Because we believe tips should be shared fairly according to the democratic will of the workers affected, not imposed by a company who wants to use our tips to attract kitchen workers who deserve a pay rise.

With over 34,000 employees in 821 hotels and 411 pubs and restaurants Whitbread (owners of Premier Inn and familiar Brands such as Beefeater and Brewers Fayre) are one of the largest employers in the U.K. hospitality sector. As such they have a moral obligation to build back better after the Covid crisis by setting benchmark standards for decent pay and progressive employee relations.

All grades of ScotRail staff are essential workers who have worked tirelessly throughout the Covid-19 pandemic to keep services running for other key workers and essential travellers. RMT believes that all grades should be treated equally and rewarded fairly by their employer. Yet Dutch state-owned operator Abellio is failing to treat all grades of workers equally. The Company has extended an enhanced payment rest day working agreement for one grade of workers, drivers, until October 2021, but has refused to negotiate an equivalent payment for other grades. RMT ScotRail Conductor and Ticket Examiner members have voted to take industrial action, scheduled on Sundays, in two separate disputes over the Company’s refusal to negotiate a rest day working enhancement for their grades. For both grades, Sundays do not form part of the working week, and any staff that are booked to work Sundays do so as overtime. Disgracefully, rather than attempting to resolve the dispute with RMT, Abellio ScotRail has focused on issuing provocative public statements, criticising its own workforce. These essential workers deserve better. Since the outbreak of Covid-19, Abellio ScotRail’s operations have been fully funded by public money under the terms of its Emergency Measures Agreement with the Scottish Government. RMT is therefore calling on the Scottish Government to use its powers to intervene and commit itself and Abellio ScotRail to meaningful talks with the RMT to address this blatant inequality that exists within the ScotRail workforce. As always, RMT remains available for talks and believes that Abellio ScotRail should start acting responsibly and take up this offer rather than treating its essential workers with disdain.

Bus drivers at London United haven’t had a pay rise for nearly three years and to make matter worse their employer, the French stated-owned, RATP dev wanted to cut their pay and conditions too. With more than a dozen strike days taken since February, they’ve succeed in getting the company to row back on the attack to their terms and conditions. But now, Catherine Chardon, RATP London’s managing director is blocking the route to a fair and decent pay deal. Her derisory offer of less than 1 per cent is an insult. We think Catherine and the RATP French board need reminding of the sacrifices our bus drivers made to keep us moving during the pandemic. They risked their lives so that our NHS staff and other key workers could get to work. Catherine, herself was given a 54 per cent pay rise in 2019, with her pay jumping from a staggering £196,000 to £363,000. Surely RATP dev can do better for these drivers. We know they can easily afford it. If it’s good enough for Catherine, it should be good enough for the drivers too. Please add your name to our email which will be sent directly to Catherine’s inbox.

Our key workers risk their lives going to work everyday. The nurses and care workers, the doctors and bus drivers, the supermarket workers and teachers, they put on personal protective equipment and use sanitiser if there is any but for many months there was none and many became ill some died and some are still suffering from long covid. Most are are paid a pittance for their vital work. Many are using food banks and we clapped them and nearly everyone thought the government should give the nurses the 12.5% pay rise they were asking for, all the other public sector workers had their pay frozen. Philip Davies the MP for Shipley voted for giving nurse a 1% payrise. His own pay is £81,932 and he voted himself a pay rise of 3.1% last year. How many MP’s have died from Corona virus?

UCLan has stated its intention to move from a Defined Benefit Pension Scheme (LGPS) to a Defined Contribution (DC) Pension Scheme for new starters in Professional Services, there are no proposals to change the pension arrangements for our academic colleagues. We believe this is wrong because: • The LGPS rules require UCLan to offer LGPS membership to their employees, UCLan intend to get around this rule by employing new starters in a separate company. • The change will lead to a two-tier workforce in pensions, with new starters in Professional Services being offered inferior and less cost-effective pensions. • The contribution rates will be lower than those for LGPS and TPS (the main scheme for our academic colleagues). • DC schemes pay out less than DB schemes such as LGPS and TPS meaning staff doing exactly the same job will come out with much lower pensions in the future. • The change will affect younger, lower-paid and women members of staff disproportionately. • Access to the pension scheme is part of the remuneration package offering an inferior pension scheme to new starters with lower employer contribution rates is potentially discriminatory yet the university has not conducted an equality impact assessment. • In the short term, the cost of setting up inferior pension arrangements could reduce any potential savings to UCLan. At a time of limited recruitment, the savings they make from this change will be negligible. • The number of pensioners living in poverty in the UK is the worst in Europe, for staff to avoid pensioner poverty they need a decent workplace pension to supplement the very low state pension. • If more employers like UCLan close membership of the scheme to new starters this could lead to serious cash flow problems for LGPS funds, with a shortfall in contributions at the same time as the number of pensioners increase. • UCLAN is signed up to the “Preston Model” of Community Wealth Building within Preston and the wider Lancashire area. By withdrawing access to the LGPS the university will be instrumental in increasing pensioner poverty in the area in the years to come, how does this fit with the Preston model? We are calling on UCLAN to withdraw this decision and ensure that all staff who work for them get the decent pension which they rightly deserve. #Fight4FairPensions

Over a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of Stoke care workers have been, and continue to be, financially penalised for doing the right thing and protecting the vulnerable people they care for.   Proper sick pay is known to prevent the spread of infections to service users and the wider community. Care workers need the assurance that they will not be financially penalised when they need to self-isolate.   In Stoke, the majority of care workers who have spoken to UNISON have reported that instead of receiving their normal pay in line with Government guidance, they are having to survive on SSP at £96 per week, use annual leave, or in some cases get nothing at all. This is despite care employers receiving millions in public funds and being instructed to use them to pay self-isolating care workers their normal wages.

Low-paid workers at Cumberland Infirmary are in urgent need of our support. These porters, cleaners, switchboard and catering staff are outsourced to Mitie and have worked 24/7 throughout the pandemic to keep staff and patients safe. But while Mitie boasts it is making massive profits from the Covid crisis, it continues to pay these workers less than their NHS colleagues doing the same jobs. This is despite North Cumbria Integrated NHS Foundation Trust saying it handed over a "substantial sum" for them to be paid NHS rates when the contract was privatised in 2010. The 150 workers, who belong to UNISON and the GMB, have been on strike for two days. Instead of investigating where their missing wages went, health bosses and Mitie chose to squabble over who's responsible for paying the workers what they're owed. Sadly, Mitie still isn’t listening. We think that an even better way to get the Managing Director’s attention is to flood his inbox with emails from all of us. Can you take a few minutes to email Phil Bentley? It’s easy, you just need to add your details and press send. This is not what our members want. They don’t want to strike, especially not in the middle of a global pandemic. Health bosses and Mitie could have averted the strike by agreeing to pay the workers the correct rate for the job. The rate the Trust said they'd be paid when the contract was privatised in 2010. We know who’s side we’re on.

Tracking what happens to women’s pay is vital to building a fairer future and holding employers to account. Businesses have to report on a wide range of regulations/requirements - but gender pay gap reporting was the only one suspended last year. That can’t be right. Equality isn’t a nice value to have — it is essential. Especially in a time of crisis. Decades of progress in gender equality is being undone in a matter of months. Women have faced greater economic hardship through this pandemic, disproportionately losing jobs and income. Low paid women, black and minority ethnic (BME) women, disabled women and working mums are experiencing some of the most acute impacts. Women that were already at greater risk of being treated unfairly at work. Analysis by the TUC unearthed a staggering 35% pay gap for disabled women double that of the average gender pay gap, and that BME women are overrepresented in low paid, insecure jobs compared to white women and men. Join Grazia, Mother Pukka and the TUC as we call on Liz Truss MP, to maintain the requirement for larger employers to report on their gender pay gap in 2021 and to urgently introduce legislation requiring employers to report on ethnicity and disability pay gaps. We need you to show up for equal pay. Because equality isn’t a nice to have, it is fundamental. https://mcusercontent.com/ebd004a8047907dc47d269fd1/images/cb0315e4-99a5-4bb4-8d6d-0cfcd180bd0a.png

Key workers are getting this country through the pandemic. They headed out to work when the rest of the country stayed at home – putting themselves and their families at risk. It’s time to end the low pay and insecure work that leave many of these workers struggling, and make sure every key worker gets a payrise. The coronavirus crisis demonstrated how much we all owe to all our key workers - healthcare staff, care workers, retail and delivery workers, public transport workers, teachers and support staff, cleaners, energy workers and so many others. Can you write to your MP and invite them to the meeting? They've already been invited by a local leader, but need to know how many of us support this campaign. Every message makes a difference.

Key workers are getting this country through the pandemic. They headed out to work when the rest of the country stayed at home – putting themselves and their families at risk. It’s time to end the low pay and insecure work that leave many of these workers struggling, and make sure every key worker gets a payrise. The coronavirus crisis demonstrated how much we all owe to all our key workers - healthcare staff, care workers, retail and delivery workers, public transport workers, teachers and support staff, cleaners, energy workers and so many others. Can you write to your MP and invite them to the meeting? They've already been invited by a local leader, but need to know how many of us support this campaign. Every message makes a difference.

Key workers are getting this country through the pandemic. They headed out to work when the rest of the country stayed at home – putting themselves and their families at risk. It’s time to end the low pay and insecure work that leave many of these workers struggling, and make sure every key worker gets a payrise. The coronavirus crisis demonstrated how much we all owe to all our key workers - healthcare staff, care workers, retail and delivery workers, public transport workers, teachers and support staff, cleaners, energy workers and so many others. Can you write to your MP and invite them to the meeting? They've already been invited by a local leader, but need to know how many of us support this campaign. Every message makes a difference.