Today’s post reacts to the news that next week, in the UK, workers will make history by staging a strike at two McDonald’s restaurants – one in London and one in Cambridge. The first strike of its kind in McDonald’s British history is a result of poor working conditions, the use of the infamous ‘zero-hour’ contracts, and a demand for an increase in the minimum wage paid to McDonald’s employees. In this post this particular story will be used a vehicle to cover an aspect that has almost become accepted in the mainstream media, unfortunately, and that is the concept of austerity and its repulsive effects. Whilst onlookers hope that the strike will see a revolution-of-sorts amongst the fast-food industry with regards to working conditions, the reality it is that the underlying causes of the grievances aired by the staff will remain whatever the outcome of the strike, as the problem is a systemic problem. The proposed strike, which is scheduled to take place on Monday 4 th Septembe...

Today’s post focuses upon the upcoming raft of company disclosures in the U.K. that will detail the differences between what Men and Women are paid. The first companies to reveal their internal statistics include Virgin Money, Schroders, and Utilities company SSE, with the headline figure being that one of the companies, Virgin Money, has pay gaps of an extraordinary 36% , which is roughly twice the national average. In this post, then, we will look at the disclosures that are forthcoming and assess whether the actual task of forcing companies to reveal the gender pay-gaps is even something we should be insisting upon, or whether there is more to be done on a much bigger scale – there is clearly much that needs to be done, but the question remains of how it should be done to eradicate the pay-gap once and for all. The new regulations, which will be monitored by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, are aimed at all companies in England (and also public bodies) that employ ...