This shames us as a nation but above all it shames us human beings.
We are and must be better than this disgrace.
Everyone who inhabits…
]]>This shames us as a nation but above all it shames us human beings.
We are and must be better than this disgrace.
Everyone who inhabits our planet deserves dignity and respect to live their best lives.
The next labour government must tonight commit to end this disgraceful sham shock jock politics and put the rights of all migrants first.
Image Credit, from unspalsh, by Anastasia Zhenina
]]>The aim of the Conference is to encourage women members to get active in GMB, to address our continuing under-representation, as well as to increase activism and build our union.
The theme is the impact of…
]]>The aim of the Conference is to encourage women members to get active in GMB, to address our continuing under-representation, as well as to increase activism and build our union.
The theme is the impact of the cost-of-living crisis, and 13 years of austerity, on women. We will have sessions and presentations on four issues that have had a particular impact on women and have been exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis and austerity: violence at work, low pay/equal pay, lack of affordable childcare and disabilities. We will explore some of the main causes, and how women can fight back and achieve change through getting active in GMB. As always, it will be a very warm, inclusive and welcoming space for women to learn, network and share ideas and knowledge.
We have been asked to circulate the details to all our members, and encourage women members – especially those not yet active – to apply for a place?
The registration link is: https://forms.office.com/e/tQg1HDE3MP
The deadline for applications is Friday 18 August.
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Good news – the High Court has today ruled in favour of GMB and…
]]>Good news – the High Court has today ruled in favour of GMB and other unions’ challenge to the Government attempt to allow agency workers to cover the jobs of striking members.
In July 2022 the Government revoked the longstanding ban on the use of agency workers to replace striking workers, or to cover the work of striking workers, in official industrial action. GMB was one of 13 unions who challenged this decision. The TUC coordinated the challenge for 11 unions (ASLEF, BFWAU, FDA, GMB, NEU, NUJ, POA, PCS, RMT, UNITE, USDAW). The case was heard by the High Court on 3rd and 4th May, and judgement was handed down this morning 13th July.
I am very pleased to be able to report to you that the Judicial Review to challenge the government’s decision to revoke regulation 7 of the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003 has been successful. If you would like a copy of the judgement please let us know.
Our challenge succeeded on the first ground of our case that the Secretary of State failed to comply with the statutory duty to consult, under section 12 (2) of the Employment Agencies Act 1973. The court decided not to express a view on our second ground, that is whether the Secretary of State had breached the duty under Article 11 of the ECHR to prevent unlawful interference with the rights of trade unions and their members given the finding that the unions succeed on the first ground.
This is a great win for the unions defeating the Government over one of their union bashing laws. I am really proud that GMB has taken this case. This will be good news for low paid workers, who are often vulnerable to this tactic being used against them, and further protects their right to strike.
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Words have power. They inspire, guide, and will us to win.
The words contained in our Rulebook are not dry or idle. They are fundamental to our…
]]>Words have power. They inspire, guide, and will us to win.
The words contained in our Rulebook are not dry or idle. They are fundamental to our way of working and growing our union; our way of looking at the world and of treating each other with decency and respect.
I am delighted to report that at GMB Congress in Brighton, our delegates passed a CEC Special Report that breathes new life into our Rulebook, connecting us with a vision of the way ahead and a clear statement of our values, purpose and vision that is fit for the world we live in today.
This is a much-needed moment for our union. Our Rulebook had become tired and outdated, overlaid with the language of partnership not fit for purpose in a rapidly changing world.We had lostthe sense of fire and fight that had forged our union amid the furnaces of Beckton in 1889.
This was why we launched a consultation with GMB office holders at the end of last yeartoassess our members’ priorities and views about our Rules; and why our President, Vice President and I toured the Regions and Nations.
The message came back loud and clear – members wanted their industrial voices to be amplified and embodied in the core purpose of our union.
The Congress decision is both bold and impressive.Our Purpose and Vision, and the Aims and Objectives of the Union have been updated, placing organising and campaigning at the forefront of our agenda and our duty to the members. We have strengthened our commitment to the Equalities Strands, to the fight against racism and discrimination in all their pernicious forms; andto Internationalism: recognising that an injury to one, is an injury to all. We have pledged ourselves todeliver economic–alongside purely political–democracy for all our members.
Additional Industrial seats have been added to the CEC, meaning we have maintained the numbers of our executive, offsetting reductions caused by the merging of regions. At the same time, we have sharpened our industrial power and focus on decision making.
Colleagues, these changes are an important step to ensuring our union is at the forefront of struggle and fully equipped to win, and win again, with our members and their families.It reconnects us to our proud, pioneering history, and reconfigures our priorities to create a dynamic, campaigning union.
Our values, just likeour words, are not staid. They need to belived andpossess a transformative power when expressed through collective belief and action. Our newRules help us to accomplish this.
Listening to members and building industrial campaigns is now front and centre of what we do. It’s through campaigning and organising in the workplace that we build upon our industrial power and make work better.
In turn it’s this power that enables us collectively to effect the changes that we desire in order to ensure a world of freedom, beauty and equality, where everyone will have the opportunity to express the best that is within them for the benefit of all.
That is our purpose and guiding vision, and with Congress 2023 we are firmly delivering upon it.
Our Branch President adds,
Congress also took the opportunity to change the aims and objectives of the Union; these changes strengthened the Union’s emphasis on workplace organisation, regulation of terms and conditions, international working class solidarity, the need for a political intervention and the accountability of GMB supported public officials to GMB policy. These are all both welcome and overdue.
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This is one of the most publicly visible stories showing the endemic occurrence of bullying within the workplace and the consensus of tolerance of such behaviour. Raab’s failure to apologise…
]]>This is one of the most publicly visible stories showing the endemic occurrence of bullying within the workplace and the consensus of tolerance of such behaviour. Raab’s failure to apologise is symptomatic of an attitude pervasive within British management. He thinks he did nothing wrong and there will be many managers who agree. There is no excuse, the trade union movement and the law have developed definitions of bullying.
Bullying includes: offensive, intimidating, malicious, or insulting behaviour; abuse of authority which violates the dignity of an individual or a group of people; creating a hostile environment against an individual; and the undermining, humiliation or injury of an individual.
Our branch President has commented on his blog on the affair; the most important lesson for us as workers and trade unionists is that it’s all too easy to forget the genuine hurt and harm that bullying can cause and we too often forget that it’s designed to be hurtful. As human beings we should have sympathy with the victims and be robust in condemning and punishing the perpetrators. It remains too easy
Another legal route, other than to Tribunal might be to sue the employer for a breach of health and safety, although evidence of causality is difficult to obtain. I am unclear of the legal precedents for this pursuit, but I am advised that’s at least one trade union law firm has a very low assessment of the likelihood of winning. The best defence against known bullies with management air-cover, is a strong union, with a recognition agreement that threatens industrial action.
The referral to the parliamentary standards commissioner should be supported. It is highly unusual for acts of bullying to be held to account. As a trade union rep who has on numerous occasions helped people make grievances against bullies, sadly my success rate in these cases is not high. British workplaces need a change in management culture and a change in the law. Bullying should be criminalised, and the Bribery Act makes it an offence for a company to fail to stop ‘improper behaviour’, perhaps we should pass such a law for bullying.
As for the Tories attempt to rewrite the ministers’ codes of behaviour, this article in the guardian covers the issue well .You would have thought that the Tories would have learned that changing the rules after the event rarely has a successful outcome. Just look Boris Johnson and Owen Patterson. Sadly, the guardian article uses language that locates the dysfunction in the context of government. Senior civil servants are not the only victims of bullying, and while the FDA’s intervention has been important and useful. Allowing the FDA to lead on this issue makes it easy to turn this into a government versus civil service issue. It is not, PCS needs to wake up as do we. This is an issue for all workers.
My union, the GMB , has debated this at several Congresses over the last five years. I shall be writing to Officers asking them to support the referral to the parliamentary standards commissioner and to support a rewriting of the law so that everyone can be protected from management bullying and that managers learn that bullying has bad consequences for those that perpetrate it and those that collude with it.
]]>Very few of you work at workplaces with collective bargaining agreements and so we guide you through…
]]>Very few of you work at workplaces with collective bargaining agreements and so we guide you through disciplinary and grievance processes, we represent you at the meetings and help our solicitors prosecute for you where there is a legal case that we can’t win in the workplace.
This Tory Government is proposing to repeal large parts of the employment protection rules that do exist; this will make it much harder for us and for our lawyers to act successfully. The legislation is currently with the House of Lords; we urge you to use the following web site, https://www.anothereurope.org/mp-write/retained-law/ to write to the Secretary of State and to your MP (the site will do this for you) to ask them not to proceed with the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill.
If these worker’s rights are removed we will all be in a much worse position. Please, if you can, send the email to the politicians concerned.
]]>These motions will add…
]]>These motions will add to the GMB’s policy document: GMB National Policy Guide 2022
]]>We are all aware that the Tories have nicked the name living wage, for the minimum wage, but the Living Wage Foundation, is still tracking what is needed to live. The CIPP reports them as saying,
The Real Living Wage Foundation has today (22 September 2022) announced the new hourly rates for the Real Living Wage. Across the UK the rate will be £10.90, a £1.00 rise, and £11.95 in London, an uplift of 90p. This increase of 10.1% is the largest in the foundation’s history and marks the hourly rate at £1.40 above the National Living Wage of 9.50 for those aged 23 and over. The announcement of these rates was due in November but was brought forward in response to the rapidly increasing cost-of-living. The foundation calculates the rate from the real cost-of-living facing lower earners across the UK.
This is equivalent to £22,672 p.a, about 235% of the state pension and 14% higher than the Government’s national minimum wage.
GMB Policy, which I have extracted from the policy document says,
“We believe that the National Minimum Wage should be at least £12 an hour, and we support higher £15 an hour demands on a sector basis.” 2021
The ONS stats, say that the CPI has risen from 111.13 in June 2021 to 126.7 in Nov 2022, again a 14% increase, suggesting that the £12 number is too low and that our minimum demand should now be £13.70, but anti-poverty campaigners, are setting £15 as the target for a national minimum wage.
The Labour Party is developing policy, best represented in its statement, “A new deal for working people“, they say,
Labour will continue to assess how to deliver its commitment to raising the living wage to ensure that it is adequate and addresses the rise in the cost of living and inflation.
Labour is demanding that the minimum wage is immediately raised to at least £10 per hour for all workers and will continue to evaluate what a real living wage should be.
Labour will continue to assess how to deliver its commitment to raising the National Living Wage to ensure that it is adequate and addresses the
rise in the cost of living and inflation since 2019.A Labour Government will replace Universal Credit with a social security system that allows low-income earners on benefits to keep more of their take-home pay, and which offers a safety net for all.
Interestingly while low pay is one of the most significant causes of poverty, the disgraceful SSP regime is another cause. Labour say,
Labour will raise Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) and make it available all workers, including the self-employed and those on low wages currently cut out by the lower earnings limit for eligibility.
Yet again no target, and let’s remember, most highly paid staff and public sector workers have wage related sick pay schemes.
Of course, string unions and collective bargaining is better.
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“I have now uploaded most of my notes and comments from #GMB22. They can be found on my blog using the…
]]>“I have now uploaded most of my notes and comments from #GMB22. They can be found on my blog using the tag #GMB22. There are notes on the Ukraine special report which was not presented and on the finance report and debates which I have not yet decided how to publish. The finance debate I will definitely publish, but probably after the GMB submits its AR21.
We took nine motions to conference, on training, sick pay, housing crisis, where we enhanced GMB policy on no fault terminations, non-compete clauses, fair votes (i.e. PR), the Future Trade and Co-operation agreement, campaigning against the Tory hard Brexit, restoring legal aid, supporting the Human Rights Act and Sick Pay. Of these motions, only the motion on fair votes failed to carry. These motions were written by Dave, Steve & Mark. I also drafted London Region’s emergency motion on the Rwanda refugee deportations, which was also carried albeit with a qualification.
My report also includes comments on the Energy industry debate, Rachel Reeves’ speech, a motion, carried on GMB supported councillors and I also wrote a piece on my general impressions calling out my highlight speeches.
It was a busy and successful week.]]>
Labour Campaign for Free Movement have called for a demo outside the Home Office tonight.
And some campaigning comrades, have started a petition, Stop Priti Patel’s offshore refugee camps – Ripples
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