Fair business practice

Cote has been accused by campaigners of “misleading” customers with its “outrageous” policy that the 12.5% charge goes straight to the company instead of being kept by workers at the restaurant where the diner ate. According to workers, staff are told to tell customers who ask where the service charges goes that it is given out between workers. You can read more here: http://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/restaurant-chain-c-te-takes-entire-service-charge-instead-of-giving-it-to-staff-a2918366.html

Stop the Royal Air Forces Association selling its Aberystwyth branch to developers. The Royal Air Forces Association (RAFA) are planning to sell its historic Aberystwyth premises to developers despite pleas by a ground breaking veterans community non profit to buy the property and provide benchmark veterans services from it. Britain has a growing need to support Veterans and the demographic of Britain's ex service personnel's needs are growing too. “Brave Trust.Wales” aims to buy the Aberystwyth branch off the RAF Association and turn it into the most conclusive veterans’ specific centre in Wales (and the UK). The centre will open its door to a wealth of service users, all of whom represent individuals that have our undying respect. (We aim to serve former British servicemen and women & reservists, ex-emergency services, common wealth veterans and allied forces veterans alike.) In addition to benefitting our veteran population we also hope to ensure full community involvement and that we use an 'Open source' mentality towards what we learn during our endeavours. Veterans worldwide will benefit from this project and we hope that this will encourage a culture of shared resources and shared success. Please feel free to ask us for more information and share the full overview of this exciting project. We are simply asking for the RAF Association to halt negotiations with developers, allow Brave Trust.Wales take up the offered (& removed) commercial lease with a right to buy at the fair market value - or give us a reasonable time scale to raise the money. We already have £60'000 in funding!!! Why is this important? Veteran’s issues are wider society issues and we have a very direct responsibility to look for cutting edge solutions for people that have risked it all for the benefit of our communities. It's important because it's unique and will be the first venue in the country that aims to put as many key services and organisations under one roof. This ensures a very dynamic and progressive environment for effectively addressing our service users’ needs, in a venue that allows veterans to enjoy a focussed environment. The developers plan to turn this venue into yet another bar/restaurant offers little benefit to the area; however, BraveTrust.Wales represents significant benefit to the local and extended community. We also intend to offer this significant historical building a sensitive and appropriate renovation; this would not be a developer’s priority. The building, its' history, location and proximity to local services are key in its appeal for our purpose and we simply cannot replicate our vision anywhere else in the locality or even neighbouring counties. Hundreds of hours have already been committed to ensuring that our vision has legs and that we have ensured that we are robust and ready to deliver this. Initial response from potential partners, patrons and funding bodies has been extremely favourable but we need your support too. We feel that the RAFA as an ex-service charity still has a duty of care in ensuring that it supports veterans at all levels, our offer exemplifies this. Why you are important Beyond halting the sale to developers there is so much else to do. This is a ground up idea and we welcome input for fund raising, veterans initiatives, partner organisations and anything which will further our goal to be a World leading veterans service. Join us and be proud to help the Brave.

In this time of austerity, getting a job is tough enough as it is. For a chain like Las Iguanas, forcing their staff to pay to work - and profiting from it - is grossly unfair and entirely unnecessary. We have to stop it. I've eaten at Las Iguanas in Brighton countless times and it's disgusted me to know that money I left to the waiters and waitresses has been taken by the company. Simply put, this ridiculous policy is forcing staff to Pay to Work at Las Iguanas. If enough of us stand up to these disgusting practices, boycott Las Iguanas - and tell our friends to do likewise - they will have to change their ways. We will be handing this petition to Las Iguanas executives along with stories from their staff, so please sign this vital petition today. This is the way it works: Las Iguanas require staff to pay back 3% of their total sales for the night (5.5% in London) - in cash - to the management at the end of each shift. The money is meant to be paid by waiters from their pot of tips but, because it bears no relation to how much a waiter actually takes in tips, it can wipe out his or her entire income from gratuities in a busy night. Here's what one ex-staff member tweeted about the policy yesterday: https://s.bsd.net/38degrees/main/page/-/CBY/iguanas-tweet.jpg If a waiter processes an entirely normal £1,000 in a night then they will be required to pay the managers £30; staff have suggested this occurs even if they received no tips at all. One employee has said: “Over five shifts in a week is a substantial loss of my tips. Sometimes it works out as if I am paying to work, as for a five-hour shift I am paid £32.50 before tax.” The company claim this policy is to fund staff development and reward schemes for all staff, though Las Iguanas can take £34,000 a week from their staff using this little earner. Source: The Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/aug/23/restaurant-tipping-policy-forces-waiters-to-pay-to-work, [accessed 24.08.15]

In 2011 the management of National Museums Scotland broke an existing ACAS agreement and arbitrarily and unilaterally imposed a two-tier wage structure upon its lowest-paid workers (principally Cleaners, Visitor Services Assistants, Housemen, Security) without consultation or negotiation with the recognised Trade Unions. Staff employed since 1st January 2011 are on reduced terms and conditions without a weekend working allowance which is paid to compensate for having to work anti-social hours. Many of this lowest paid group only get one full weekend off once every seven weeks, which has a detrimental impact on family and social life. The consequence is that low-paid workers on the same shifts, doing the same work, are being paid up to £3,000 less than their colleagues. These workers make the National Museums Scotland the top rate attraction it is, and it is only fair that they get paid properly for their hard work. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation states that those earning under £17,100 a year are being paid a Poverty Wage, and many of our members earn well below that. Senior Scottish Politicians, in opposition against Westminster, have recently been calling for recognition of weekend working payments for those who give up valuable family and social time. These payments make up a large part of low-paid workers’ take home pay. PCS totally agree with safeguarding weekend working rights, and believe that if it is good enough for other workers, then National Museums Scotland staff deserve this too. Both Museum management and the Scottish Government need to embrace the principle of recompensing weekend work and accept PCS proposals to settle this long- running dispute. We do not believe that low-paid culture workers deserve to suffer at the hands of austerity, especially when heritage and culture contribute so much to the Scottish economy. The Museum’s own figures show that it contributes £65million to the economy. PCS Members at the National Museums of Scotland have been taking part in discontinuous strike action for over 2 years. Despite repeated requests to come to a negotiated settlement with management, this has not happened.

The recent sale of 191-201, Archway Road, London N6 5BN to Investland/ Archway Apartments is threatening the livelihood of a long-standing group of small businesses, entrepreneurs, sole traders and craftsmen, who provide a wide range of services to the local North London community. The proposed development seeks to completely demolish the independent work-units currently used by this diverse collection of small businesses in order to build a new block of luxury flats, also housing a supermarket. The impact of yet another major supermarket would not only destroy the livelihood of the many small independent grocery businesses in the Archway road area, but would also create a major increase in traffic congestion in what is already an overly congested area. A wide range of small independent businesses currently operate from these premises, including highly experienced health and fitness professionals, a media production company, carpenters and joiners, therapists, a painter, and a tailor and clothing designer. Some of these businesses have been providing valuable services to the local Highgate community for decades, and face eviction if these proposals were to go ahead. The proposed new development plans would also mean the eviction of the residential tenants currently living in the block, some of whom have lived here for over thirty years. A report published in 2015 by Sussex Innovation, the business incubation network owned by the University of Sussex, found that two thirds (63%) of small business owners in London and the South East are considering leaving central London due to the lack of affordable business premises in the capital. This is not just a local Highgate issue, but is in fact representative of a growing problem effecting small businesses across the country, where short-sighted and profit-focused property developers are destroying the very heart and soul of local communities in Great Britain. You can watch a short video about the plight of this small business community by clicking the following link: https://vimeo.com/136233275 Please sign this petition and support our cause in defending the livelihood and employment of these small businesses, sole traders and craftsmen working in this building complex, and other small business communities in similar situations throughout the U.K.

Currently the probate services industry handles in excess of £1 billion of assets every year. Yet there is no regulatory body to watch over the companies that provide probate services. In fact, anyone who is reading this could quite legitimately become a provider of probate services and handle £100,000's of assets left to others in the wills of deceased people, including cash, savings and property without being answerable to any authority. Because of this incredible lack of regulation, many companies who offer complete probate service packages can quite literally do as they please with the assets of a deceased person whilst working under the guise of the probate process, often taking literally years to complete fairly basic cases. Many companies in this industry use delaying tactics to ensure interest is earned on estate assets, without passing it on to beneficiaries. There are many reported cases of companies over-charging, lying and deceiving customers, often to cover up mis-handling of cases. Many firms have deals with high street banks which give them automatic access to the bank's deceased customers' personal details and account information and work to convince relatives or executors of the deceased that the probate process is a very difficult system to negotiate. These companies often use leaflets placed at Registry Offices which falsely appear to be provided by charities officially endorsed by Local Governments. The probate industry must be regulated by an official body who can effectively ensure that the companies which deal with the financial assets and properties left to beneficiaries pass the assets over to them speedily, accurately and without causing any undue extra stress on bereaved people. What other industry could handle such high value personal financial assets without coming under regulation in the UK? None, so it is imperative that the Probate Services Industry is brought into line to eradicate the deep-seated 'cowboy' companies, some of whom are currently the largest providers of these services in the UK.

We are currently in a GP recruitment crisis, with applications for GP training schemes falling every year. The suggested plans to cut GP registrar pay will exacerbate this trend and put even more junior doctors off a career in general practice. This will worse the current severe shortage of appointments, leading to poor patient satisfaction and putting patients at risk. The government say they want to hire another 5000 GPs by 2020, but this massive pay cut will make this an impossible target. This is another ideological attack on the NHS and its workers.

Small businesses create employment and opportunity and are critical to keep the economy healthy. We need to encourage and reward the entrepreneurs, who take on the personal risks and stress of starting new businesses and help them get off the ground.

Iain Yell worked for HMRC in the Triad in Bootle, where he was part of the Benefits & Credits section. He was dismissed at the end of June through the department’s attendance management policy. Iain suffers from depression, and all of his absences were related to this condition. Hardly at record levels, they were in fact tapering off because of his own efforts to better manage his condition. In spite of this a single period of absence, provoked by the side effects of a reduction in medication which he had agreed with his doctor, was used as justification that his absences were ‘unsustainable’ and that he had to go. Iain’s rep had argued that a much greater portion of his absences, if not all of them, should disregarded by the poor attendance hearing since they were disability related. Management refused to even disregard a full quarter of Iain’s absences, despite every one of them being as a result of his disability and his Occupational Health referral stating that he was likely to be covered by the terms of the Equality Act 2010. In PCS’s view, the refusal to disregard all of Iain’s disability related sickness absence for managing attendance purposes amounts to discrimination arising from disability and the dismissal decision must be reversed.

Currently the big 5 supermarkets control the price paid for farmers production where once dozens of small dairies, abattoirs, butchers and other small businesses bought at a fair price to the farmer of 50% of the end price. Now the supermarkets buyers control that price, and profiteer pushing farmers to the brink of bankruptcy. The marvellous countryside of the UK is cared for largely by farmers if we do not support them, our countryside will cease to be a vibrant place Our lambs here in the Scottish Border hills sold for £80 at this time last year are now down to under £60 - the supermarket price is nearly unaltered

The government are currently bringing in more companies and small businesses to run apprenticeships within the work place. However once you have an apprenticeship you are not entitled to the same privileges to someone the same age without an apprenticeship if you want a prescription or dental care. Currently someone on an apprenticeship's minimum wage you earn £2.73 an hour, so if you need to get a prescription at a cost of £8.20 then this is roughly 3 hours work just to pay for it! I say we as apprentices should be allowed to have free prescriptions and free dental care.