Expert insight, analysis and comment on key public policy issues
By Jill Rubery Filed Under: All posts Posted:
The government has just released its Equality Analysis of the contract it intends to impose on junior doctors. Its ‘tortured logic’ reveals much about what the government really thinks about gender equality and work and family life issues, argues Jill Rubery. If you delve into the 38-page document from the Department of Health, and work […]
By Jill Rubery Filed Under: Featured, Westminster Watch, Whitehall Watch Posted:
Jill Rubery makes a passionate case for retaining unsocial hours compensation for trainee doctors. A recent BBC Newsnight item on the current contract dispute for trainee doctors began by asking why trainee doctors should be compensated for weekend working when Saturday was ‘just another working day’. This immediately took me back to a research project […]
By Jill Rubery Filed Under: All posts, Featured Posted:
Earlier this month David Cameron set out plans to force large firms to reveal data on the gender pay among their staff. Here Jill Rubery explores the possibilities and pitfalls of the policy. The rather surprising conversion of the Cameron government to the need for large organisations to conduct and publish equal pay audits has […]
By Debra Howcroft and Birgitta Bergvall-Kareborn Filed Under: Featured Posted:
Yesterday shoppers are estimated to have spent almost £500,000 every minute buying Christmas presents online, on what has been dubbed ‘Manic Monday’. Internet technologies are challenging not just commerce, but also employment practices. Amazon provides a ‘crowd employment platform’ that disrupts traditional employer-worker relationships and creates a new class of freelance worker without employment rights, […]
By Stefania Marino and Miguel Martínez Lucio Filed Under: Europe, Featured Posted:
A recent lecture at the University of Manchester painted a picture of trade union decline across Western Europe. Dr Stefania Marino and Prof Miguel Martinez Lucio reflect on a difficult period for the unions, but argue they are still important players, economically and politically. The power of trade unions across Western Europe has declined – but nowhere else […]
By Jill Rubery Filed Under: Featured Posted:
During Manchester Policy Week 2013, Professor Jill Rubery joined IPPR North and members of the public to discuss the increasing use of zero hours contracts. In this article she explores some of the issues that arose from that event, and argues the key policy issue is how to get employers to accept more responsibility for […]
By Jill Rubery Filed Under: Featured Posted:
Whether it be young people selling sports shoes, or carers looking after the elderly, workers in the UK are increasingly being forced into zero-hour contract, writes Prof Jill Rubery. But this hasn’t happened by accident: it is a product of many years of moving towards a ‘flexible’ labour market, one that in practice means more […]