Minimum wage rise
As of October 2007, the minimum wage will increase from £5.35 per hour to £5.52. The Government says that more than a million workers, two thirds of them low paid women, will benefit.
In January new measures came into force to back the minimum wage with tougher enforcement. These include:
- increasing the typical penalty for underpaying a single worker to more than £200
- ensuring that employers who fail to pay the minimum wage face prosecution, risking a criminal record and a £5,000 fine
- targeting certain sectors, such as hairdressing and childcare sectors, for enforcement. The next sector will be hotels, followed by hospitality.
Firefighters win crucial challenge
In a key challenge by the FBU to two employers’ attempts to change national contracts of employment without negotiation, the Court of Appeal has said that firefighters cannot be forced to answer 999 medical emergencies.
Nottingham and Lincolnshire Brigades had sought to compel wholetime members to “co-respond” in breach of FBU policy and without additional payment. The brigades claimed, among other things, that the right to assign additional duties such as co-responding had been agreed in the settlement which resolved the national fire strike in 2002/3.
The union instructed Thompsons to act on its behalf.
The case will be covered in more detail in a future edition of LELR weekly.