Unions protest outside Amazon’s London HQ on Cyber Monday December 2, 2019 Union members demonstrated outside Amazon’s London headquarters this morning and accused the e-commerce giant of failing to pay the correct amount of corporation tax. The GMB union estimated that the retailer should have paid £103m in corporation tax last year, but claims the company’s biggest UK arm paid £14m of tax on £2.3bn worth of [...]
Sadiq Khan urges Rishi Sunak to extend vehicle payment deferrals for taxi drivers March 2, 2021 Sadiq Khan has written to Chancellor Rishi Sunak ahead of tomorrow’s Budget to urge him to extend payment deferral for motor finance agreements so that private hire and taxi drivers can keep their vehicles. Many drivers lease or purchase their cars using financing options. When the pandemic struck, a six month deferral for payments was [...]
British Gas engineers extend strike over company’s fire-and-rehire policy January 20, 2021 British Gas engineers extended their second five-day strike to seven this morning amid the company strategy to fire and rehire workers on poorer conditions, union GMB said. GMB National Secretary Justin Bowden said: “British Gas engineers are being fired and rehired and have been left with no choice but to take action again.” However, according to British Gas parent company Centrica, it has [...]
Black Friday: Union calls for inquiry into Amazon over ‘dehumanising’ conditions November 27, 2020 Union members have called for a parliamentary inquiry into Amazon over “dehumanising” conditions at the ecommerce giant’s warehouses. Disgruntled unionists have projected a banner reading ‘Make Amazon Pay’ outside the tech firm’s London headquarters as part of protests coinciding with Black Friday. “Amazon is well known for unsafe, dehumanising work practices which see our members [...]
Government to pump £100m in new nuclear power plant January 27, 2022 Plans to build a new nuclear power station have received a boost after the Government announced £100m of funding to support its continued development. Ministers said the move aimed to attract further financing from private investors for the Sizewell C project in Suffolk. Unions welcomed the development as a step forward, but Unite urged the [...]
Self-employed coronavirus stimulus: Rishi Sunak to pay Britain’s freelancers up to £2,500 a month March 26, 2020 The government will pay 80 per cent of self-employed workers’ wages, up to £2,500 a month, to deal with the economic fallout from coronavirus. The package was announced by chancellor Rishi Sunak today, giving self-employed workers the same support announced for traditional workers last week. It will be available for any self-employed person who has [...]
Black Friday backlash: Amazon and GMB dispute protest numbers at UK warehouses November 29, 2019 Staff at Amazon warehouses are staging walkouts on Black Friday and Cyber Monday in a row over the “appalling” treatment of workers. The demonstrations are taking place today and on Monday at Amazon’s head office in Shoreditch, as well as seven other locations across the UK, the GMB union said, and involve “100, if not [...]
Uber: What does the workers’ rights U-turn mean for the ride-hailing giant? March 17, 2021 Uber agreed yesterday to give its 70,000 UK drivers holiday pay and pensions following a landmark ruling in the Supreme Court. The court ruled that all UK drivers are employees of the taxi giant — rather than being self-employed — and are therefore eligible to receive holiday pay on a fortnightly basis. Susannah Streeter, senior [...]
Government urged to take action to protect steel jobs after Greensill collapse March 9, 2021 MPs and union representatives have today urged the government to take action to protect steel jobs under threat after the collapse of Greensill Capital. The boutique bank, which was advised by former PM David Cameron, was a major backer of Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance, a global steel empire employing 35,000 people around the world. Despite [...]
Asda rejects request to remove sack threat for thousands over compulsory contracts October 26, 2019 Asda has rejected a last-minute request from trade unions to remove the threat of dismal for thousands of staff if they fail to sign a compulsory contract by the end of next week. The GMB union has predicted that up to 12,000 of the more than 100,000 employee affected could lose their jobs because they [...]