tuc news in brief...


TRIBUNAL FEES COURT WIN PRAISED TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady congratulated public service union Unison on its ground-breaking victory at the supreme court which forced the government to scrap charges of more than £1,000 for workers taking cases to employment tribunals. The number of cases had “fallen off a cliff” since the introduction of the fees and workers had been priced out of justice, O’Grady said.


COUNCIL ‘ACTING LIKE TORIES’ OVER STRIKE An emergency motion backed 100 striking refuse staff in Birmingham and condemned the city’s council for reneging on a deal agreed at conciliation service Acas. Howard Beckett, for Unite, told delegates: “The Labour council are acting like Tories.” The refuse workers face being downgraded with a loss of £4,000 a year, moved to another department or made redundant.


LAW CHANGE FOR SEX WORK REJECTED Congress voted against the decriminalisation of the sex industry which would have given prostitutes, pimps and brothel keepers the same protection in law as other workers. Train drivers’ union Aslef argued that the current law made sex workers vulnerable to crime, but Sue Ferns, for the TUC executive, said it would legitimise those who exploited prostitutes.


MCSTRIKERS HAILED AS UNION HEROES The conference praised McDonald’s workers for staging the first strike since the company opened its first restaurant in the UK in 1974. Staff at two burger bars in Cambridge and Crayford in south-east London walked out after a ballot in favour of strikes over low wages and zero-hours contracts.


BACK FIGHT OVER PUBLIC SECTOR PAY Delegates were urged to join a rally in Parliament Square on October 17 ahead of the government’s autumn statement in support of a pay rise for all public servants.


6 | theJournalist


‘Shocking anomaly’ between rights of staff and freelances


TUC congress in Brighton last month. The union’s vice-president Sian Jones (right) emphasised that the NUJ was not opposed to freelance working because its members often chose that form of work. However, there was “a shocking anomaly” between the way employers treated freelance workers and directly employed staff often doing the same work, she told delegates. Sian gave the example of


T


international news agency Thomson Reuters. Last year, it changed its contractual relationship with some of its editorial workers. The company moved from


an arrangement in which freelances were sole traders to requiring them to operate through limited companies.


he NUJ called for a new bill of rights for freelances at the annual


“


The change was costing individuals up to £600 a year in accountancy and compliance costs, she said. But the company – which has a longstanding and constructive relationship with the NUJ including recognition rights – refused to negotiate. The problem was the


freelancers had no right to collective representation, regardless of what proportion were union members. Other rights they lacked


were adherence to working time regulations and


minimum wage laws and a lack of job security. “We believe that improving


the rights of freelancers is the best way of reducing ‘false freelancing’ – our sector’s example of bogus self- employment which takes the cost of employment away from employers and puts it onto workers,” Jones said. Delegates passed unanimously a resolution calling for an end to insecure and exploitative employment which meant that people were being expected to “work harder and faster for less”.


CHANGE AND WE’LL BACK YOU S


audi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain must end their


crippling blockade of Qatar which was imposed partly to force the country to close Al Jazeera, its pluralistic broadcaster, delegates decided. However. congress also urged Qatar to end its


iniquitous kafala system which effectively turns 1.2 million foreign workers into slaves. Proposing a motion on human rights in Qatar, Tim Dawson, NUJ president (right), urged congress to send a message to the country: “When you respect the rights of workers from


all over the world, the workers of the world will stand by you.“ Dawson added that the TUC should add its voice to those who are seeking to use Qatar’s crisis to encourage it to take bolder steps towards creating a fair, progressive society.


Distressing reports traumatise staff C


ongress called for increased funding for mental health care and greater awareness of the issue in the workplace.


Pennie Quinton, for the NUJ, said employers should increase mental health support for staff in stressful environments. She said the union was concerned by the


increasing evidence that newsroom journalists were experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder due to routine exposure to footage from war zones, terrorist acts and natural disasters. While journalists working in conflict situations


could develop mental health problems, newsroom staff were “suffering in silence”.


”


ALL IMAGES MARK THOMAS


The freelances had no right to be represented collectively, regardless of what proportion were union members


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