Key Quotes - Work/Employment

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Last update: Wednesday 25th March




Gagging clauses which have prevented hundreds of NHS whistleblowers speaking out are to be outlawed. Departing staff will instead be given a new legal right to raise issues that could be in the public interest, such as patient safety, death rates and poor care. Last night Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt insisted that creating a culture of 'openness and transparency' across the NHS was vital to prevent a repeat of the Mid Staffordshire scandal, in which as many as 1,200 patients died.
Work/Employment	Daily Mail 14 March 2013



A ministry started by a former Planned Parenthood centre director is succeeding in helping abortion clinic workers leave the industry, it was reported in mid-December. And Then There Were None, started by Abby Johnson, has helped 38 workers leave the abortion business. Johnson worked as the clinic’s director for more than two years, leaving after witnessing the destruction of a 13-week-old unborn baby as part of an ultrasound-guided abortion she assisted in.
Work/Employment	Evangelicals Now, February 2013



The work and pensions secretary has attacked the tax credit system put in place by Labour, saying it had resulted in ‘a sorry story of dependency, wasted taxpayers’ money and fraud’. Iain Duncan Smith said the credits – to top up the incomes of the lower-paid – were ‘haemorrhaging money’. He said fraud and error in the system under Labour had cost £10bn. Labour described the comments as a ‘cheap political attack’. Tax credits are paid based on estimates given by the claimants for their income for the year ahead, with HM Revenue & Customs responsible for reclaiming any overpayments at the end of the year.
Work/Employment	The Sentinel, January 1, 2013



A swathe of retailers are at risk of going under in the new year after tough Christmas trading conditions have left nearly 140 firms in a critical condition, a report warned today. Consumer cutbacks and the increasing popularity of online retailers have seen a sharp rise in the number of firms in financial distress, according to research by business recovery group Begbies Traynor. The study found almost 140 firms were in a critical condition in the fourth quarter, meaning they are on the brink of collapse, while more than 13,700 were in “significant” distress – up 35 per cent during the three months to December 17. With quarterly rent payment due on Christmas Day, there are fears that many will be pushed into insolvency in 2013, following in the footsteps of recent high profile casualties Comet and JJB Sports.
Work/Employment	The Sentinel, December 24, 2012



Business leaders are "frustrated" and "disappointed" over the lack of action from the Government on industry proposals to cure Britain's sick-note epidemic, which are still awaiting an official response. Since David Frost, the former British Chambers of Commerce direc¬tor-general, published his government-commissioned ideas for cutting the cost of sickness absence in November 2011, the Government has repeatedly promised radical action to cure "sick-note Britain". However, some 13 months on, not one proposal has been acted on pub¬licly by ministers, including the rec¬ommendation to use computers to solve the problem of doctors' "illeg¬ible handwriting".
Work/Employment	The Daily Telegraph Dec 31 2012



The number of unemployed baby boomers will double by 2020 as the over-60s face a growing struggle to find jobs with ageist employers, research has found. Jobcentres are preparing for a surge in unemployed older people who will need extra training in how to write CVs, apply for work online and deal confidently with employers who they fear "routinely" discriminate against older workers. A study by the Department for Work and Pensions predicted that the number of people aged 60-64 on jobseeker's allowance and incapacity benefits will rise to more than 400,000 by 2020.
Work/Employment	The Daily Telegraph Dec 31 2012



Women who earned less than men on the same pay grade when they worked for a local authority have won a battle for equal pay compensation at the UK’s highest court. The Supreme Court said more than 170 former Birmingham City Council employees could launch compensation claims in the High Court. Lawyers say the judgement could have ‘huge implications’. Judges heard the women were denied bonuses similar to those handed out to employees in traditionally male-dominated jobs.
Work/Employment	The Sentinel, October 25, 2012



Doctors and nurses have been ordered to spend at least five minutes talking to each of their patients every day. Latest guidelines issued to medical staff tell them to carry out daily hospital ward-rounds to check on their patients' conditions. The advice follows concerns that the traditional practice of chatting to patients at their bedsides every morning has become 'eroded’. Some consultants have admitted that they only discovered their patients had been taking medication which can cause harmful reactions with their new treatment after they had been in hospital for 'several' days. One elderly man admitted to hospital became convinced he was dying of a terminal illness because no one had bothered to tell him when he might be discharged.
Work/Employment	Daily Mail October 4th 2012



The pension’s revolution affecting up to 1million workers began yesterday. It is the biggest shake-up of pensions for more than a century and was hailed by ministers as ‘a truly radical social change'. For the first time, every boss will be forced to pay into a pension for their workers, who will be automatically signed up to the scheme. Yesterday the first workers were 'enrolled' into the new pension schemes, with around 800,000 expected to be signed up before Christmas. Most workers aged between 22 and state pension age who are not members of a pension scheme will be signed up to a pension by their boss, known as 'automatic enrolment’… At present, the majority of private sector workers do not put any money into a pension. If they do have a pension pot, it is worth an average of just £26,000. Under the new scheme, if a 30-year-old saved £50 a month, the pot would be worth around £90,000 at the age of 65, if the fund grew by 7 per cent a year. A £90,000 pension pot, buys a 65-year-old man a pension of about £4,850 per year. A £26,000 pot buys an annual pension of about £1,500.
Work/Employment	Daily Mail October 2nd 2012



Nurses are having to clean lavatories and mop hospital floors in addition to caring for patients, a survey has found. More than half of NHS nurses believed that cleaning of their ward was inadequate and about a fifth said their hospital trust had made cuts to cleaning services in the past year. The survey of 1,000 nurses and health assistants by Nursing Times found that a third had carried out their own cleaning in the past year. Some also reported cleaning corridors, computers, nursing stations and offices. Two fifths of nurses said they had cleaned a bed or room after an infectious patient had gone home, while 81 per cent had cleaned up after a non-infectious patient had left the hospital. Almost three quarters said they had not received training for these cleaning practices and 37 per cent of nurses admitted that their trust would not close a bed to a patient even though it had not been cleaned properly.
Work/Employment	Daily Telegraph 04.09.2012



Fines for people on sickness and disability benefits who break promises to try to get jobs will more than double, according to leaked government plans. A draft letter from the Department for Work and Pen¬sions shows that penalties for claimants who fail to adhere to a strict "back to work" programme agreed with local officials are set to jump from £28.15 a week to £71 a week. The fines will apply to claimants on employment support allowance who have been judged fit to return to work after a health assessment by a private medical supplier. Those in the work-related activity group can lose a maximum of £28.15 a week if they break an agreement with their job advisers without "good cause". But the draft letter, obtained by The Guardian, warns that sick and disabled claimants will lose £71 out of their weekly allowance of £99 if they refuse to take part in work-related activities. Campaigners have said that those in the work-related activity group have recently included cancer and stroke sufferers and people with mental health issues. Paul Farmer, chief executive of the mental health charity Mind, warned that increasing the punishments for claimants could devastate their mental health.
Work/Employment	Daily Telegraph 04.09.2012



Scrapping national pay bargaining in the public sector would save more than £6billion a year that should be used to create hundreds of thousands of jobs, a think tank has suggested. Nationally-set pay bands mean that the average public sector worker is paid 7 per cent more than their private sector counterparts rising to almost 14 per cent when pensions are taken into account, according to a report published by Policy Exchange. That public sector "premium" is as high as 25 per cent in some parts of the country, it said. The think tank called for public sector pay levels to be brought into line with their local private sector equivalents, saving £6.3 billion that could be spent tackling local unemployment and creating 288,000 jobs.
Work/Employment	Daily Telegraph 04.09.2012



Stephen Timms MP, Shadow Minister for Employment, paid tribute to the network of church-based job clubs around the UK, helping tackle the country’s unemployment crisis. Speaking at an event to mark the first anniversary of a job club at a church in Exmouth, the MP said: Long-term unemployment is continuing to rise and youth unemployment is still over a million.
Work/Employment	Salvationist – 25th August 2012



NHS cuts have resulted in there being 4,500 fewer nurses in the health service than two years ago, according to official figures. The number of nurses, midwives and health visitors had fallen to 349,219 by April 2012, the figures show, despite government promises that front line services would not be hit by austerity measures. Nurses said they were caring for 13 to 14 patients each and three quarters said there were not enough staff to complete the tasks. The figures were released as part of a study by Southampton University, which found that nursing numbers have a direct effect on the quality of care for patients. A survey of 3,000 nurses in 31 NHS Trusts carried out by the university and King's College London found that vital tasks were left undone on wards with fewer nurses. Patients were put at risk, the authors said. On average, they operated 13-hour shifts with half working more than their contracted hours, the survey found. Four in 10 said they suffered from emotional exhaustion.
Work/Employment	The Daily Telegraph July 25 2012



Thousands of staff at the Home Office, including airport immigration workers have voted to go on strike over jobs, pay, and other issues, raising the threat of industrial action hitting the Olympics. The Public and Commercial Services Union said 57 per cent of its members had backed a campaign of action in protest at cuts. Union leaders will meet today to decide their next move, which could include a walkout at border controls as well as other forms of industrial action such a ban on overtime.
Work/Employment	The Sentinel – 19th July 2012

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