Equality for All

Monday, 20 September 2010

October 1st - Equality Act comes into force

The Equality Act 2010 comes into force on October 1st. However the government is still consulting on how to proceed with the inroduction of 10 areas of its provisions. You can read more here. http://www.equalities.gov.uk/equality_bill.aspx

More women are unemployed

Unemployment fell, according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS),but women’s
unemployment rose to over one million.Under the Labour Force Survey count, unemployment in the UK fell by just 8,000 to 2.47 million in the three months to July 2010. The unemployment rate was down to 7.8% from 7.9% in the previous three-month period. However, the number of unemployed women rose by 50,000 to 1,015,000 and their unemployment rate rose to 7.0% from 6.7%. It is the first time that women’s unemployment has passed the one million mark since January 1993.
Male unemployment was down by 58,000 to 1.45 million and their unemployment rate was down to 8.5% from 8.9%. The claimant count, which only takes into account those claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance, posted a rise after six monthly falls. It was up by 2,300 to stand at 1.47 million in August. The rise was small
enough not to impact on the unemployment rate which stayed at 4.5%.
Male claimant numbers were down by 2,600 in August on the previous month to 1.04 million and their unemployment rate was down to 5.9% from 6.0% the previous month.
Again, women bucked the trend by posting a rise. The number of claimants rose by 4,900 taking their
numbers to 426,300, but their unemployment rate was unchanged at 2.8%.
Source: labour Reearch Department Fact Service/ September 16.

Linda in Liverpool with the CWU

The CWU was well represented at a demo outside the Liberal Condemocrat Conference in Liverpool yesterday. It peed it down but it did not dishearten us. Managed to get videoed and photoed 10 times by police surveillance teams. if they're reading this and have any decent pix can they let us have them. Here's some of mine.if people want copies on disk let me know or just right click on them and save them.

Saturday, 18 September 2010

Brilliant day at the Chainmakers Centenary

It's been a great day at the Chainmakers Cnetenary Festival in Dudley. The CWU was there with women from all over the UK and support from many branches. Billy Hayes was a guest speaker and he was absolutely great.

Wednesday, 15 September 2010

Barrow DQ update

Dear Colleague

BT has advised the CWU that opportunities have been identified to work in the BT Customerstreet sales office in Barrow and Lancaster.
These opportunities offer roles as telesales executives within BT Directories in a sales environment dealing with outbound calls with an ability to earn an uncapped potential on bonus arrangements. It is my understanding that full training and ongoing support will be provided and that the hours are Monday to Friday 09:00 am to 05:30 pm with no evenings or weekend and no bank holiday working.
At this point in time BT are just asking whether individuals are interested in visiting the site and having a look around in order that individuals can judge whether this type of work environment will suit you.
As you are aware the CWU is campaigning for suitable alternative work and whilst this is BT work we understand that sales work is very different to the kind of work you are currently undertaking. However, we welcome the voluntary approach taken by the company as they recognise that this may not be a suitable option for everyone, given the type of work on offer.
However individuals may want to visit the site to see for themselves the type of work and environment that being a first line sales executive at Customerstreet involves.
I look forward in seeing you all next week.

Yours sincerely

Sally Bridge

CWU Assistant Secretary