Friday 20 April 2012

ROTHERHAM MAY DAY MARCH!!!

An A4 leaflet for the Rotherham May Day March on 5th May; Gather at 1030am outside Rotherham Town Hall, march at 11 to a rally in All Saints' Square (1130).
May Day 2012

Sunday 15 April 2012

BANNERS HIGH FESTIVAL

                


              PROTEST IN WORDS AND MUSIC. THE ALTERNATIVE STREET PARTY.
                                                    FROM 10:00 AM
                    
SPEAKERS 
FROM RESPECT;
LIBERTY ; A WORLD TO WIN (.Corinna Lotz)
; Florence Anderson (NELP)
More to be announced
Music from The Rotherham Red Choir ; The Rawmarsh Masher :

                                                      FROM 1:00PM

WORDS AND MUSIC

AN AFTERNOON OF GREAT ENTERTAINMENT FROM POETS, MUSICIANS AND PLAY WRITES FROM AROUND YORKSHIRE

A POOR PROSPECT: TALES FROM THE WORKHOUSE Tina McKevitt and Matt Hegarty  A 60 minuteTheatre with music  

GAV. ROBERTS - POET OF THIS PARISH

FOF THEATRE GROUP: COMEDY SKETCH “WINSTON CHURCHILL”
POCKETFUL OF N’OWT

CHAZ T AND THE ERASATZ JAZZ SEXTET

ROY BLACKMAN & COMPANY  Present a short Play “PROFESSIONALISM”+ Songs from the Rotherham Bard

PAUL PEARSON
RED SHOES (to be confirmed)

FROM around 7:30pm

ROTHERHAM TITANS SOCIAL CLUB, CLIFTON LANE.
PARTY INTO THE NIGHT : ROCK ROTHERHAM

HEADLINED BY
ED TUDOR POLE

With local support from
PAPA LEGBAS (wriggle wriggle)

BRAINBOMB

THE SONS EL ROACHO

TICKET INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND IN THE FESTIVAL ON LINE 
  
Further information and tickets

Support Strikes in Rotherham Schools

Colleagues

At the moment we are expecting Swinton Community School, East Avenue Swinton, Mexborough, Yorkshire S64 8JW (Rotherham LA) to be on strike this Tuesday 17th April over one remaining redundancy following an original declaration of six.

Picketing is from 7.30am with Breakfast at 9.15 and if you can come and join us you will be very welcome. Swinton school has two entrances a long way from each other - one in East Avenue and one in Park Road. It looks like we will be picketting both.

Messages of support to the School Rep Chris Cooksey ccooksey@swinton.rotherham.sch.uk please.

Ralph Dyson
Rotherham NUT

Two £100,000-plus BBC staff avoid income tax

Employees face only 20% corporation tax after having wages paid into service companies

Two highly paid full-time BBC executives are able to avoid income tax because they are having their earnings paid into service companies.

The employees, each earning more than £100,000 annually, have been working for the corporation for more than a year and continue to do so. The tax arrangement could save them thousands of pounds, as it allows them to pay corporation tax of 20 per cent, rather than income tax at much higher rates. The revelation will be an embarrassment for the BBC at a time when tax avoidance has been described as "morally repugnant" by George Osborne.

The use of service companies is one of a number of tax avoidance measures that the chancellor vowed to clamp down on in his budget last month. Under rule IR35, individuals using service companies for their earnings should be paying full income tax and national insurance unless they are genuine freelancers with multiple sources of income and without fixed employment.

However, in response to an inquiry from Labour MP David Winnick about the number of BBC employees working full-time and paid more than £100,000 a year, Mark Thompson, the BBC's director-general, wrote: "We do have two service company arrangements in place for two individuals who have been paid more than £100,000 over the last 12 months, and whose work is now of a continuing nature, but who were both initially contracted on a fixed-term basis."

Thompson would not reveal their identities, but said that they were not in a "senior management position". He said the corporation was "reviewing both of these arrangements" to "ensure that their contractual status reflects their most recent responsibilities". He added: "We do not engage any other service companies on a continuous basis."

Winnick, who sits on the culture, media and sport select committee, said: "I think it is unacceptable that a constituent of mine earning £20,000 a year is potentially paying more in tax proportionally than highly paid executives at the BBC. It isn't fair, and I have called for the BBC to ensure that these people are paid in the normal way. I have written to Mark Thompson to ask him to inform me when he has changed the tax status of these employees."

According to a response to a freedom of information request from Tory MP David Mowat, the BBC pays 3,000 freelancers through service companies, of which 36 received £100,000 in 2011. However, those figures do not include "on-air" talent, which the corporation has refused to comment on as it could put it at a commercial disadvantage.

Mowat said he believed that the use of service companies by employees in continuous and full-time employment at the BBC must be investigated. He said: "The BBC, as an ethical organisation, should report themselves to HM Revenue and Customs [HMRC] and ask for a thorough review of the tax arrangements they have with these two individuals."

Tax has been at the centre of political debate since last month's budget. Last week, Osborne said he was shocked at the scale of tax avoidance and said he had seen "anonymised" tax returns submitted by multi-millionaires using aggressive avoidance schemes to reduce their tax bills.
HMRC found that the income tax rate among some of the highest earners was, on average, 10 per cent. Osborne said the HMRC study convinced him of the need to "take action" to ensure high earners pay more income tax. Tax arrangements have been a dominant theme in the London mayoral campaign

A BBC spokeswoman said: "The use of service companies is standard practice in the broadcasting industry and is entirely in keeping with HMRC guidelines. The great majority of these are people who have been hired to do specific jobs for a fixed period of time and when a person is contracted in this way it is their responsibility to organise their tax arrangements directly with the HMRC."

Article taken from The Guardian

Thursday 12 April 2012

MAYDAY MARCH

THE RICH GET RICHER AND WE PAY
-IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY!
WORKERS, UNEMPLOYED, OLD, WOMEN, YOUTH, DISABLED!
VOICE YOUR ANGER!
WE CALL ALL TRADE UNIONISTS, FRIENDS AND INDIVIDUALS, GROUPS AND ORGANISATIONS TO DEMONSTRATE AGAINST THE EXTREMES OF THE CON-DEM GOVERNMENT!
SATURDAY 5th MAY 2012:
10:30am OUTSIDE THE TOWN HALL![Soft Break]
BRING YOUR OWN BANNERS!
SPEAKERS FROM YOUR OWN ORGANISATION OR GROUP ARE WELCOME
Called by Rotherham Against the Cuts and the United People of Rotherham and supported by Rotherham Trades Council

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Rotherham NUT Teachers’ Association - Press Statement 10th April 2012

In 2009/10 an audit of Swinton Comprehensive School highlighted significant weaknesses with the school’s financial management.

The weaknesses had resulted in the school accumulating a deficit of £712,000 by March 2010 and this was in large part due to spending decisions which created recurring costs made during the tenure of the school’s former Headteacher who left during 2009.

The deficit increased to over £800,000 by 2010/11.
An extract from the 2009/10 Annual Governance Statement read (quote)…
“ Work is ongoing between the Children and Young People’s Service, Financial Services and the School to implement a robust recovery plan and improve budgetary control”.

In January 2012, the school announced that this “robust recovery plan” included a staff restructure which had the potential for eight teachers to lose their jobs.
In response, the NUT balloted its members at the school to ascertain support for discontinuous strike action in opposition to any compulsory redundancies.

As a result, 93% voted in favour with action commencing Tuesday 17th April 2012.
The NUT remains willing to reach a negotiated settlement to this dispute but is not prepared to sit idly by and see any of its members face compulsory redundancy as a direct result of weak financial planning and monitoring at the school.

Please send messages of support to Swinton School NUT Rep
 
Christine Cooksey Swinton School rep ccooksey61@googlemail.com

Paul Colley-Rotherham NUT Joint Divisional Secretary

Ralph Dyson-Rotherham NUT Joint Divisional Secretary
Ralphdyson@yahoo.co.uk