Sunday 23 November 2014

Tax Dodgers crackdown

Governments worldwide have pledged to crackdown on tax evaders and financial fraudsters, 50 countries have signed an international agreement against banking secrecy at a recent summit in Berlin. It's thought $7.4 trillion is hidden in tax havens, which results in governments worldwide losing billions in revenue. The signatories include the likes of Luxembourg, Lichtenstein, Austria and Switzerland all of which were once reported a safe haven for tax evaders.

Sunday 26 October 2014

Stressed Workers

Employees suffering from high stress levels have lower engagement, are less productive and have higher absentee levels than those not operating under excessive pressure, according to research from professional services firm Towers Watson.

The firm's Global benefits attitudes survey found that levels of workplace disengagement significantly increase when employees experience high levels of stress. The research shows that of those employees who claimed to be experiencing high stress levels, over half (57%) also reported that they were disengaged. In contrast, only one in 10 (10%) employees claiming low stress levels said they were disengaged and half of this group claimed to be highly engaged.

Conversely, almost half (59%) of low-stressed respondents said they were highly engaged, but only eight per cent of highly stressed workers could say the same.

Its study into health, wellbeing and productivity found that employees describing themselves as highly stressed lost three-quarters more days (4.6 days) to absence on average than low-stressed employees (2.6 days).

They lost a further 50% more time to presenteeism that is, attending work when unwell and unproductive, than their less-stressed peers.

Meanwhile, employees said that inadequate staffing, low pay and unclear job expectations were the three top causes of stress.

http://www.towerswatson.com/en/Press/2014/09/Workplace-stress-leads-to-less-productive-employees

http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=4990

Saturday 12 July 2014

Government cuts leaving Part Time workers exploited

My union UNISON have highlighted the exploitation of part-time workers after survey of 2,600 respondents in local government and schools indicated that the exploitation comes as a result of the government cuts leaving many workers feeling overworked.

Our analysis shows that specifically part-time workers in councils and schools are being undervalued and overworked, the survey also highlighted that 91% of these workers are women.

The survey revealed that many part-time workers, work unpaid overtime with 60% saying they do it every week.

I believe part-time workers are a vital part of the workplace and without them local government departments and schools wouldn't function properly.

Yet these workers are facing an all-out assault on their pay, conditions and hours of work.

On strike day 10 July 2014, we seen our own branch activist Sharon Graham take action.

Sharon works part time in three jobs as well as being a shop steward at a local school and believes taking action was absolutely necessary not only for her but thousands of others in similar positions.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b047zqkq

Source: Labour Research

Friday 2 May 2014

Labour activists working hard to keep pavements clean in Wooler

This year the council hand out over half a million free poop scoop bags to communities in Northumberland but it would seem that only if your parish or community request them will your community receive an allocation.

Northumberland County Council has a zero tolerance policy for dog fouling. Anyone witnessed not cleaning up after their dog will be issued with a £75 fixed penalty notice. If a fixed penalty notice is not paid within 14 days of its issue, offenders will be prosecuted for the offence in court and could face a fine of up to £1,000.

As you will see from my fixmystreet entry both me and Joyce Guthrie reported multiple dog poop problems in Wooler last month in the lead upto the parish election. Further to these reports I am pleased to say the council contacted me and subsequently placed poop bags on the dog bins throughout Wooler.

Should you want to make a complaint regarding dog fouling you should, follow the instructions below.
The complainant details are not essential for dog fouling complaints however detailed information significantly increases the likelihood of a solution. Important information to note in such a case includes:
  • Type and or description of dog
  • Time, location, frequency of alleged offence
  • Complainant details for feedback
You can report any incidents online via www.fixmystreet.com

Thursday 1 May 2014

UNISON Activist stands for Heaton North Seat

I was at Heaton North in Newcastle, last night helping fellow UNISON activist Mick Bowman in his quest to become a Newcastle City Councillor for the Labour Party.

The seat is currently held by the Liberal Democrat, Greg Stone with a 514 majority but since 2010, we all know how the political balance has changed.


Really positive response on the #labourdoorstep, electors indicating they've had enough of the Lib. Dems both locally and nationally.


Mick is an experienced UNISON activist and takes his role very seriously within the UNISON Northumberland County branch. I believe if he is elected as a councillor his vast political and social awareness will make him an excellent councillor.


Good luck Mick.


Mick Bowman


Thursday 16 January 2014

No Genuine Negotiations for Blacklisted Workers

A group of major multinational companies that were involved in the recent blacklisting scandal announced a compensation scheme for those workers who were spied upon by the Consulting Association (which ran the blacklist and was funded by and reported to the construction companies).

A statement for the companies said that they 'all apologise for involvement with TCA and the impact that its database may have had on any individual worker'. The Blacklist Support Group, comprising former blacklisted workers, said 'forgive us if we do not crack open the champagne just yet...the only thing they regret is being caught'. The Blacklist Support Group later walked out of compensation talks describing the offer as 'not proposals designed for genuine negotiations' and vowed to continue with legal action against the companies.


Source International Centre for Trade Union Rights