Month: May 2025

Learning at Work Week 2025 is taking place next week 12th-18th of May

Learning at Work Week 2025 is taking place next week 12th-18th of May

Please see all of the information below on free courses and webinars on a wide range of subjects.

Explore thousands of free courses  

OpenLearn has over 1000 free courses, interactives and more.

Google digital garage has free courses on marketing, using data and developing your career 

MOOC providers offer free and paid for courses  – check out Alison, Coursera, Futurelearn, EdX and Udemy

Sustainability School is a free platform for the built environment sector with thousands of online learning resources surrounding various sustainability, offsite, digital, procurement, lean and management topics.

Gain the essentials for life, work and business  

Take the National Numeracy Challenge and join the Big Number Natter. 

Skills for Life  offers training, support and advice to gain the skills you need 

BBC SkillsWise has short courses for English, Maths and job skills 

Explore tools, tips and resources from Barclays Life Skills  

NatWest’s Business Builder provides short courses and events on business risk and sustainability

Take a Mid-Life MOT to support your wealth, work and wellbeing

Explore My World of Work (Scotland), Careers Wales (Wales) and National Careers Service (England) for careers and skills support.

Build your tech skills 

Take a free tech course with Udacity   

Learn to code with Code Academy  

Browse Microsoft’s tech courses 

Be creative 

Try upcycling furniture with this guide from The Guardian 

Start writing fiction with this free OpenLearn course 

Check out an art and media course at FutureLearn Feel and Be well  

Five tips to improve your sleep and lots of wellbeing ideas on Michael Mosley’s Just One Thing

Explore the ten keys for happiness on Action for Happiness 

 
Be inspired 

BBC Ideas explores lots of topics in partnership with the Royal Society – watch them as a team and discuss!   

Read stories on art, culture, archaeology and history at Museum Crush from Culture 24  

Practice or learn a new language with DuoLingo   

Take part in a Learning at Work Week 2025 webinar

There are various webinars taking place during Learning at Work Week – see our roundup below. Do check to see who the webinar is suitable for before registering!

13 May, 11am: Unplug and Play: Helping Parents Raise Tomorrow’s Thinkers…Today by Unplugged Tots – suitable for parents and carers of children under 10

13 May, 2pm: Connecting digital leaders by NHS Education for Scotland – suitable for general public sector organisations, senior leaders and L&D professionals

13 May, 3.30pm: Future-prime your leadership career: act now to meet the challenges and changes of tomorrow’s workplace – suitable for learning and development professionals, leaders, managers (at all levels), people development professionals 

14 May, 11am: Connect to your learning power with a growth mindset by Campaign for Learning – suitable for everyone

15 May, 11am: Joining your data with Excel by NHS Education for Scotland – suitable for anyone using Excel

15 May, 1pm: Connect and inspire – great ways to get your children learning by Campaign for Learning – suitable for parents and carers of children aged 3-11

16 May, 12pm: Connecting with Change: How Laughter Makes Learning Sticky by Laughology – suitable for learning professionals, managers or leaders – register to receive the recording

16 May 12:30pm: Are you looking to use AI for people development, but you don’t know where to start? – suitable for learning and development professionals, leaders, managers (at all levels), people development professionals

21 May, 12pm: Enhance internal training with accreditation and digital credentials by NCFE – suitable for HR, L&D and talent professionals 

For more webinars from D4S Partnership and InSync Training, check out the national activities and special offers page.

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Parcelforce ECHR Claim

Parcelforce ECHR Claim

Branches will recall that during the 2022-23 National Dispute, Parcelforce excluded workers who took part in balloted strike action from receiving premium payments for working weekends during Peak. At that time the CWU sought legal advice which suggested that this was an “unlawful inducement” to attempt to persuade workers not to take part in trade union activities.

On the basis of that legal advice, the CWU launched a group claim which circa 2000 CWU members in Parcelforce signed into.

Due to the Mercer Ruling at the UK Supreme court in 2024 this claim was struck out as taking part in strike action is absurdly not considered to be a “trade union activity” in UK law.

We therefore sought further legal advice to the effect that this ruling is in breach of the UK’s obligations under the European Court of Human Rights, of which the UK government is a creator and signatory. This includes Article 11 which covers the right to join a trade union and article 6 the right to a fair trial. The Union’s National Executive Council has therefore authorised a group claim to the ECHR on this basis.

We are now seeking authority from those members covered by the claim to enter into the ECHR claim. No legal costs will be incurred by the members to take part in this claim, they will simply need to return a hard copy of a signed form along with some details. A letter detailing this has been sent to all eligible claimants and is attached to this LTB. This contains further details on the process and legal background.

However the crucial message is as follows, if members do not opt in to take part in the claim, they will no longer have an active claim and will not be able to join this claim at a later date. Forms should be returned to Unionline by no later than 19 May 2025. 

Therefore, as there is a good chance that some compensation may be paid out to individuals who take part in the claim, we would advise members to sign and return the form as soon as possible.

It is important to note that only members who took part in the original claim are eligible to join this claim. 

Please direct any enquiries about this LTB to rwotherspoon@cwu.org or contact Unionline at echr@unionline.co.uk.

Yours sincerely,

Martin Walsh   

Deputy General Secretary (Postal)     

Davie Robertson

Assistant Secretary

LTB 08/25 – Parcelforce ECHR Claim

European Court of Human Rights Application Guidance Document

Frequently asked questions

Letter to Member

ECHR application form – Signature page only

ECHR MEMBER INFORMATION (Form download)

View Online

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