Scottish Water staff to strike for two days as pay standoff continues
Scottish Water staff will strike for two days from the early hours of Tuesday as a standoff over pay continues at the state-owned company.The striking workers’ union warned that emergency repairs and quality checks to water supplied to 5 million people across Scotland would not be carried out during the action on Tuesday and Wednesday.More than 1,000 workers in the Unison union will go on strike for the second time in a month in the pay dispute, after rejecting a deal that the union said was 2.6% and followed years of real-terms cuts to wages.The Unison Scottish Water branch secretary, Tricia McArthur, said: “Scottish Water workers are simply asking to be paid fairly for the essential services upon which everyone in Scotland relies.
“Things are meant to be different in a publicly owned service like this.But senior managers are behaving no differently to those running private water companies south of the border.”Scottish Water said it “did not recognise” the figures cited by Unison and said that the offer of 3.4% with a guaranteed increase of £1,400 would spell a 5.5% rise for the lowest-paid.
It said contingency plans were in place to enable it to maintain normal services during the strikes and advised customers to report any problems with the water as usual.Peter Farrer, Scottish Water’s chief operating officer, said the offer was “fair and progressive”, adding: “No one benefits from industrial action, and our focus is on continuing to deliver for our millions of customers across Scotland.We urge the unions to get back round the negotiating table as soon as possible.”Unlike in England, the water boards in Scotland were never privatised, and Scottish Water has said that it reinvests all profits, currently about £800m a year, directly back into its infrastructure, a network of 30,000 miles of pipes and about 2,000 treatment works.Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionAlthough Scotland has not experienced the scandals around financial and environmental mismanagement seen at English privatised water companies such as Thames Water, agencies have still warned that its sewage pollution could be far more widespread than realised.
Environmental Standards Scotland last year said that there had been thousands of sewage overflow incidents in the previous 12 months, with some Scottish storm overflows releasing sewage more than 500 times.The agency said that sites were spilling more frequently than should be expected, with risks to health and the environment, and that only a fraction were fully monitored.
Boeing investors brace for fallout from Trump tariffs
Investors in Boeing are braced to learn the full impact of Donald Trump’s trade war, amid fears the US planemaker could be hit harder than first expected after jets intended for a Chinese airline were returned to the US.A Boeing 737 Max 8 plane intended for use by a Chinese airline returned to the US on Monday from Boeing’s China finishing centre, according to flight data cited by Reuters. It followed the arrival in the US on Sunday of another 737 Max painted in the livery of China’s Xiamen Airlines at Boeing’s US production hub in Seattle.Boeing’s share price fell by nearly 3% on Monday, in line with a sell-off across Wall Street. US stock markets have been hit with much higher volatility this month as investors have tried to work out the effects of Trump’s tariffs
Trump’s erratic tariffs harder to navigate than pandemic, says UK export agency
The government agency responsible for supporting UK exporters has warned that uncertainty created by Donald Trump’s rapidly shifting tariff policies is making it difficult to predict the financial fallout for British businesses.Tim Reid, the chief executive of UK Export Finance (UKEF), said the US president’s escalating trade war posed a unprecedented challenge.UKEF is no stranger to a crisis. It was established in 1919 to help firms hit by the submarine blockade after the first world war. A century later, it mobilised to get government-backed loans and financial support to companies whose revenues were upended by supply chain disruptions during the Covid pandemic
Australians pay $84 a month for their internet. Why so expensive, and what can be done to lower the cost?
Australians are paying an average of $84 per month for internet access on the NBN – and in a cost-of-living crisis, questions are being raised about why cheaper internet is not available for people on lower incomes.What could be done to lower NBN pricing plans, and can we learn from overseas?According to the latest report, about 8.6m of the 12.5m premises able to connect to the NBN are now using the service in Australia.Consumer advocacy group Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (Accan’s) latest survey conducted by Essential, of 1,065 people, found Australians are paying $84 per month on average for their home internet connection, with 31% paying between $81 and $100, 30% paying between $61 and $80, 20% paying over $100, and just 13% paying $60 or under (with the rest unsure)
Views of TikTok posts with electronic music outgrow those using indie
It is another example of the parallel worlds in the music industry. The Gallagher brothers may be taking over the world’s stadiums this summer, but over on TikTok users are moving to a different beat.Views of posts using electronic music as a soundtrack, including techno and house, outgrew those tagged for indie and alternative for the first time in 2024, according to the social media app.There were more than 13bn views of videos tagged #ElectronicMusic worldwide last year, an increase of 45% on 2023, representing faster growth than the “indie and alternative” and “rap and hip-hop” genres. Videos created with the electronic music tag grew by more than 100% over the same period
County cricket day four: Essex survive Ethan Brookes onslaught to grab first win
A thunder and lightning 88 from Ethan Brookes took Worcestershire to within sniffing distance of victory on a morning of high drama at Chelmsford. Starting the day needing 110, with four wickets in hand, Worcestershire quickly lost three, which stung Brookes into an astonishing array of hitting, finding the rope even with every Essex fielder stationed on the boundary.But with 28 needed, and just after flaying Porter over fine leg for his seventh six, Brookes palmed the ball in the air and Porter threw himself into a caught and bowled down in the dust. Brookes put out a questioning arm and a fired-up Porter briefly looked as if he was going into the ring. But the umpire gently intervened, the finger was raised and handshakes followed
‘I can trust him’: Emma Raducanu to continue coaching partnership with Mark Petchey
Emma Raducanu has revealed she intends to continue her coaching partnership with Mark Petchey on an ad hoc basis following her quarter-final run at the Miami Open last month.“We’re keeping things informal for now and it’s been working,” she said in a joint interview with the Guardian and the BBC before the Madrid Open. “He’s someone I’ve known for a long time and I do feel like I can trust him.“For now there is no real thing set in stone but we’re taking it week to week and he’s helping me as much as he can alongside his current commitments.”Raducanu had arrived at the Miami Open last month on a trial with the Slovak coach Vladimir Platenik before opting to dissolve their prospective partnership on the eve of the tournament
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