Unite Hackney cab and taxi drivers are ready to do whatever it takes to help keep the country moving during the coronavirus crisis, but we are facing financial ruin without the same level of government support. The Prime Minister and his chancellor said that they would do ‘whatever it takes’. For taxi drivers it takes: • Wage support straight away. No delay, until June. • No means testing of Universal Credit or other benefits. • Suspending or reducing all taxi related running costs, including licence plate fees, monthly radio fees, rental fees and insurance payments for taxis not on the road. • Backing loan repayment holidays for private hire vehicles and moratoriums on marking down drivers’ credit files. • Emergency interim payments to keep the taxi on the road. • Reviewing the licensing regime and stop all payments for licences, with a three month temporary extension for those expected to renew in the next 12 months. We’re ready to help. With these financial support measures, Unite taxi and private hire driver members stand ready to support our emergency services. We’re fully licenced and DBS checked. Clean, safe and wheelchair accessible. Equipped with a glass partition separating driver from passenger. Support us and we can: • Transport patients to and from non-emergency appointments. • Deliver shopping for the elderly or transport them to and from supermarkets • Transport key workers to work and deliver medical supplies. Unite Hackney taxi and private hire drivers are ready to talk.

This is important at a time when university staff have rallied and gone beyond their contractual duties and normal working hours to ensure that all essential work including teaching has continued whilst the University has taken measures to address the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Several universities in the UK (including the University of St. Andrews, King’s College London, and Birkbeck) have already announced an amnesty on pay deductions in recognition of the exceptional demands on their staff. We ask that the University of Kent follow these examples by granting an amnesty on strike pay deductions given that exceptional demands on their staff are likely to be ongoing for some time and to ensure staff morale and goodwill at this time.

Workers affected by the coronavirus outbreak could have to go into quarantine or self-isolation to prevent the further spread of the virus. Right now millions of UK workers don’t earn enough to get this protection. And workers with existing sick pay schemes should be paid at the full rate offered by the employer while in isolation, and not be considered as on annual or unpaid leave. No one should worry about falling into debt or struggling to pay their bills when they’re ill or have to self-isolate. If people aren't compensated for the time spent at home, the risk people go to work and spread the illness increases. The government must ensure everyone gets decent sick pay, however much they earn.

I'm Peter Moorhead, I have worked for social care provider AFG for over 20 years. In 2019, AFG care workers took strike action against our employer because we were not being paid the minimum wage for so-called "sleep in" shifts. As UNISON's convenor (lead representative) for AFG, I was involved in supporting our members in their fight for fair pay. AFG did not react positively to the strike action. Recently, I have been informed by AFG that they are going to make me redundant and scrap any provision for a UNISON convenor at the care provider. We feel that AFG have unfairly selected the UNISON Convenor position for redundancy and that in reality this is about AFG responding to last year's industrial dispute by trying to shut down any worker representation at the organisation. AFG did not enter into meaningful consultation and their decision potentially amounts to trade union victimisation. This is bigger than my job though. With over 750 UNISON members working for AFG across the North West, the removal of the position will severely impact on the industrial relation with AFG and also hamper the day to day needs of UNISON members. Please sign this petition calling on AFG to do the decent thing and reverse their decision to make me redundant. Thank you for your support, Peter Moorhead (UNISON Convenor- AFG)

West Yorkshire's bus services are broken. But they could be world class. The new Mayor of West Yorkshire will have the powers to fix our buses by bringing them back into public control. But we won't win this without a fight! Right now, bus companies do what they like and it's a wild west free market. And they're desperate to cling onto that power. Private companies control West Yorkshire’s bus network. They dictate prices, routes and timetables. The result has been catastrophic - passenger numbers have plummeted, prices have risen and services have shrunk. The new Mayor of West Yorkshire, and your West Yorkshire Council Leaders, have the power to regulate our buses. Regulation would mean affordable fares, and more evening and weekend services, all with a smart ticket where daily spending is capped. We need them to hear our message loud and clear, so there is no other choice the day after the election. (Image credit: Michael Taylor)

For too long, disabled workers have faced double discrimination. Not only are they less likely to have a paid job but when they do, disabled people earn much less than their non-disabled peers. New analysis published by the TUC shows that disabled workers now earn a fifth (20%) less than non-disabled workers. It means that the pay gap for disabled workers has widened to £3,800 per year – an increase of £800 over the last year. And the gap will almost certainly increase again as the economic impact of Covid-19 hits. Mandatory disability pay gap reporting would mean bosses had to identify and address poor workplace practices that lead to inequality. Without this requirement progress will be too slow and disabled workers will be consigned to many more years of lower pay and unfair barriers to getting jobs and progressing at work. Disabled people deserve more, they need mandatory disability pay gap reporting – they have waited long enough for fair and equal treatment at work. The government must bring in mandatory disability pay gap reporting for all employers with more than 50 employees.

On Monday (23 September) Thomas Cook the world’s oldest travel agency collapsed into administration with the loss of 21,000 jobs (9,000 in the UK alone) and stranding 150,000 holiday makers. The sudden collapse has left many workers desperate and with no income. Staff were due to be paid on Monday (30 September), but will not now be paid after the business went bust. Two years since Monarch Airlines went into administration with the loss of 2,000 jobs, the government has totally failed to learn lessons or bring in new laws which could have saved these jobs. These are not highly paid workers, many were living pay cheque to pay cheque. Given the dreadful stress this has caused to workers, the priority, now that repatriation of stranded travelled is underway, must be for the secretary of state to fast track the payment of workers’ wages.

Belinda Phipps is CEO of We Are With You- she earns around £140,000 per year. Meanwhile, ex-NHS staff working for We Are With You in Wigan and Leigh stand to lose £150,000 during the course of the NHS Agenda for Change three year pay deal (April 2018- April 2021). We will lose an average of £7,870 each during the course of Wigan Council's contract with We Are With You, with some of us losing out on as much as £10,974. This is simply wrong and across five years, will suck £230,000 out of the local economy whilst We Are With You directs funding towards costly rebrands and its London headquarters. We work hard for We Are With You in Wigan and Leigh to ensure that local people recover from addiction, regaining health, self esteem and becoming fully functioning members of our society. We work in this field because we care and because it's rewarding to support recovery, but we deserve to make a decent living. When we transferred over to We Are With You (formerly known as Addaction) from the NHS, we were promised the NHS rate for the job, but We Are With You have gone back on their word. "Supporting people to overcome drug and alcohol addiction is an incredibly tough job and makes a difference for every single one of us in Wigan. "We Are With You’s employees deserve the pay settlement they were promised when they moved from the NHS to We Are With You". Lisa Nandy, Wigan MP We deserve a decent wage for doing what is an important job for our communities. Please sign the petition to support us. #WeAreNotWithYou #KeepYourPayPromise #BelindaFibs #WeWontPayYou

Over 74,000 retail workers lost their jobs during 2018 and so far this year, the rate of store closures and jobs losses has increased dramatically. Usdaw, the shopworkers' union, is calling on the Government to protect the 4.5 million jobs that rely on the success of the retail sector. The scale of store closures we have seen is devastating, not just for the workforce, but also for our communities and town centres. The Government needs to show that it takes retail jobs seriously by listening to and acting on workers’ concerns. Please sign our petition: We call on the Government to take urgent action by adopting an industrial strategy for retail and implementing the following comprehensive and co-ordinated policies: • Review taxation, commercial rents and business rates to ensure a level playing field between ‘bricks and mortar’ retailers and online retailers, providing a new framework that supports local communities and the wider economy. • A minimum wage of £10 per hour for all workers, secure work and investment in skills and training to provide decent pay and job security for retail workers and drive up productivity. • Give retail workers a say over the future of retail and the introduction of new technology, with a designated inclusive body that ensures the Government recognises the crucial role retail has in the UK economy. A copy of Usdaw’s industrial strategy for the Retail Sector is available at www.usdaw.org.uk/industrialstrategy

The proposed changes to rosters will have a detrimental effect on the work life balance of employees. The new rosters will potentially impact on increased childcare costs, travel costs, laundry and food costs.

Boris Johnson is a right wing symbol for attacks on the most vulnerable sections of our society. Unelected, with no mandate equates to a free hand in decimating the Rights of workers, the NHS, the Climate. All our communities are in danger from this.

We are hospital support staff working for Compass in St Helens & Knowsley and Blackpool NHS Trusts. We keep hospitals clean, cook for patients and keep them safe. We are paid over £1000 less per year and have worse terms & conditions than some of our colleagues who do the same jobs. That's why we are standing together for fair pay and fair treatment. #ONENHS, nobody left out.