• Tackling undeclared work in the European Union
  New research from the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions on different policy responses to tackling undeclared work.
• Poverty Pathways
  New research from Fawcett on poverty among ethnic minority women - 40 per cent of whom are living in poverty. The study also finds that ethnic minority women are four times more likely than White women to take a job for which they are over-qualified.

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The Guardian’s report on what John Denham was due to say at the Fabian launch of their new work on inequality stirred up the blog equivalent of a hornets’ nest.  But when he came to actually deliver his speech, he said something rather different - as Sunder points out.

Unfortunately more people read the Guardian than the blogs where the debate is now more nuanced, and John Denham is no doubt now to be saddled as an opponent of equality.

But actually reading John’s words made me think how well they chimed with the recent TUC Touchstone on Middle Income Britain. Read more »

   Filed under: Inequality, Politics | 1 Comment »

• Manufacturing. Our future.
  New EEF report. The employers' organisation makes a case for putting manufacturing at the centre of a more diverse and durable UK economy.
• Changing Times News
  Read the latest edition of the TUC's regular free newsletter on work-life balance issues

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Who said this?

“The UK economy needs to be weaned off its dependency on financial services. To do this, it needs a national economic council to provide strategic leadership and an industrial bank to help businesses shunned by traditional high street lenders. Other ways to help could include the government sending signals about its long term priorities to give companies the confidence to invest. Government should also use its £175bn a year purchasing power to suport emerging industries and it should target investment in strategic sectors of the economy.”

Read more »

   Filed under: Economics, Manufacturing, Science, Skills | No Comments »

• The Tax Code of Conduct for Banks: 1 failure, 1 omission and 3 oversights
  Richard Murphy finds the government's code of conduct - which looked like good new over the weekend - to some more serious scrutiny and finds it wanting.

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With Britain now in the grip of the worst recession since the 1930s, we’ve got to do everything in our power to safeguard pension schemes. Unless we act now, there is a very real danger that ordinary people could pay a severe price in retirement for the monumental profligacy of City bankers. Read more »

   Filed under: Investment, Pensions | 2 Comments »

• Ethical Trading Initiative | Respect for workers worldwide
  The Ethical Trading Initiative has launched its new website - masses of ethical trade information and resources are available to download

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Vince Cable had a superb article on banking regulation in the New Statesman last week. It’s a pity that he has followed this up with such a poor one about public sector pensions in the Mail on Sunday. Of course he has every right to say that public sector pensions should join the race to the bottom to chase the private sector employers who have cut or closed them. But it’s disappointing to see so many disingenuous arguments - especially from someone who even when you disagree with him, normally adds light to whatever he is writing or talking about. Read more »

   Filed under: Pensions, Politics | 1 Comment »

David Cameron has today launched what the Guardian describes as a “blistering personal attack” on the Prime Minister, claiming there is a “thread of dishonesty” running through his premiership.

Among the examples he gives of such dishonesty are “cancelling the election and then saying it had nothing to do with the opinion polls” and the Prime Minister’s insistence that Alistair Darling was his first choice of chancellor, to which Cameron adds: “We all know that wasn’t true.”

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We’ve been examining the voting records of institutional investors for seven years now at the TUC, through our Fund Manager Voting Survey (2009 full survey here), and we’re noticing a worrying trend- we’re now down to 40% of fund managers responding to our survey, compared to 68% only five years ago. The data that many other fund managers are choosing to make public outside our survey is often only partial and of a pretty low quality.

Coupled with this, there seems to be a pattern of complacency amongst many funds. The vast majority of institutional investors didn’t challenge the remuneration reports of leading banks in the run up to the crash. Only one respondent (Co-operative Insurance Society) opposed RBS’ acquisition of ABN Amro (which is now widely regarded as one of the worst deals in UK corporate history). Such a strong pattern of siding with the board on controversial decisions looks like fund management on autopilot. Read more »

   Filed under: Investment | 3 Comments »