He acknowledged deterioration in service of British Gas and concerns over the power grid’s ability to meet demands were a direct result of mass redundancies.. Unions are still taking advantage of the ruling and attempting to ensure that privatised businesses are brought under Brussels directives.After favourable tribunal rulings, the Electricity Association offered to settle the 55 cases out of court.Meanwhile Mike Jeram, head of the new energy section of Unison, calculated that nearly 100,000 jobs had been lost in the gas and electricity industries since privatisation.Mr Jeram said 60,000 had gone in the electricity industry since 1990 and 43,000 in British Gas – just over one in two of the workforce. Thousands of women have missed out on lump sums of up to pounds 44,000 each after failing to claim compensation for forced early retirement. The public service union Unison yesterday announced it had won a total pounds 1.4m pay-out for 55 women who were made to retire at 60 by the former nationalised electricity boards.
Despite an advertising campaign, however, many more are known to have slipped through the net and are no longer able to claim compensation because their cases are “out of time”.The women were employed by 13 electricity companies throughout the United Kingdom and were forced to retire five years earlier than male colleagues doing similar jobs. The 55 are to receive between pounds 12,500 and pounds 44,000 each depending on their salary at the time they were retired.All the applicants are now over 70 and expressed their delight at the windfall Some have gone on holiday. Three have since died, one with no surviving relations left all her money to the Save the Children Fund.

The women’s case was based on a judgement by the European Court of Justice in 1991 involving a British Gas worker.The court ruled that the privatised gas company was “an emanation of the state” because it carried out public duties and therefore came under strict European equality laws. “We want to take our time and look at the figures very carefully over the next few weeks.”THE BIGGEST LOSERSThe 10 worst hit in percentage termsCambridge -pounds 4,046,727 (-4.5%)Oxford -pounds 3,138,623 (-3.5%)Liverpool -pounds 2,001,923 (-3.4%)Imperial College,London -pounds 1,983,506 (-3.7%)QM&W College,London -pounds 1,758,587 (-4.4%)King’s College,London -pounds 1,692,863 (-3.8%)UMIST -pounds 1,213,222 (-4.6%)Aston -pounds 717,717 (-4.3%)Cranfield -pounds 698,683 (-4.5%)Salford -pounds 684,869 (-3.1%). Some leading research institutions had lost out because of technical changes in the way different subject areas were funded, he said.Officials denied that science funding was being cut in order to put more money into art and design, but among the very few institutions to see a rise in budgets this year were the Royal College of Art and Wimbledon School of Art.In 1994, ministers announced that they would spend pounds 365m on university buildings in 1996-97 but the actual figure has dropped to pounds 245m.A spokeswoman for Cambridge University said the university would lose pounds 6m in the next financial year.”We are going to look at the figures very carefully and not make any hasty reactions or ring any alarm bells,” she said. I go around campuses and one of the things students prize most is the contact they have with their supervisors.

Clearly, if staff-student ratios go higher, then that interaction is affected,” he said. However, Professor Roberts added that he had great confidence in university managers and was sure that they could survive the next year. “If further cuts are made, some universities may not survive until the results of the Dearing inquiry can be implemented in 1999 or beyond.”Making the announcement, Professor Brian Fender, chief executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England, said universities should be able to make efficiency gains amounting to about 1.5 per cent of their budgets in the coming year, but in the longer term, quality could be hit.”You clearly can’t go on giving allocations of this sort without it having an effect, he said. Four English institutions are known to be in trouble, though they have not been named.He said the Government’s inquiry into higher education, headed by Sir Ron Dearing and due to report in the summer of 1997, could come too late for some of them.

“There is a limit to how much more can be achieved and still retain the capacity to impart the skills and knowledge that employers require from students,” the professor said. Among the hardest hit were some of England’s biggest and most prestigious institutions, including Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College, London.
Last night the head of the Government’s university funding agency admitted that the system could suffer serious damage if more money was not found in the next few years.England’s 170 universities and higher education colleges suffered real- terms cuts of 5 per cent overall, but budgets for buildings and equipment were reduced by 29 per cent.Professor Gareth Roberts, vice-chancellor of Sheffield University and chairman of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals, warned that some universities could close. His Duets II was named best traditional pop vocal performance.. Universities were facing up to the biggest funding cuts in a decade last night amid warnings that some of them might not survive until the Government’s newly announced review of higher education is complete. It also beat Michael Jackson in the key album of the year category.”I accept this on behalf of anyone who’s ever written a song from a very pure place, a very spiritual place,” Morissette said, after receiving the album of the year award.The Grammys’ 8,000 music industry voters also awarded Frank Sinatra his first competitive Grammy in 29 years. She said she was honoured to win in a year of so many strong performances by women artists.This year’s awards boldly eschewed the mainstream, as was demonstrated by the four awards picked up by the alternative Canadian rock singer Alanis Morissette – and by the failure of the six-times nominated Mariah Carey to pick up a single prize for her sugary pop.Morissette, 21, who shot to international stardom last year with her raw anthems of love and loss, won the awards for album of the year, best rock album, best rock song and best female rock vocal performance.Her Jagged Little Pill album, which has sold more than 5 million copies in the US, beat the veterans Bob Dylan and Neil Young as well as U2. For a while we actually dropped it.”His producer rescued it, Seal said, adding that the song had been written so many years earlier that he no longer remembered what it was about.His fellow British artist Annie Lennox received a Grammy for best female pop vocal performance.

“I saw it as so different that it couldn’t fit in with the concept of the album. Seal’s “Kiss from a Rose” from the album Seal won record and song of the year, and he also received a Grammy for best male pop vocal performance.
“‘Kiss From a Rose’ was the one that really stood out, not as a great song but as a sore thumb,” Seal said, at the US music industry’s top awards in Los Angeles. He was blamed for the failure of the Government to win the crucial Commons vote over VAT on fuel.Conservative Central Office said Mr Ryder is their 52nd MP to announce that he or she will stand down at the election.. The British singer Seal won the coveted song of the year award at yesterday’s American Grammy awards, with a song he had briefly consigned to the dustbin. The job involves getting the Government’s legislative programme through Parliament.As Mr Major’s Commons majority fell, and backbench Tory MPs became more rebellious, Mr Ryder’s job became harder.