brands, including Urban Outfitters, Lush, Gymshark and Uniqlo, are recruiting “freelance” shop assistants through gig apps to staff their stores during the busy festive period.
The apps are being promoted by youth influencers with hundreds of thousands of TikTok followers.
“This is a worrying new development,” said Tim Sharp, senior policy officer for employment rights at the Trades Union Congress (TUC).
“It would seem absurd to most people that someone can do a job like working in a shop and not be entitled to basic legal protections. There is a big question mark over the employment status of these supposed freelancers.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/dec/15/uk-stores-gig-economy-workers-retailers-christmas-unions
15 December 2024
Teachers and NHS workers’ unions ‘put the government on notice’ over below-inflation pay rises
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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/teachers-and-nhs-workers-unions-put-the-government-on-notice-over-below-inflation-pay-rises
Royal College of Nursing (RCN) chief executive Pat Cullen (second right front row) joins members of the RCN on the picket line outside the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, as nurses take industrial action over pay, January 18, 2023
TEACHER and NHS worker unions threatened strike action today over government-backed below-inflation public-sector pay rises.
The Department of Health and Social Care, the Cabinet Office and the Department for Education have recommended 2.8 per cent unfunded rises for 2025-26 to pay review bodies after Chancellor Rachel Reeves ordered all departments to cut costs by 5 per cent.
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “There are real concerns across the trade union movement about the government’s recommendation.
“The government must now engage unions and the millions of public-sector workers we represent in a serious conversation about public service reform and delivery.
“It’s hard to see how you address the crisis in our services without meaningful pay rises.
“And it’s hard to see how services cut to the bone by 14 years of Tory government will find significant cash savings.
“In the longer term, we need a spending review that gives hope to those delivering and relying on our public services.”
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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/teachers-and-nhs-workers-unions-put-the-government-on-notice-over-below-inflation-pay-rises
Keir Starmer confirms that he’s proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
12 December 2024
National Grid’s £2bn profits ‘lay bare’ Britain’s broken energy system, campaigners say
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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/national-grid-2bn-profits-lay-bare-britain-broken-energy-system-campaigners-say
‘It is time our energy infrastructure was brought back into public ownership,’ Unite general secretary says
CAMPAIGNERS intensified their demands for energy infrastructure to be brought back into full public ownership today after the National Grid posted a 14 per cent increase in underlying profits.
The firm, which builds and runs power grids and cables across Britain, reported an underlying operating profit of £2.05 billion for the six months until September 30, surpassing £1.8bn in the same period last year.
The grid charges energy suppliers for network use. Costs are then passed on to consumers through their bills, which rose by another 10 per cent last month.
In 2023, National Grid shareholders received £1.6bn in dividends, while six million households remained trapped in fuel poverty amid skyrocketing costs.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said National Grid’s profits “lay bare” Britain’s broken energy system.
She said: “Energy profiteers like National Grid are extracting cash for overseas shareholders through ever more expensive bills.
“It is time our energy infrastructure was brought back into public ownership so that the British people and economy benefit rather than foreign wealth funds.”
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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/national-grid-2bn-profits-lay-bare-britain-broken-energy-system-campaigners-say
8 November 2024
Unite launches legal challenge to overturn winter fuel payment cut
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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/h-lead-unite-launches-legal-challenge-overturn-winter-fuel-payment-cut
UNITE has launched judicial review proceedings seeking to overturn government cuts to the winter fuel allowance for millions of pensioners.
The union submitted a pre-action notice to Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall on October 29 after the Budget kept the benefits cut for all but the poorest pensioners.
Unite said it will seek leave of the High Court to mount a full judicial review should the government not respond to the letter and reverse its decision by November 7.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “People do not understand — I do not understand — how a Labour government has taken away the fuel allowance of millions of pensioners just as winter approaches.
“Given the failure to rectify this in the budget, Unite has now commenced judicial review proceedings challenging the legality of the policy.
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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/h-lead-unite-launches-legal-challenge-overturn-winter-fuel-payment-cut
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Keir Starmer explains that he feels no shame or guilt benefitting personally from gifts from the rich and powerful while insisting on policies of severe austerity causing suffering and death.
4 November 2024
Pensioners to mobilise against cuts to winter fuel payments
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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/pensioners-mobilise-against-cuts-winter-fuel-payments Many articles from the Morning Star today
An elderly woman counting loose change
TRADE unionists and pensioners will mobilise on Monday to demand the government reverse its axing of the winter fuel allowance.
Unite, the National Pensioners Convention (NPC) and the Scottish Pensioners’ Forum will head a mass demonstration outside Parliament calling for the allowance to be restored to all pensioners.
During Labour’s annual conference last month, Unite defeated the party leadership when it won support for a motion demanding the restoration of the allowance and the introduction of a wealth tax to fund it.
The union is campaigning under the slogan “Defend the Winter Fuel Payment.”
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “The government’s winter fuel policy needs to be reversed. Picking the pockets of pensioners is not a tough choice — it is a mistake
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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/pensioners-mobilise-against-cuts-winter-fuel-payments Many articles from the Morning Star today
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
5 October 2024

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