Because all workers in the UK deserve the same workers rights! Prison Officers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland do no currently have the right to take strike action over legitimate disputes! The Scottish government have this week given back Scottish Prison Officers the right to take strike action, the same must be afforded to colleagues in the rest of the U.K.!

Having a job and earning a decent wage is a necessity if we as a society are going to address some of the biggest concerns facing our generation. Poverty has a devastating effect on families across Scotland and in-work poverty has no place in the 21st century. There is no excuse for low-pay, when time and time again it has been shown to be not only an ineffective means of employment, but also a hindrance on long-term sustainable economic growth. Low wages result in poorer services, higher staff turnover, increased absences from work and a lower quality of life for staff stuck in low pay. We have not only an opportunity, but a responsibility, to tackle poverty and eradicate the blight it puts on people’s lives once and for all. Addressing low pay will not put an end to hardship overnight, as it is only part of a much wider and more complex picture of social justice, but it is a start, and it should be our goal to achieve it.

Other countries are using this fund to support their steel industries. Here’s a giant pot of money into which Whitehall should dip its fingers. Please do. Jobs, communities and a vital industry should be supported.

because it degrades these people working those hours for no pay and no chance of being employed by ikea they just move on to the next batch of unfortunate people

Firefighters understand that times are difficult and money is tight, but we believe these cuts go too far and would risk the long term safety of the public. The cuts would lead to slower response times, with fire engines taking longer to reach you in times of need. They would lead to a significantly increased risk to both the public and firefighters alike. Please add your name to our petition and tell Gloucestershire County Council to rethink these dangerous cuts!

The proposed new junior doctor contact is not safe or fair for patients or doctors. It removes vital safeguards that protect junior doctors from working dangerously long hours thereby endangering patients and doctors. The contract changes out of hours work, devaluing the work done in the evenings and weekends. The changes would penalise those going into general practice at a time when there is a chronic shortage of GPs in Northern Ireland. The Scottish and Welsh governments have already said they will not impose the contract.

Councils and Councillors now have significant control of railways in the North. Twenty nine Councils make up a new body called “Rail North.” Although Rail North cannot decide whether our railways should be publicly owned (which is what most passengers would prefer!) they will be deciding on many important issues that affect passengers. This includes train service levels and what station and train staff will be available to assist passengers and protect their safety. One of Rail North’s first big decisions will be to help determine with the government the rail franchise agreements for Northern Rail and Transpennine Express Trains (TPE) services. These agreements start on 1st April 2016, shortly before the local elections in May. Worryingly the current proposed franchise agreements mean there will be fewer rail staff to help passengers and protect their safety. There are no guarantees that ticket offices will be kept open. And no safeguards that as many stations as possible will have properly trained and directly employed station staff to help passengers. In fact there will be cuts to rail jobs.

It is important to commend and support as well as to challenge,

On 14th September the Vice Chancellor and Student Services Director at the Open University announced plans to close seven English regional centres in Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol, Birmingham, Leeds, Gateshead and London. They claim this is with the aim of putting students first and giving them a better support services experience. 500 highly qualified, experienced and dedicated staff members stand to lose their jobs or face having to compete to retain their posts at another location with all the disruption this causes. Worst of all is that their academic and student support expertise would be lost. The Open University has already closed one regional centre and transferred student services from a regional to a faculty based model. This already means that students who once could have all their support needs met in one team might now have to contact as many as four separate teams for this. Increasing reliance on online resources also leaves students floundering when they could previously speak to a student support expert as a first resort. The plans to close offices and jettison staff teams with as much as 190 years of academic and student support experience among them, for new, inexperienced staff working in call centre conditions are only likely to further reduce the quality of service students can expect

Those who want to retire have the choice

The NHS is internationally envied for its clinical excellency, efficiency and moral courage. Following the purchaser provider split and changes under New Labour in the late 1990's, the introduction of private contracting has diverted profits from services out of the NHS into wealth creating companies. Subsequently healthcare professionals and patients have seen and felt the NHS change for the worse. Since this Conservative party came into government they have undertaken steps to undermine the financial viability and safety of care provided by the NHS through an ideological choice of chronic underfunding. To quote Noam Chomsky, "that's the standard technique of privatisation: defund, make sure things don't work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital". They are now targeting staff and junior doctors. Following negotiations with the BMA doctors union, the department of health offered an unacceptable contract which would reduce patient safety, increase junior doctor fatigue, reduce recognized out-of-hours commitment, and significantly reduce take-home pay. When junior doctors refused the governments precondition to accept ALL of these proposals as a basis to a final contract as a condition of restarting negotiations, the BMA found themselves accused of ‘walking away’ from the table and informed that the contract would simply be imposed upon them in August 2016. Junior doctors, side by side with other healthcare professionals, work in an increasingly pressurised and under-resourced setting, and are known as the medical workhorse of the NHS. Their current working pattern is antisocial and labour intensive, as anybody who lives with or is friends with a junior doctor will know. Tiredness is compounded by a sense of disenchantment, which may explain why these professional healthcare groups did not feel energised enough to understand or stand up to the government on their introduction of the Health and Social Care Act in 2012. Legislation which is leading to the erosion of the NHS in the hands of a Jeremy Hunt, who prior to his appointment as health minister wrote of this ideological support for privatisation of the NHS. Junior doctors now face a situation where their self-perceived head to the ground and carry-on grafting attitude is being rewarded by a contract which is estimated to lead to a startling 20-40% reduction in take home wages depending on speciality, and longer and less protected shifts. The new system would provide us with the assurance of a 20 minute break per 11 hour shift worked. Fatigue from grueling shifts are acknowledged to cause impaired performance, a sobering and concerning fact for patients. We as junior doctors accept that our pay has declined against inflation for years. However, we are asking that this government's ideological CHOICE to devalue our profession, and take money and morale from junior doctors, when the financial privileges freedoms of the very rich and financial sector are protected, be acknowledged and challenged. We oppose government ministers with personal wealth of millions using our wages, which when compared to other peers with similar backgrounds in university and post-graduate years in training are modest, as another excuse to paint the NHS as 'unaffordable'. An NHS which is acknowledged as excellent in the care it delivers, and one of the most efficient services on the planet. This Junior Doctor contract campaign must form part of a wider effort to oppose the overarching plan to ultimately do away with the NHS. As things stand, in 20 years, I as a junior doctor will be working as a private consultant for a private health provider, possibly earning more than an NHS consultant, but paying for my own and my families healthcare in times of greatest vulnerability. I would not chose to be treated by, or treat on behalf of, private companies and insurance merchants for whom profit is the primary concern. A great many who earn less than me may go without the best chances of surviving illness due to their bank balance. I reject that future. I wish to work proudly as an NHS doctor, in the United Kingdom. I believe that patients also wish to be treated by a trustworthy NHS rather than a private company. An NHS staffed by motivated, valued and supported professionals and not by profit. Please sign this petition to support junior doctors, the NHS, and the public.

The Academies Enterprise Trust, the Department of Education along with various Isle of Wight councillors have an intended decision to close Weston Primary Academy. The Secretary of State for Education Nicky Morgan has " in principal " agreed to this decision. This agreeance is based solely on the AeT and DfE paperwork, that seems to be based on a projected "forecast" that has yet to be released to the public. Not foregoing that all of the teaching staff, work staff and the parents of the 56 children who attend were informed by an email, followed promptly by a letter, inevitable job losses will occur - zero consultation with those that matter has taken place behind closed doors. We now find ourselves in a public consultation period **edit : there is NO public consultation, only a time to air views and opinions** that has a limited time-scale to air any counter arguments or views. The purpose of this petition is to clearly show that our beloved school has supporters. Weston Primary is the only non-denominational school locally, and whilst its numbers are relatively small, it does not suffer from large over capacity as some others locally do, consequently the children and parents have an amazing " Team Weston"-spirit, everyone really matters here. With a lot of recent housing developments in the West Wight region, and acute awareness that schools are becoming overcrowded, it makes no sense to close this school based on a forecast, when the school is getting on its feet and showing marked improvement. The AeT has over the summer period spent an undisclosed sum of money bringing much needed modernisation to the school. If the school is shut down, it would be a huge waste of resources. The adjoining nursery has also seen investment and is already showing that it is feeding more and more directly into the school itself. As people move into the local area, I suspect that Weston will see a marked increase in admissions. We at Team Weston are appealing directly to you, the reader, to show your support for this school. You may be an old pupil or parent of an old pupil, you may have had an association with the school in the past or present. maybe you understand that good schools should be kept open, especially considering this school is well over 100 years old. Please, please take a few moments to sign to show your support for us in our battle. It might just be the linchpin that sways the final decision in our favour. Kindest regards - George Metcalf