The looming spectre of a double dip recession intensified today as the UK's services sector saw its growth stall last month, jeopardising hopes of a sustained recovery. A survey of the sector that makes up the bulk of Britain's economic output showed that its growth slipped to its slowest since it emerged from recession a year ago.

Many of the companies surveyed said cancelled public-sector contracts were beginning to hurt their businesses, forcing them to cut jobs and dealing a blow to chancellor George Osborne's hopes of reviving the private sector by reducing public spending. The gloom was further compounded by warnings from leading retailers that consumer spending is cooling off after a strong start to the year amid uncertainty about the economic outlook.

The darkening picture in the services sector follows similar reports this week on both manufacturing and construction and sent the pound lower as traders fretted over the fragile nature of the UK's economic recovery. Accompanying complaints from retailers such as high street chains Next and Carpetright that consumer spending is flagging bolstered economists' views that a surprise jump in second-quarter GDP was probably a blip and likely to be followed by subdued growth, especially once the government's autumn spending review spells out the full scale of the fiscal squeeze.

Guardian online

The loss of nearly one million full-time jobs and a shift to part-time working since the start of the recession has resulted in a drop of almost 10% in the number of UK men working more than 45 hours per week. However, summer 2009 marked the low point in working time and since then the number of long-hours workers has started to rise again.

This is amongst the findings of a new work audit, Working Hours in the Recession, published  by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). The study of official UK and EU statistics finds that the recession has resulted in both a fall in total employment (down by a net 580,000, 2%, in the two years to spring 2010) and a shift from full-time employment (which has fallen by 910,000, 4.1%) to part-time employment (which has increased by 330,000, 4.4%).This shift is to some extent due to many people working shorter hours to help their employers cut labour costs and minimise redundancies. The combined impact of these changes is a net fall of 32.7 million (3.5%) in the number of hours worked each week in the UK.

However, total hours have since started to rise again, indicating a modest, though uneven, pick-up in demand for labour since mid-2009.

The GMB Trade Union has written to the head teachers of two schools in Redbridge that have registered an interest in making their school into an academy by this September. The two schools are The Chadwell Heath Foundation School, Chadwell Heath and Valentines High School, Ilford.

In the letters GMB is also seeking assurances from the head teachers that the existing pay conditions and pensions of GMB members who work as teaching assistants, caretakers, cleaners, lunchtime supervisors, school secretaries, laboratory assistants and in many other support roles, will be remain unchanged. It has sent copies of this letter to all our members who would be affected by any such change in school status.

The GMB has other concerns relating to academy status. Recent revelations about the lack of accountability and transparency within existing academies have come to light relating to the school governors and head teachers unaccountable control of finances and pay. The exclusion of academies from 'Freedom of Information' laws has been shown to lead to unacceptable and undemocratic decisions being taken by academy governing bodies under the cloak of secretary.

Sandra Vincent, GMB Organiser in Redbridge said, "Initially the government withheld the names of the schools which had expressed an interest in academy status but following GMB pressure we now know which these are. In all the schools which may be made academies GMB has taken immediate action to ensure that GMB members who work as school support staff will not suffer jobs, pay, hours, conditions or pension cuts as a result of their head teacher moving the school to be an academy.

GMB website

Using information gathered from Freedom of Information requests and official publications the GMB Trade Union has compiled a list of the Tory/Lib Dem government’s ministerial team and the value of their MPs pension hike as a result of becoming a minister.  The value is shown both as the actual pension increase and the cost of providing such increases on the open market.  These increases are on top of the MPs pension they have already accrued before becoming a minister. The rises are astonishing at a time when the Tory/Liberal government is inflicting savage public spending cuts and lecturing the rest of us on the need for restraint. In fact the amounts are eye watering and beyond the wildest dreams of the ordinary worker who would have to pay over a £1 million into their pension pot over their working lives to achieve the same benefits.

Brian Strutton. GMB National Secretary said,

“It’s quite unbelievable that Ministers preach pay and pensions restraint while quietly pocketing jaw-dropping pension rises.  The stench of hypocrisy is overwhelming.  GMB members on £6 an hour in the public sector are told they face job losses, pay freezes and pension cuts by government ministers who are taking massive hikes to their own pensions.  It’s a real sickener and the Tory and Lib Dem Ministers should hang their heads in shame.  Obviously ‘we’re all in it together’ doesn’t apply to these fattest of fat cats.”

GMB website