#public-sector

#public-sector

In these desperate times, everyone wants to find some money down the back of the sofa.Politicians are no exception.Taxpayer cash is difficult to generate witness the growing disquiet on Conservative backbenches at the billions of pounds raised by chancellor Jeremy Hunt's long-lasting freeze on income tax thresholds.

A major union has criticised No 10 for not offering civil servants the lump sum cost of living payments that other public sector workers such as teachers and health staff have been promised.Prospect union's general secretary, Mike Clancy, said as members prepared to strike that the unions had been given every indication that the pay offer for civil servants would follow the same template as others in the public sector.

By Brian Melley | Associated Press LONDON Unions representing hundreds of thousands of nurses, ambulance crews and other health care workers in England reached a deal Thursday to resolve months of disruptive strikes for higher wages, though the pact didn't include doctors.The announcement came as early-career physicians spent a third day on picket lines and the day after U.K. Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt announced a budget that included no , additional money for labor groups that have staged crippling strikes amid a punishing cost-of-living crisis and double-digit inflation.

A war of words breaking out between Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak leads the nation's Tuesday papers.The Independent and Metro report Mr Johnson has denied he asked the PM to bend honours rules, with the latter dubbing the verbal spat between the pair all out war.Staying with the former prime minister, The Times says the privileges committee is set to find that Mr Johnson deliberately misled parliament over the Downing Street parties scandal.

Dominic Raab has insisted he "behaved professionally at all times" despite facing allegations of bullying.In an interview with the BBC, the justice secretary and deputy prime minister said he would not comment on recent "anonymous reports in the media".In his experience, he added, such reports were "mostly incorrect".

A strike by up to half-a-million workers in bitter disputes over pay, jobs and conditions this week should send a clear message to the government that it cannot continue to ignore the causes of the unrest, according to the head of the TUC.Teachers, train drivers, civil servants, university lecturers, bus drivers and security guards from seven trade unions will walk out on Wednesday in what will be the biggest day of industrial action in over a decade.

When the Adani Group mobilized to defend itself against accusations - leveled by US-based short sellers Hindenburg Research - that it had "engaged in a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades," the choice of décor was more persuasive than the denial.

The Eglinton Crosstown LRT project delays are unacceptable that's one thing mayoral candidates can agree on, but eight of the most prominent names in the race have different ideas about how they would move the project along.The consortium of companies building the troubled Eglinton Crosstown project, Crosslinx, says it plan to sue Metrolinx and Infrastructure Ontario, alleging the provincial transit agency has failed to retain an operator for the unfinished transit line.

A Minister of State at the Department of Communications has said there is "more than one risky app out there" but said Government advice for official mobile phones does not name specific companies.hinese-owned TikTok has come under fire in the US, Europe and Asia, where a growing number of governments have banned the app from devices used for official business over worries it poses risks to cybersecurity and data privacy or could be used to push pro-Beijing narratives and misinformation.

Many women are being priced out of the jobs market because of the soaring cost of childcare, as new figures show female unemployment in Britain exceeding one million, a report warns today.The combination of cuts to benefits for families and the impact public sector job losses are having on women's employment is causing many mothers to choose to look after their children rather than seek paid work, the centre-left think tank IPPR suggests.

Before we get on to Brexit don't worry: we shall I want to draw attention to what I regard as the epitome of the meanness and duplicity of what is indubitably the worst government of most of our lifetimes.Sorry, did I say government?A neighbour asked me the other day if I was aware of a new oxymoron.

The government has made a new offer in a bid to end a dispute over pay and jobs with civil servants, unions bosses have said.Union officials said civil servants below senior grades had been offered a lump sum of £1,500 for 2022/23.Civil servants have staged strikes in recent months, with unions calling for pay to reflect the rising cost of living.

Civil service unions have entered talks with the government on pay, believing ministers may finally be willing to offer more money to match rises given to health and teaching staff.Two unions, Prospect and the FDA, said they would be suspending strike action and ballots because the government said it was willing to engage in meaningful talks.

Employers in the strike-hit education and health sectors are facing challenges recruiting staff, new research suggests.A survey of 2,000 senior managers found that more than half of those in education and healthcare have vacancies which are hard to fill.Both sectors have been hit by strikes for several months in bitter disputes over pay and staffing.

Hundreds of thousands of Spaniards have flooded the streets of Madrid for the largest protest yet against the regional government's management of the capital city's healthcare services.ore than 250,000 people rallied in the city centre, according to the central Spanish government.Organisers claimed the crowd was bigger by several hundred thousand.

MADRID Hundreds of thousands of Spaniards flooded the streets of Madrid on Sunday for the largest protest yet against the regional government's management of the capital city's health care services.Over 250,000 people rallied in the city center, according to the central Spanish government.Organizers claimed the crowd was bigger by several hundred thousand.

A prominent Tory mayor has gone on air to brand a Labour MP a liar and a coward in a row over a major development project.Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen hit out at Middlesbrough MP Andy McDonald as their feud over the Teesworks scheme deepened.Mr Houchen challenged the MP to repeat allegations of corruption in the scheme without the protection of parliamentary privilege.

Rail minister Huw Merriman has defended the Government's stance on strikes, months after admitting that the Government has lost more money due to the impact of rail strikes than it would have cost to settle the disputes months ago.In remarks at the Transport Select Committee in January, the Conservative minister said the row with rail unions has ended up costing more but insisted the overall impact on all public sector pay deals must be considered.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has said there is still no decision on how much extra Treasury funding will be needed to meet the cost of public sector pay awards.Giving evidence to the Commons Treasury Committee, Mr Hunt insisted there would be no cuts to frontline services but suggested there would be efficiencies and reprioritisations within government departments.

Unions are accusing the Conservatives of presiding over the worst period for living standards in modern history.An analysis by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) suggested that by the end of this Parliament, household disposable incomes will have fallen for nearly half of the time the Conservatives have been in office.

Ontario should put in place "effective guardrails" on the public sector's use of artificial intelligence technologies, the Information and Privacy Commissioner and the Ontario Human Rights Commission said Thursday in a joint statement.The government must urgently develop rules so it can reap the benefits of AI technologies in an ethically responsible manner, the two bodies said in the statement.

Bin crews could soon be putting their feet up on a Monday as the wave of four-day-week trials spreading across the UK finally reaches frontline public services.South Cambridgeshire district council has agreed to test a 32-hour working week for 150 refuse loaders and drivers this summer after successful experiments with reduced working hours with office- and laptop-based staff.

The emergence of ChatGPT and other AI chatbots has added another layer to the convoluted privacy landscape, further solidifying the need for comprehensive regulations.So what should corporations and lawmakers consider when protecting consumer and public privacy?In today's episode of She Said Privacy/He Said Security, it's all about AI's privacy ramifications.

An Garda Siochana and the Fastway delivery firm are among the organisations that were reprimanded over data breaches, according to a watchdog's annual report.ardai reported a breach to the Data Protection Commission (DPC) involving the names and addresses of 108 individuals, some of whom were children, processed at Kilmainham Garda Station.

The Canadian economy grew by 0.1 per cent in February, Statistics Canada said Friday.In its latest report on economic growth, the federal agency's preliminary estimate suggested real gross domestic product grew at an annualized rate of 2.5 per cent in the first quarter.The February figure came in lower than was expected by Statistics Canada as wholesale and retail trade as well as manufacturing all contracted.

* By Kristina Monllos



Slack is retooling its brand marketing efforts this year to focus on tentpole events like South by Southwest and Dreamforce.By doing so, the workplace messaging app wants to reach its target audience of software decision makers and small business owners more efficiently, explained Colin McRae, head of brand and creative at Slack.

When the mighty Royal College of Nursing walked out on its first ever national strike, there was never a doubt that the government would fold and offer a pay increase to NHS staff.Nurses could never be conveniently branded as militants, though at first, pathetically, the Tories tried it; nor did that epithet stick to the ambulance staff, physiotherapists and the rest who went on strike.

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails An additional 320 million allocated to Scotland from the UK Budget does not go far enough to address the cost-of-living crisis, Nicola Sturgeon has said.The First Minister welcomed the limited additional funding, but said significant strain would remain on the Scottish Government's budget.

Jeremy Hunt's budget failed to help a public sector at crisis point, striking teachers said on Wednesday as they demonstrated in Trafalgar Square.The National Education Union's action in England was part of the largest day of stoppages since the wave of strikes began last year, with more than 400,000 workers across sectors striking because of pay disputes.

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Hundreds of thousands of workers will stage a strike on Budget Day in what threatens to be the biggest walkout since the current wave of industrial action started last year.

M ost workers earning under 30,000 are required to travel to work every day, while only 10% of top earners have to do so, a new survey has found.An Office for National Statistics survey of 6,670 working adults found that more than 60% of those earning less than 30,000 said they were required to travel to work every day with no homeworking option.

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails University staff and civil servants staged more walkouts on Tuesday as figures revealed the UK recorded the highest number of working days lost to strike action for more than a decade in December.

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Unions representing more than 20 million workers across Europe have criticised the UK government's controversial plans for a new law on providing minimum service levels during strikes.

Regulatory delays - rather than technical failures - are set to threaten the UK commercial space launch industry, a committee of MPs heard yesterday, as the industry described a "toxic" environment for investment.The result of "jarring" interactions with Blighty's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) was that it cost more to license satellites in the UK than it did to launch them, said Joshua Western, CEO of Space Forge, the Welsh satellite maker whose hardware missed orbit in the failed Virgin Orbit launch from Cornwall in January.

Tens of thousands of public sector workers will strike on 15 March and work to rule indefinitely after voting overwhelmingly for industrial action.At least 80% of Prospect union members who work for organisations such as the Met Office, Health and Safety Executive and Natural England voted for strike action and 92% were in favour of action short of a strike, on a turnout of 72%, well over the legal threshold of 50%.

The UK needs to support the creation of a British version of ChatGPT, MPs were told on Wednesday, or the country would further lose the ability to determine its own fate.Speaking to the Commons science and technology committee, Adrian Joseph, BT's chief data and artificial intelligence officer, said the government needed to have a national investment in large language models, the AI that underpins services such as ChatGPT, Bing Chat and Google's Bard.

SNP leadership candidate Kate Forbes said the Scottish Government has not underestimated the scale of the challenge to house Ukrainian arrivals as she pledged her full support for refugees.The Finance Secretary heard from families who had taken refuge in Scotland after fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The Chinese government could use TikTok to control data on millions of people and harness the short-form video app to shape public opinion should China invade Taiwan, FBI Director Christopher Wray told the Senate Intelligence Committee Wednesday.Wray responded affirmatively to questions from Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, the panel's ranking member, on whether TikTok would allow Beijing widespread control over data and a valuable influence tool in the event of war in the Taiwan Strait.

Sir Rod Stewart is a Tory who backed Boris Johnson in 2019.So it was a surprise to hear the 78-year-old singer, when asked about recent strikes by NHS workers over pay, telling Sky News this week that he was on the nurses' side not the Conservatives'.I personally have been a Tory for a long time, but I think this government should stand down now and give the Labour party a go at it.

Strong ethical values must be woven into every aspect of the way government bodies and other public organisations operate, the Whitehall standards watchdog has warned.The Committee on Standards in Public Life said while a robust ethical culture should be integral to the way organisations operate, too often it takes a crisis for leaders to act.

8 minutes ago8 minutes ago The newly passed equality act aims to tackle the massive imbalance between men and women in positions of power.It also guarantees at least 14 weeks of maternity leave.Sierra Leone's President Julius Maada Bio signed into law the Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Act on Thursday.