News | Page 32

TUC (Trades Union Congress) general secretary Brendan Barber highlighted Unions’ concern over wide-ranging measures to slash the deficit when told delegates at this week’s annual congress: "These are not temporary cuts, but a permanent rollback of public services and the welfare state.

Regulations have just been introduced regarding equal opportunities at work. The new law applies in Wales, and it also includes new powers for employment tribunals. The Equality Act covers many workplace areas and draws nine separate pieces of legislation into a single Act.

Packaging giant Tetra Pak hopes to keep 135 out of 265 jobs in part of the business and by creating a warehouse after it announced it plans to stop production at a cartons factory with the loss of 150 jobs in Wrexham. Clwyd South MP Susan Elan Jones is "very shocked" and wants to meet management. She said: "My key concern now will be to ensure that the local workforce receive the best possible terms."

Consultant Stephen Taylor, who has advised government agencies and the Cabinet Office, defended large salaries in the public sector after it emerged there were nearly 40,000 public employees earning above £100,000. Mr Taylor said for positions such as running a large local authority, there were not many people with the qualifications (especially at a time when the job would require implementation of deep cuts) and they commanded high wages.

The Merthyr Tydfil Football Club changing room was extensively damaged by a blaze at the weekend. The conflagration was confined to the two-storey room, emergency services said. Fire services attended the stadium at Penydarren Park at 0149 BST on Sunday.

Jobs hope to be created from a £23 million Bangor University marine project which has been given the go-ahead. It is hoped the investment will enable Bangor University’s School of Ocean Sciences to encourage hundreds of new businesses to grow. Project manager Dr Gay Mitchelson-Jacob said Wales had unrivalled academic expertise in coastal marine science, and the sector was of growing importance in the country. "It’s quite a large sector.

It took 30 crew members to control a big fire which lasted throughout the night at Swansea’s Linamar car parts factory. Four pumping appliances, a foam tender, a turntable ladder and an environmental unit were initially called to tackle the fire. The fire was in the "effluent plant" which takes fluids from the production area but quickly spread to a workshop.

Shadow education secretary Ed Balls hopes his jobs plan will propel him to victory in the Labour leadership contest. Mr Balls said: "We need to do more to boost jobs, promote growth and get the economy moving again.

There are fears about the effect of swingeing national debt-shattering cuts on local services, especially after an independent analysis claimed the effect on Wales could be twice as bad as more prosperous areas of England. Local finance chiefs were already stunned that the public cuts announced a quarter of the way through the financial year take effect immediately – and more is to come following budget announcements later this year.

Reports in the Daily Mirror say the BBC is re-organising this year’s ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ pay structure so that this time the competitors will be paid per dance. A source close to the hit television show told the newspaper: "This is a way of rewarding those who do well rather than paying one big lump sum.

The nine regional development agencies (RDAs) are to be scrapped, documents from the last Budget show. One of those, the South West RDA says on its website it “works for and promotes a modern, stronger and more resilient economy across South West England.” Chancellor George Osborne said that the British economy had become "deeply unbalanced" with "disparities" between job creation.

The Government is trying all sorts of ways to slash billions off the annual deficit, and one of these has been to axe the Audit Commission to save £50m annually, which fits in with the coalition’s remit to give more power to the people in how councils are run. The move has immediately been blasted by the Opposition, with shadow communities secretary John Denham saying the Commission needed "reform not abolition".