The news you didn’t see this week…

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1.Unions slam college employers over 1% pay offer

Five unions representing staff in English further education colleges have condemned the decision by the Association of Colleges (AoC) to submit another 1% pay recommendation for staff, the thirteenth below inflation offer in a row.

In a joint pay claim submitted in October this year, the unions (UCU, UNISON, NEU, Unite and GMB) called for an increase in pay that moves to restore the 35% cut in pay staff have suffered since 2009. The claim would also close the £9,000 pay gap between schoolteachers and further education lecturers. 

In addition, the unions called for the foundation living wage (currently £9.90 or £11.05 in London) to be the minimum for all staff across the sector, and for colleges to become accredited living wage employers.

Unite national officer for education Siobhan Endean said: “Staff in the further education sector are crucial to delivering vocational education and training to UK workers that is desperately needed to rebuild the UK economy.

“Such a derisory pay offer of one per cent goes nowhere near meeting the rise in the cost of living and shows that the employers are not serious about filling the growing list of vacancies among support staff in further education colleges”.

2. ASDA strike moves closer after thousands of workers say they are ready to walk out

Strike action at Asda moved closer after thousands of workers said they were ready to walk out over the company’s failure to make an acceptable pay offer.

GMB representatives will now meet after the next pay talks to agree the next steps in moving to a formal strike ballot after 94% per cent of warehouse, clerical workers and LGV drivers voted in favour of strike action.

The dispute sparked after the supermarket giant failed to offer distribution staff a meaningful pay offer – with inflation running at a ten-year high.

In 2020, Asda’s directors trousered £12.6 million in pay and share based payments, while the company turned an operating profit of £486 million in the year to 31 December 2020.

Nadine Houghton, GMB National Officer, said: “This immense vote in favour of industrial action shows the bubbling anger and resentment among the workers.

“They know what they are worth and they feel Asda is trying to take them for mugs.”

3. TUC calls for a new targeted furlough scheme as new Covid restrictions expected

The TUC has called on the government to urgently bring forward a new targeted furlough scheme as ministers consider new Covid measures after Christmas.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Already this lockdown by stealth is closing pubs, restaurants and arts – and risking jobs and livelihoods. Every day we are hearing from workers whose shifts are cancelled and even some workers who are being sent home without pay.

“Workers need help now to pay their bills. Any new restrictions that reduce demand or force businesses to shut must come with help to pay wages.”

It comes as a new TUC polls shows that nearly 8 in 10 people say ministers must bring in some furlough support if businesses are forced to close.

4. Scotland’s farmers “hung out to dry” by Tories

The SNP has said that Scotland’s farmers and crofters have been “hung out to dry” by the Tories’ post-Brexit trade deal with Australia – following the UK government’s own impact assessment which show that British agriculture, forestry, and fishing sectors are set to suffer a £94million loss.

The assessment makes clear that the deal could “result in lower output for some agricultural sectors [in the UK]”, thus potentially undercutting Scotland’s food producers.

The deal is also expected to have a £225million hit to the semi-processed food sector due to a “reallocation of resources within the economy”.

Commenting, the SNP’s Deputy Shadow International Trade Secretary Anum Quisar said: “Brexit has been an unmitigated disaster for Scotland’s economy, its businesses, and its people.

“Across these islands, people are feeling the devastating impact of a pandemic, Brexit, and a cost-of-living crisis all at once – none more so than Scotland’s farmers and crofters.

“Beyond all the fancy rhetoric about how Brexit will benefit the people of Scotland, the UK government’s own assessment makes clear that this trade deal with Australia will cost the agriculture, forestry, and fishing sectors massive sums of money.”

5. Commitments in Wales draft budget will “change people’s lives for the better” – Plaid Cymru

The Welsh Government budget will deliver an even fairer and stronger Wales thanks to Plaid Cymru’s ambitious policy pledges in the Co-Operation Agreement, Plaid Cymru Finance Spokesperson Llyr Gruffydd has said.

The Welsh Government’s budget contains funding for the priorities agreed between Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Government in the Co-operation Agreement Policy Programme including free school meals for all primary pupils and free childcare for all two year-olds.

Llyr Gruffydd MS said the commitments would build the nation and strengthen Wales in a number of areas and would secure transformational support for “some of our poorest households” and “change people’s lives for the better across Wales.

However, Mr Gruffydd said “far more could be done” if the Welsh budget wasn’t dictated by a Westminster Government so “out of touch” with the needs of Wales.

Mr Gruffydd said Plaid Cymru would continue to make the case for more financial powers for Wales “so that economic policy is driven by what is best for our communities and public services, not what works best for Boris Johnson and his Cabinet of millionaires.”

6. Security guards at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital have announced an all-out six-week strike in January

Defiant security guards at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital have announced an all-out six-week strike in January.

UVW members will be out from 18 January following a four-day strike earlier this month which the group says was met with silence by their callous bosses and in the ‘face of union-busting tactics and racist slurs’.

7. Protestors Storm Just Eat’s London Office

Protesters walked into Just Eats’ Farringdon office to support striking couriers and refused to leave, saying the company should be doing more to support their workers.

Protestors made their way into the office building where they unfurled banners saying ‘Just Eat Stuart, Pay Rise Not Pay Cut’ and ‘1000% Raise For CEO, 24% Cut For Drivers’. They say they had intended to stay overnight but were removed by police officers.

In Sheffield, Chesterfield and Blackpool, couriers for Just Eat are currently holding the longest gig economy strike in UK history after being hit with a 24% pay cut by their employer Stuart, who Just Eat outsources operations to. Some drivers say their pay could be cut by as much as £150 a week whilst the CEO of Just Eat received a 1000% pay rise according to the Independent Workers of Great Britain Union (IWGB). Protests are also taking place in Sunderland and Huddersfield.

8. UK workers face worst real-terms sick pay in nearly two decades as Covid-19 cases surge – new TUC analysis

The UK now has the lowest statutory sick pay in real terms in almost two decades, according to new analysis by the TUC.

The last time real statutory sick pay was lower was March 2003 – almost nineteen years ago.

And statutory sick pay is already worth £3 per week less in real terms now than it was at start of pandemic in February 2020, due to increases in the already-low benefit failing to keep pace with the cost of living.

The union body has published the new analysis as it calls on ministers to “come to their senses” and finally deliver decent sick pay for all – which it says is a “vital public health tool” in the fight against the virus.

9. Inquiry launched into Australia free trade deal

The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee is launching an inquiry into the impact the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) the government has signed with Australia will have on farmers, food producers, retailers and consumers.

The Government has said the arrangement with Australia will “boost the economy by £2.3 billion and add £900 million to household wages in the long-run”. It has further described it as a “gateway” to the UK joining a wider trading arrangement called the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.

This Australia FTA is the first ‘new’ trade deal the UK Government has signed since leaving the European Union (EU) – as opposed to ‘rolled over’ agreements based on former deals the UK had with different parts of the world when it was an EU member.

10. Government making Londoners pay for pandemic as TfL faces death by a thousand cuts

Unions representing London transport workers have described the government’s latest short-term funding package for Transport for London (TfL) as effectively forcing the capital’s population to pay for the pandemic.

TfL’s income collapsed at the beginning of the pandemic and has not yet recovered, as a result the organisation has had to rely on short-term funding packages from the Department for Transport (DfT) to continue to operate.

Once again the money that TfL has been offered is far below what is needed to keep London’s transport network operating. Unions say that the latest funding package amounts to death by a thousand cuts.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “London transport workers have been among the unsung heroes of the pandemic. They have kept the capital moving at the risk of their own health, tragically far too many have paid for that dedication with their lives.

“It is absolutely despicable that given their unselfish dedication they are now facing attacks on their jobs, pay and conditions. Unions are committed to repelling an assault on their members.

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

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