Striking university lecturers and a fond farewell to Brucie
University and College Union members, including those at the University of Leeds, could go on strike this week, unless a solution can be found in their dispute over pensions. Their employer wants to switch from a ‘defined benefits’ to a ‘defined contributions’ plan. Some estimate this will make retiring academics £10,000 a year worse off. In a recent ballot, 88 per cent of members backed industrial action, which could begin on Thursday, with more dates set for the following week, followed by others in March, including one four-day walk-out and one five-day walk-out. which starts tomorrow. Topics will include promoting the UK’s home grown sugar sector, poultry and how Brexit is likely to affect the industry. and presenter will be remembered at the BBC Studios event at the London Palladium, the venue which helped propel him to fame. The hour-long celebration will feature tributes and will air on BBC One at a later date.
On Wednesday actress-turnedpolitician Tracy Brabin (Labour, Batley & Spen) will table a private members bill to extend shared parental leave to self-employed people, opening up the benefits of the scheme to people who work in theatres and other professions which are excluded at present. Currently, self-employed mothers must take statutory maternity allowance in one go and cannot go back onto it after doing some work, such as taking a job on a show, for example. Selfemployed fathers currently have no access to parental leave or pay whatsoever.
The fate of Carillion workers will be back in the news on Wednesday and Thursday as MPs consider whether employment legislation known as TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment)) applies to them after auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers said it would not, meaning some workers may end up having to accept lower wages and poorer working conditions in any new job. MPs will debate the issue on Wednesday, then on Thursday a select committee will hear oral evidence relating to Carillion’s 450 public sector contracts. Meanwhile, union Unite has indicated it may mount a legal challenge to force employers to abide by TUPE regulations.
There is a slim chance cannabis could be one step closer to being legalised, albeit for medicinal purposes, on Friday as Labour MP Paul Flynn will be tabling the second reading of a 10 Minute Rule bill first heard in October, which calls for the decriminalisation of medicinal cannabis. The bill has been dubbed the Elizabeth Brice Bill, after the prominent Leeds-based multiple sclerosis sufferer who died in 2011 after sprearheading a campaign to promote the medicinal benefits of cannabis. The bill would allow the production, supply, possession and use of cannabis and cannabis resin for medicinal purposes and for connected purposes. Ten Minute Rule bills enable backbench MPs to make cases for a new Bill in a speech lasting up to ten minutes but very few become law. The chances of this bill becoming law are said to be very slim indeed.