The United Kingdom

Well, UKIP now has it's first MP:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-29549414

They've given Labour a scare in Heywood and Middleton, but I can only call the turn out there as abysmal.

I'm quite looking forward to the General Election next year. It'll be interesting to see what happens, I smell another coalition government.....

Mike.

Labour are throwing a classic kiddy-strop and refusing to discuss even the possibility of Scottish MP's not being allowed to vote on matters that affect England and only England.

Part of this is that they can easily see a day when they win an Election by a slim majority and don't have enough votes to try and pass laws in England due to their reliance on Scottish MP's.

Their two-tier argument is rather hypocritical since that is what we currently have with Scottish MP's being able to vote on pure Scottish, pure English and full-UK laws while the English MP's are limited to the latter two.

Does the concept of fair play only occur when otherwise they'd be at a slight disadvantage?

Michael Everett wrote:Labour are throwing a classic kiddy-strop and refusing to discuss even the possibility of Scottish MP's not being allowed to vote on matters that affect England and only England.

Part of this is that they can easily see a day when they win an Election by a slim majority and don't have enough votes to try and pass laws in England due to their reliance on Scottish MP's.

It's Labour, what do you expect? Machine politics par excellence, it's what their good at.

Michael Everett wrote:......Scottish MP's being able to vote on pure Scottish, pure English and full-UK laws while the English MP's are limited to the latter two.

Hmmm, not strictly true. Something which many people seem to miss is that on devolved matters in Scotland, Scottish MP's can't vote on them either.

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/visitandlearn/Education/18642.aspx

In brief:

"Devolved powers

The following areas are decided in Scotland.

Health
Education
Housing
Sport and Arts
Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing
Emergency Services
Planning
Social Work
Heritage
some Transport
Tourism"

Anything within this list is devolved, hence no-one at Westminster is able to vote on it. Only the MSP's at Holyrood can do so.

For example, Gordon Brown cannot vote on matters pertaining to education within his own constituency in the same way that William Haig cannot. As we both know, the reverse isn't true and is the core essence of Tam Dalyell's West Lothian question.

The unequal status also applies to Cardiff, Stormont and London, though the details differ.

It'll be interesting to see what would happen if Boris Johnson became Prime Minister whilst having a London constituency. He'd be able to set transport policy in England but would be unable to have a say in the matter in his own constituency as it's devolved to the London Assembly...

Anyway, for further info, the following areas are reserved for Westminster only:

"Reserved powers

Decisions (mostly about matters with a UK or international impact) are reserved and dealt with at Westminster.

Defence
UK Foreign Policy
Social Security
Financial & Economic Matters
Employment
Constitutional matters
Immigration & Nationality
Monetary System
Common Markets
Some transport
Data Protection
Energy
Gambling
Medical Ethics
Equal Opportunities"

This means that the MSP's are unable to vote on them, but everyone at Westminster can.

Mike.

All of this news coverage of Princess Kate has me wondering. She is fortunate in that she is a princess and can be bedridden for whatever time she is necessary. But what about an ordinary woman with a job? What sort of legal protections are available to her?

In the USA the answer is virtually none. The family and medical leave act grants 12 weeks of UNPAID leave if the employer employs more than 50 people. The Americans with Disabilities act may partially protect female employees in this situation but that is still being fought out in the courts, so who knows.

biochem wrote:All of this news coverage of Princess Kate has me wondering. She is fortunate in that she is a princess and can be bedridden for whatever time she is necessary. But what about an ordinary woman with a job? What sort of legal protections are available to her?

In the USA the answer is virtually none. The family and medical leave act grants 12 weeks of UNPAID leave if the employer employs more than 50 people. The Americans with Disabilities act may partially protect female employees in this situation but that is still being fought out in the courts, so who knows.

My own employers are one of the largest supermarkets in this country and I've had the pleasure of having been a payroll clerk, so I have some first hand knowledge of procedure here.

First off, sick pay entitlement. For my own employers, colleagues qualify for Company Sick Pay after they've been with the company for six months. Between six months and two years, sick pay starts after the third day of absence. After two years of service, it starts on day one. How much CSP the person gets is determined by their length of service, from a minimum of 2 weeks for 6-12 months service up to 6 months for colleagues with 15+ years of service

There is also Statutory Sick Pay, which is paid by the government and kicks in on day four of absence assuming the person is eligible. This lasts for 28 weeks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statutory_sick_pay

https://www.gov.uk/statutory-sick-pay/overview

What this means in practice is that on days one-three the company pays all of what the colleague is entitled to (if they're eligible) and starting on day four the person receives both SSP and CSP in a ratio that takes them up to their base pay.

For example, if their weekly pay comes up to £200, then SSP covers the first £87.55, then CSP makes up the remaining £112.45.

Once they run out of CSP, they receive SSP only which means they get less money per week. Once SSP runs out, the person must apply for Employment and Support Allowance from the Government as they no longer receive any income from the company.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employment_and_Support_Allowance

https://www.gov.uk/employment-support-allowance/overview

Assuming that the person keeps in touch with their employers on a regular basis, the employer cannot fire them as that would be unfair dismissal. Both parties can however agree to medical dismissal if the person is no longer able to fulfill their duties.

https://www.gov.uk/dismiss-staff/dismissals-due-to-illness

https://www.gov.uk/dismiss-staff/overview

UK Government website on employment regulation:

https://www.gov.uk/browse/employing-people

Tip of the iceberg, but I hope that gives some idea as to the constraints that employers operate within and the protections that employees have in this country.

Mike.

Here its about the same, but sick leave is always paid out if you have days built up, and you choose to use them. you get given an allotment of 5 to 7 days sick leave min, depending on how long you been at work, and can build up more.


for maternity, you give notice 3 months prior to expected date, and get 14 weeks off. If your employer ot dr asks you to go earlier then 6 weeks before due date, it is extended until 8 weeks after birth, at full pay up to 504 a week. Over the next few years to increase to 18 weeks. After this, there is an addtional 38 weeks unpaid that can be split.

Michael Riddell wrote:My own employers are one of the largest supermarkets in this country and I've had the pleasure of having been a payroll clerk, so I have some first hand knowledge of procedure here.

First off, sick pay entitlement. For my own employers, colleagues qualify for Company Sick Pay after they've been with the company for six months. Between six months and two years, sick pay starts after the third day of absence. After two years of service, it starts on day one. How much CSP the person gets is determined by their length of service, from a minimum of 2 weeks for 6-12 months service up to 6 months for colleagues with 15+ years of service

There is also Statutory Sick Pay, which is paid by the government and kicks in on day four of absence assuming the person is eligible. This lasts for 28 weeks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statutory_sick_pay

https://www.gov.uk/statutory-sick-pay/overview

What this means in practice is that on days one-three the company pays all of what the colleague is entitled to (if they're eligible) and starting on day four the person receives both SSP and CSP in a ratio that takes them up to their base pay.

For example, if their weekly pay comes up to £200, then SSP covers the first £87.55, then CSP makes up the remaining £112.45.

Once they run out of CSP, they receive SSP only which means they get less money per week. Once SSP runs out, the person must apply for Employment and Support Allowance from the Government as they no longer receive any income from the company.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employment_and_Support_Allowance

https://www.gov.uk/employment-support-allowance/overview

Assuming that the person keeps in touch with their employers on a regular basis, the employer cannot fire them as that would be unfair dismissal. Both parties can however agree to medical dismissal if the person is no longer able to fulfill their duties.

https://www.gov.uk/dismiss-staff/dismissals-due-to-illness

https://www.gov.uk/dismiss-staff/overview

UK Government website on employment regulation:

https://www.gov.uk/browse/employing-people

Tip of the iceberg, but I hope that gives some idea as to the constraints that employers operate within and the protections that employees have in this country.

Mike.

Ours depends on the individual industry award but generally -
When you start work you accumulate sick leave on a pro rata basis at a rate of two weeks a year. This sick leave is paid at your full time basic rate (no overtime or weekend loadings), and accumulates over time. Most industries don't pay you out for unused sick leave, the argument being that to do so would encourage sick people to come to work and risk their fellow worker's health.

When I left work I lost over a year's full time wage entitlement, despite using some up as I got older.

If you run out of sick leave the welfare net pays you an allowance at the unemployment rate, but the system then looks into either rehabilitating or retraining you.

She's finally back. She was out 11 weeks, so were she a normal person in the US she would have used up 11 of her 12 legally allotted weeks, leaving 1 week for the actual birth. Assuming that she took no additional days off for the entire pregnancy. And assuming that she worked for a company with more than 50 people (if she worked for a smaller company she would already have been laid off). If her company provides vacation time she would be able to use that as well and have an extra 2-3 weeks on top of the sick leave time. The 2-3 weeks of vacation time would be paid, the rest unpaid. Note, that while the law specifies the minimum but the company could be more generous if they chose. Some (not all) US employers would choose to be more generous than the law demands in this situation.

Back to politics, Milliband (Labour party leader/leader of the Opposition) has discovered that his party is in real trouble.

A recent poll strongly suggested that of the 46 Scottish Labour MP's, maybe 6 of them will still be MP's after the next election, meaning that Milliband can't count on them to leverage Labour into power.

Add to that the fact that the Lib-Dems are losing voters and UKIP are gaining popularity and the next election will be rather complex...

We may end up with a Tory/UKIP alliance in power, meaning that Brussels will be rather worried...

Merkel's already made her views known:

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/germany-warns-no-going-back-britain-curbs-eu-152031831.html

Interesting times.....

Back to Labour, I see Alistair Darling has announced he's stepping down as an MP. For non-UK readers, he's a former Chancellor of the Exchequer and was the leader of the pro-Union side in the Scottish Referendum debate. He's joining Jack Straw, a former Foreign Secretary and David Blunkett, a former Home Secretary, in doing so. That's three big names in the party leaving.

It's possible that Darling's jumping ship before he's voted out by his constituents next year. According to the polls that Michael Everett mentioned above, he'd be one of the Labour MP's who'd lose his seat.

An interesting side effect of a Labour collapse in Scotland would be an awful lot of SNP MP's, possibly led by a certain Alex Salmond, residing at Westminster. Since the current set of Nationalist MP's don't vote on English matters, having 30-40 of them would rather negate the need for "English Votes for English Laws".

Mike.