Know Your Rights: Redundancy

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development have predicted that 725,000 public sector jobs and up to 900,000 private sector jobs will go in the next five years, as a result of spending cuts and the VAT increase. While some will go through retirement and natural wastage, a lot more workers will be facing redundancy. Here is a brief guide to the law around it.

Redundancy happens when an employer ceases to carry on its business, or stops or diminishes some part of its business. The law covers England, Scotland and Wales, with different legislation in Northern Ireland, though its provisions are similar.

For a worker to be made redundant, their dismissal has to be attributable to the reduction in employees. It doesn’t need to be motivated by a company in difficulties, any reorganisation that results in fewer staff will be a redundancy.

Conference: defeating cuts in education

THIS Saturday (29th May 2010), 12pm – 6pm in Brighton. Join the Facebook event. Venue to be confirmed very soon here and on Facebook.

As a new government is getting ready to attack the living conditions of ordinary people, students and education workers have already had experiences with cuts – and how we can stop them. We will try to draw the lessons from the strikes, occupations and other forms of direct action taken in HE and FE over the last months. How can we build effective alliances between students and workers? How can we act in solidarity across education establishments? How can we organise from below to defend education?

National conference with talks and workshops, open to students and education workers.

Tory Party Local Government Picket Leeds

Picket of the Tory Local Government Conference Queens Hotel, Leeds:
WYSF were joined by Leeds AFed, the Save REMPLOY Factories Campaign (GMB/Unite) and the SWP picketing the conference. Approx 20 of us took part (supported by even more police inc horses :) ). Had a great response from the public with busses, taxis, council workers, private workers and individuals all honking horns in support as they passed. Big thanks to all who turned out and prob see you all tomorrow for the TUC rally.

The logic of workfare

Workfare means unemployed people being forced to do unpaid work for their benefits. Tens of thousands of people are being forced into unpaid work, household name firms are profiting from free labour and disabled people face unlimited unpaid work or cuts in benefit. Workfare began under Labour with the New Deal in 1998, which became the Flexible New Deal in 2009. It is now being expanded by the Conservative-Liberal government under a number of different schemes including: ‘Work Experience’, ‘Mandatory Work Activity’, ‘the Community Action Programme’, ‘Sector Based Work Academies’, and ‘the Work Programme’.

Workfare

Workfare means unemployed people being forced to do unpaid work for their benefits. Workfare is a state subsidy to private businesses, providing free labour and undercutting the minimum wage. We say end unpaid work. Use the tabs for more background information, or see below for the latest.

Topic: 
welfare

Myth-buster

Myth #1: The unemployed are lazy so they need to be forced to work - if they tried, they could get jobs

In reality, the vast majority of the unemployed can't get work, because there's no work for them to go to!  There are now more than 2.6 million unemployed people in the UK, chasing around 450,000 jobs. The unemployment total is at its highest in nearly 20 years and will rise even further because of the government's austerity programme.

Topic: 
welfare

About workfare

What is workfare?

Unemployed people being forced to work for free for up to 6 months with no guarantee of a job afterwards, many of them for major high street companies.

Does workfare help the unemployed?

The government’s own research found that in countries that introduced workfare it could actually lower a jobseeker’s chances of finding a job. Where previously these roles would have been filled by paid staff, employers get to take advantage of a growing pool of jobseekers they won’t have to pay.

Topic: 
welfare

Avoid workfare

1. Don’t volunteer for “Work experience”!

Once you volunteer for job centre ‘work experience’ it becomes mandatory. Then if you stop doing this work experience, your benefits can be stopped.

Make sure this doesn’t happen to you:

Topic: 
welfare

Boycott Workfare Oxford

start: 
Sat, 03/03/2012 - 12:00

Location

See map: Google Maps

Thames Valley Solidarity Federation will be supporting a national day of action against companies and organisations profiting from the government's workfare scheme.

Please join us: assemble 12:00 @ Carfax Tower, Oxford before moving off to selected target(s). Bring banners/placards, noise and friends.

For more information and original call out please visit http://www.boycottworkfare.org

In Solidarity,

TVSF.

local, network, collective: 
Thames Valley
Access Layer: 
Public