If you’ve ever bought something from Primark, it’s likely come to you via Thrapston in Northamptonshire. Primark’s enormous national warehouse is based there, distributing to stores all over the country. The warehouse is run for Primark by international logistics firm DHL, who employ many hundreds of people on Primark’s behalf. Throughout the pandemic, DHL made long-running mistakes in calculating furlough pay for many staff. They now want to deduct the overpayments from the affected workers’ wages to claw the money back. Whether it’s fair or not, employers do have a right to do this under UK employment law. But workers have some protection in that they should be offered a fair payment plan, not expected to pay it back at once. Otherwise it can count as “unlawful deduction from wages”. That’s what’s happening for most workers at the site, but one group of 72 drivers and office staff are being expected to repay everything at once – in some cases up to £1,300 from one pay cheque! This is because DHL are transferring their employment to another company in February and they think they can get away with it. DHL are retaining the majority of the work at Primark’s warehouse, just not this part of it. And the workers will still be based at the same site and still working for Primark, just not on DHL’s payroll. It would cost DHL very little to play fair by these workers and set up longer term repayments, even after they’ve moved to the new employer. Through their union, URTU, these workers are challenging the decision, but there’s very little time left. Caught between an employer who are trying to get out of their responsibilities, and an imminent deadline, Primark need to step in now and tell DHL to sort it out if they are to have a decent working relationship at Thrapston going forward. They can’t allow employment laws in their warehouse to be breached so flagrantly. Can you please help us write to Primark? Showing customers care about what happens in their UK supply chain will have a big effect on them.

We are NHS workers in Lancashire and we urgently need your support. As hospital cleaners and catering staff, we are outsourced to OCS and have worked 24/7 throughout the pandemic to keep staff and patients safe. But while OCS boasts it turned over hundreds of millions during the COVID crisis, it continues to pay us less than our NHS colleagues doing exactly the same jobs. Hospital workers employed by OCS are £2000 worse off than our colleagues working for the NHS. We also have inferior working conditions including 7 days less annual leave and lower sick pay. We submitted a collective grievance about this issue in May 2021, and EIGHT MONTHS on, we finally received a response- which failed to address any of the issues and passed blame to the NHS Trust. We have become increasingly frustrated and have now voted 97.8% in favour of taking strike action to resolve this issue. One OCS worker said: "I work for OCS as a domestic on the hospital wards. When accepted the job I was told the rate of pay was minimum wage, but was not told I would be working alongside work colleagues on a different contract which has a higher rate of hourly pay and full sick pay, they also receive 35 days holidays and we get 28 days including bank holidays. We have all worked through the pandemic, working on Covid 19 wards where some Covid patients have been walking freely around the wards. As a thank you from OCS we received a 2 finger KitKat and told we could also have an extra 10 minute break! We all found this very insulting, we have been fighting our dispute with OCS for 3 years now and we feel that the 2 tier pay system and contracts that OCS have in place are very unfair and causes friction amongst work colleagues, we all do the same job and we should all receive the same rate of pay and terms and conditions." Sadly, OCS still isn’t listening. We think that a great way to get the Chief Executive’s attention is to flood his inbox with emails from all of us. Can you take a few minutes to email Bob Taylor? It’s easy, you just need to add your details and press send. We don’t want to strike if we can avoid it, especially not in the middle of a global pandemic but we will do what it takes to get fair treatment. Health bosses and OCS can still avert a strike by agreeing to pay us the correct rate for the job. Claps don't pay the bills. Key workers demand fair pay. #ONENHS, nobody left behind.

Employers have a right to deduct any money owed to them however employees have a right to demand a repayment plan when the monies owed are exceeding their spare income! Your employment should not generate a debt or have a detrimental impact on your mental and financial wellbeing!

By removing the Trade Union Act 2016, we begin the process to repeal anti-trade union laws that have been placed upon us by the Conservatives. The right to strike is just that; a right. Yet Conservative government after Conservative government has decided that we must jump over unnecessary hurdles to earn what is rightfully ours. We must take a stand against this injustice.

The heritage and wider cultural sector was hit very hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Thousands of jobs were lost as vital income streams dried up. As museums, galleries and other spaces have been able to reopen to the public and tourism has begun to recover there have been some green shoots of recovery. However this can only happen with both a safe workforce and visitors that feel confident about attending Covid-secure venues. This is being put at risk by the failure of the UK government to mandate the wearing of facemasks for visitors to indoor heritage venues in England. Although masks will only be one part of a comprehensive strategy to address the risks posed by Covid the World Health Organisations recommends them as an important part of this comprehensive approach.

Dundee City Council are trying to force through a disruptive restructure of all secondary schools in the area. If the changes were to go ahead, the council would band subjects together under one faculty. The council would remove principal teachers from secondary schools and replace them with a new position – “faculty heads”. The plans mean there would be fewer teachers in our already under-resourced schools and yet more disruption to students’ learning. The changes would significantly increase workload for teachers – that means less one-to-one time with students. And there is no evidence out there to suggest that the faculties model has any educational benefit. This will hit the poorest students, hardest. Dundee is one of the most deprived areas in Scotland. And one in five young people leave school without any qualification at National 5 level. Secondary teachers almost unanimously oppose the changes. 97% have voted to reject the plans, and 96% don’t believe that the changes will improve the attainment gap. Education is in crisis. We need more class teachers, not less. Every young person deserves a qualified and experienced teacher. Every young person deserves a quality education.

Tracey Scholes has been a bus driver at the Queens Road depot for the past 34 years. When Tracey started her journey as a bus driver in 1987 she was the first female bus driver employed at the Queens Road depot. The industry back then was very male dominated and a woman taking a driving position was challenging to say the least however Tracey took the challenge and has had the full respect of all her colleagues. Over the years Tracey has been instrumental in paving the way for other women to take up positions within the passenger sector. Tracey is a hardworking, loved and valued member of the NW/5/4 Branch and the Queens Road family who deserves to be commended for her years of service to the traveling public of Greater Manchester, however Go North West Ltd has dismissed her from employment because THEY changed the manufacturer specification on their fleet of buses resulting in five foot tall Tracey being physically unable to operate some company vehicles. Go North West Ltd have refused to consider proposals from Tracey and her Unite trade union reps to keep her in employment. This has resulted in her unfair dismissal from Go North West Ltd for capability to fulfil her role a PCV driver. The company’s only resolution is to offer Tracey a position in the company that would see Tracey’s pay and hours cut significantly leaving her in financial hardship.

Unite the Union currently have over 60 members on strike at Weetabix, due to the company adopting fire and rehire tactics which will in some workers losing £5000 annually. Weetabix have no legitimate reason to be slashing the pay and conditions of it's engineers. From research obtained, we believe Weetabix profited $112.3 million in 2020. And Post Holdings Inc. most recent accounts show an operating profit of $700.8 million and has $1.2 billion in cash reserves. The healthy finances at both Weetabix and Post Holdings render these actions completely unnecessary. This is nothing more than corporate greed at the expense of a loyal workforce. The Post Holdings corporate responsibility states: "We believe it’s our responsibility to help make the world a better place, and we do this through our commitment to doing business the right way and investing in efforts to create positive change for people and our communities." So why are they treating Weetabix engineers with contempt? You can read the full statement here: https://www.postconsumerbrands.com/responsibility/

On 31st October 2016, the Tory Home Secretary, Amber Rudd announced in Parliament there would be no Orgreave inquiry of any kind. The unacceptable reasons she gave were that it was too long ago, nobody died, there were no miscarriages of justice, policing had improved since 1984 so the police had nothing new to learn and that it wasn’t in the public interest to hold any kind of inquiry. We believe she did not examine relevant evidence and prevented an inquiry to protect the legacy of the 1984/5 Tory Government. Today’s Tory Government is still preventing an Orgreave Inquiry. Government involvement in the 1984/5 Miners’ Strike, police brutality against strikers, wrongful arrests of miners, falsified police statements, police lying under oath in court and media smears which deliberately created a false narrative against strikers, are some of the reasons why it is in the public interest to hold an inquiry. Add your name and demand an independant public inquiry.

PFI BLEEDS THE NHS DRY, TIME’S UP FOR PFI PROFITEERS! Unison Lanarkshire Health Branch has launched a campaign to bring private contracts within NHS Lanarkshire back in house into public ownership. The campaign aims to end the private Serco and ISS contracts within NHS Lanarkshire; which provides catering, portering, domestic and security services at Hairmyres and Wishaw Hospitals back in house to put an end to a two-tier workforce. Once brought back in-house it will allow all NHS Lanarkshire workers at these sites to be employed on equal terms and conditions. Bringing these contracts back in house will also put an end to profit-motivated contractors providing public services at the public’s expense. Unison has produced a letter which we have directly mailed to all Lanarkshire Councillors, MSPs and MPs asking them to support our campaign to bring the staff back in-house where they belong. Let's be clear, PFI contracts are bleeding NHS Lanarkshire and its time to put a stop to private profiteers draining OUR National Health Service. Support our campaign and sign our petition! You can also get more involved in the campaign by: Phone: 01698 754333 Email: [email protected]

Throughout the pandemic, biomedical scientists have been on the frontline of our NHS, analysing patient blood samples and carrying out covid-19 testing. The workers, who have been on strike since May, are owed staggering amounts of back pay. That starts at several hundred pounds up to as much as £8,000, after managers failed to honour a 2019 agreement to upgrade their pay. Send a message to Interim Chief Executive at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, Martin Hodgson, demanding he meet with Unite and settle this unnecessary dispute as soon as possible.

Public transport is the key to decarbonising our region and fighting climate change. But our public transport system won’t be around long if we aren’t willing to fight for it. Privatised bus companies are cutting routes, and ridership is going through the floor. That’s why we’re calling on our local politicians to make bus travel free, for all of us, for the duration of the UN COP26 climate talks in Glasgow this November. The more people use and value our bus network, the harder it is for private interests to take it away from us. Show our buses some love this November, and help us fight for free bus travel during COP26.