Firefighters have won in their fight over pensions and jobs for injured and sick staff.
A judicial review at the Court of Appeal upheld a legal challenge by three London firefighters who had their ill-health and injury pensions removed under changes to the service’s pension scheme.
The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) welcomed the decision.
Under government guidelines issued in 2004, a disabled or badly injured firefighter would be given an ill-health pension unless they could be redeployed to another job. But new guidance issued in 2006 meant that, if they were capable of doing any small part of their work, they would not

Read more Comments (1)

The decline is manufacturing is accelerating. Output in the three months to February 2009 slumpedby 6.5% compared with the previous three months according to the Office for National Statistics.
The January figure was 6.4%. There were widespread decreases in output. The most significant falls were 13.1% in the transportequipment industries, 11.2% in the basic metal and metal products industries and 11.7% in the machinery and equipment products industries.
Manufacturing output in the latest three months was 12.2% lower than the same period a year ago.
Output of the production industries, which includes energy and construction, has fallen by 5.8% in the latest three months to February on the previous three months.
And against the same period a year ago, production output was down by 11.1%.


www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/iop0409.pdf

Read more Comments (0)

More than 20 million employees across UK could benefit from reduced qualifying period for statutory redundancy pay
The TUC called on the Government today (Thursday) to reduce the qualifying period for statutory redundancy pay (SRP) entitlement from two years to 12 months. TUC research reveals that more than 20 million employees across the UK could benefit from this step.
Currently, employees aged 16 or over are entitled to SRP after a two year qualifying period working for the same employer, so the youngest age at which an employee can benefit from redundancy pay is 18.
TUC analysis of official statistics reveals that if this qualifying period was halved to one year then 20,543,000 employees would gain extra redundancy entitlement. Of these more than three million employees would be entitled to SRP for the first time - nearly one in eight (12.2 per cent) of the workforce. More than 17 million employees would increase their existing entitlement to SRP.
While older workers are most likely to be in the same job for more than one year, many younger employees would stand to gain SRP for the first time under the TUC's proposals. Nearly one in three (30.3 per cent) employees aged 17-19 and one in five (20.9 per cent) 20-24 year olds would gain.
Employees in every region across the UK would benefit from the reduced qualifying time for SRP. The nations and regions with the highest percentage of employees gaining are Northern Ireland (87.2 per cent), Wales (84.2 per cent) and the East of England (83.3 per cent).
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'We are seeing a return of mass unemployment to the UK. And the situation will get worse before it gets better, as unemployment always persists even after a recovery starts.
'Many employees will be facing redundancy and unemployment for the first time in their lives.
'There can be no assumption that the people who are losing their jobs will find it easy to get new ones, and they will need all the help they can get with redundancy pay, retraining and personal advice.
'Many decent employers, especially those that recognise unions, already offer their staff more generous redundancy packages than the statutory entitlement. The qualifying period for statutory redundancy pay should be cut to 12 months to help more employees across the UK cope with the financial costs of losing their jobs.'
The TUC is also calling on the Government to increase the amount of an employee's weekly earnings which counts to SRP from £350 to at least £500, and to ensure that future rises are in line with average earnings.
The current £350 limit is far lower in real terms than the original value of statutory redundancy pay when it was introduced in 1965, so to ensure that employees are properly compensated when they lose their jobs, the TUC believes the Chancellor should increase the weekly limit on statutory redundancy pay to at least £500.
Official statistics also show that 46.2 per cent of UK employees earn more than £350 a week, so nearly half of the workforce is losing out with a statutory limit of £350 for redundancy pay.

Read more Comments (0)

A powerful earthquake has struck central Italy, killing at least 20 people, collapsing buildings and leaving thousands of people homeless.
Officials said the death toll was likely to rise as rescue crews made their way through the debris.
Firefighters aided by dogs are trying to rescue people from crumbled homes, including a student dormitory in the city of L'Aquila where half a dozen students remained trapped.
The US Geological Survey said the magnitude of the quake was 6.3, though Italy's National Institute of Geophysics put it at 5.8.
The quake struck about 70 miles north-east of Rome at 3.32am local time (2.32 BST), officials said. The Civil Protection Department said the epicentre was near L'Aquila, in the mountainous Abruzzo region.
By early morning, the death toll stood at 20, including five children, with some 30 people unaccounted for, carabinieri paramilitary police said. In addition to L'Aquila, the town of Castelnuovo appeared hard hit, with five of the dead there.
Premier Silvio Berlusconi declared a state of emergency, freeing up federal funds to deal with the disaster. He said he was weighing whether to cancel a planned visit to Russia to deal with the crisis.
Agostino Miozzo, an official with the Civil Protection Department, said between 10,000 and 15,000 buildings were damaged.
Four children died in L'Aquila after their houses collapsed, the ANSA news agency said. They quoted doctors at the main San Salvatore dell'Aquila hospital as saying there was nothing they could do for them.
ANSA said the dome of a church in L'Aquila collapsed, while the city's cathedral also suffered damages. L'Aquila Mayor Massimo Cialente said some 100,000 people had left their homes and that many buildings in the city's historic centre were damaged.

Read more Comments (0)

EPD Says Air Will Be Cleaner When New Coal Plant is Built 

The state's top environmental regulator for air pollution says the air in eastern Georgia will be cleaner if and when a coal plant is built near Sandersville in Washington County.Jac Capp, chief of the state environmental protection division's (EPD) air protection branch, says the plant also won't add to ozone air pollution in Augusta or Macon. Macon is already near two other coal plants, one of them dubbed by environmental groups as the dirtiest in the U.S.Coal plants are in the process of reducing pollutant emissions as required by federal and state regulations.Capp says that the proposed new coal plant, Plant Washington, will also have lower emissions of pollutants.The EPD recently recommended, for the first time, that mid-sized cities in Georgia have failed ozone air pollution standards. Her recommendations are required by federal law and based on measures of the ozone. Newer and tougher restrictions this year have contributed to the cities falling into this category.
The state EPD is beginning the permitting process for Plant Washington. But Capp and his staff have already reviewed an extensive proposal for the plant.

Read more Comments (0)