MoD challenges soldiers' compensation

The Government launches an appeal today over two soldiers who won massive increases in compensation paid for injuries.
Light Dragoon Anthony Duncan, who now walks with crutches after being shot while on patrol in Iraq, was originally awarded £9,250 which was increased to £46,000 by an appeal tribunal.
Royal Marine Matthew McWilliams fractured his thigh in a military exercise and was awarded £8,250, increased to £28,750 on appeal.
The High Court upheld the higher awards, ruling that the Ministry of Defence argument that there should be a distinction between the original injury and later complications was "absurd".
Now the MoD is taking the case to the Court of Appeal, where lawyers are expected to claim the pair should be compensated only for the initial injuries and not subsequent health problems.
Read the article here

We still have no helicopters.

Defence ministers spurned three separate deals to buy American Black Hawk helicopters which would have helped to plug the dangerous shortage facing British troops in Afghanistan. The most recent rejection came only days ago, the Observer can reveal.
A letter sent last week by the defence equipment minister, Quentin Davies, to Sikorsky, the US manufacturer of the Black Hawk, appears to admit that snubbing its latest offer could delay the introduction of desperately needed helicopters into Afghanistan.

Read the Observer article here

Furthermore, in todays Guardian John Hutton lays into the government over defence shortfalls in Afghanistan.

Read the Guardian article here

PUBLIC SECTOR PAY AND THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF THE AUDIT COMMISSION

On the Parliament UK website last week it was recorded Dai Davis put down the following Early Day Motion regarding Steve Bundred's call for a public-sector pay freeze!

"That this House notes with concern the ill-informed call by Mr Steve Bundred, the unelected chief executive of the Audit Commission, for a public-sector pay freeze; agrees with the sentiments expressed by Mike Jackson, lead negotiator on NHS pay, terms and conditions for Unison, in his Guardian letter of 7 July 2009, that this call is an unacceptable interference, is ill-informed and crass; further notes that under Mr Bundred's watch the Audit Commission admitted in a statement on 16 October 2008 that it had deposited £5,000,000 of its cash balances in Landsbanki Islands in April 2008 and £5,000,000 in Heritable Bank, Landsbanki's UK subsidiary, in July 2008, banks which subsequently failed; finds it incredible that the Audit Commission could assert that investigations indicate that deposits were made in full compliance with the Commission's guidelines on prudent investment; recalls that Mr Bundred's current salary is £246,000, up by 26 per cent., considerably more than inflation, from the £195,000 he was paid when appointed in 2003, and contrasts this with the median salary of registered nurses at £23,345, less than one-tenth of the Audit Commission chair; and believes that if Mr Bundred wants to demonstrate leadership, he should announce the size of the cut he is planning to take in his own salary, based on his deplorable failure to manage his own Office's finances prudently on behalf of the taxpayer, as shown by reckless investment in Icelandic banks without due diligence as to their future security."

It should also be noted that John Cruddas put down the following unrelated but interesting motion...

"That this House notes that the US has not yet ratified International Labour Organisation Conventions 87 or 98 on freedom of association and free collective bargaining, and that harassment of workers trying to form trade unions is widespread and leads to 30,000 sackings every year; believes that the Employee Free Choice Act currently before Congress would give US workers the choice about whether to belong to a trade union which can collectively bargain with their employers; and calls on UK companies operating in the US publicly to support the Employee Free Choice Act and on hon. Members' colleagues in Congress to enact the Employee Free Choice Act without delay."

Japanese salarymen turn to Marx

Millions of Japanese salarymen, whose fathers and grandfathers initiated this nation's economic miracle, are fully aware that the chaff has already been winnowed out of the domestic workforce.


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No Vietnam....

Myth of a private-sector pay freeze

There is an urban myth that all pay in the private sector is frozen, and so public-sector pay should be frozen too. In fact, pay awards have continued in the private sector this year - about two-thirds have awarded increases, from 1% to 4% or more. A Guardian article (Chancellor signals pay squeeze for public sector, 6 July) uses misleading earnings figures which seemingly give credence to the urban myth. They write: "Average earnings in the public sector for the three months to March 2009 (including bonuses) stood at +3.6% in the public sector, compared to -1.2% in the private sector." This private sector figure is dramatically negative almost entirely because of a large drop in bonus earnings in the financial sector in February and March. (Earnings growth in finance in February was -28.4% because of the drop in bonuses for high flyers.)

The data for April 2009, using figures not seasonally adjusted and excluding bonuses, shows earnings growth of 2.5% in the private sector and 3.3% in the public sector, consistent with IDS research on pay settlements. In the private sector, the official figures show manufacturing (where most freezes are) at 1% and private services at 2.9%.

The recession has hit some companies extremely hard and others much less. There is a spectrum, within which we have found pay freezes at one end and increases up to 4% at the other. It would be quite ridiculous for an urban myth about the private sector to become the basis of policy for the public sector.

Alastair Hatchett, Head of pay services
Ken Mulkearn Editor, IDS pay report, Incomes Data Services

We remember them

Today we remember the 52 victims of the London bombings of 7th July 2005, as today sees the unveiling of a permanent memorial in their memory.






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New Elizabeth Cross Medal

Families of 8,000 British troops killed since WWII to be given new Elizabeth Cross medal. The Queen is to recognise the loss suffered by the families of armed forces personnel killed on operations with the award of an honour in her name.




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First banks, now railways?

The government is to nationalise Britains most profitable railway as National Express losses control. Could it be that this government is being forced, through circumstances beyond its control, to do some of the very things our union campaigns for?

Read the Times article here