It took around 15 minutes for the barrister to realise. Nobody else did, except me. It felt like one of those dreamlike states wherein you open your mouth and wave your arms but nobody notices. The longer it goes on, the more the inner turmoil swells to busting point, but you can’t burst. It’s a court room. I simply didn’t know when I’m allowed to speak or not. Nobody tells you. Read more…
In response to our Freedom of Information request Salford stated that although it did not currently specify in any tenders that the living wage of £7.45 an hour is required, ‘The City Mayor is currently developing an Employment Charter which will set minimum standards for people in work. This will include the Living Wage. The city council hopes the Charter will be agreed with a wide range of employers.’ The Council claimed to be in talks with a number of partners about their introduction of the Living Wage and was, ‘also carefully considering what extra procurement freedoms the new Social Value Act will give us as both an employer and commissioner of services in improving the terms and conditions of working people in Salford.’
In the launch of the City’s employment charter the City Mayor has expressed the intention to create ‘A Living Wage City’ where the full Living Wage is a minimum and is in talks with major contract partners to implement it, with the promise of more announcements to come. He states that the council’s responsibilities as a Living Wage Employer includes rejecting, ‘the commissioning of services which embed poor pay and poor conditions’, and expresses the intention, ‘to use the Employment Charter to lift local pay levels in our commissioned services and amongst our contractors in Salford.’ Read more…
Being aware that it was a century ago that the suffragette movement stood to be counted in the United Kingdom, I felt it was important to try and commemorate this. In many ways the work they started, most famously personified by Emmeline Pankhurst, is still on it’s ascendency. What gender differences exist still within and outwith the home, workplace and institution ? Here is a quote from Elizabeth Fulhame (fl. 1780 to 1794). She was a chemist working on significant problems and the formulation of a science developing out of less rigorous traditions… Read more…
When the role of the suffragette movement, at the turn of the last century, in gaining the right for women to vote is raised, many people immediately think of the Pankhurst family and their achievements. Whilst this, to a large extent is rightly so, there were many women of all social backgrounds who also supported the cause, and in so doing, suffered much hardship and imprisonment at the hands of an uncaring Government of the day. Read more…