TUC Cymru Congress 2026 - Good Well-Paid Jobs

NHS Wales workers continue to struggle to cope with the ever-rising costs of living and Congress notes with deep concern that real term pay has fallen substantially since 2008. Whilst recognising that Unions have been at the forefront in protecting the lowest paid in the NHS, the workforce has seen a sharp decline in their living standards. This has forced NHS workers into the use of food banks, resulted in poor morale and caused difficulties with retention and recruitment of staff at all levels. It has further forced union members to take unprecedented industrial action, which is necessary due to the struggles faced but adds further pressure to the NHS that we all rely on in Wales.

Yet the Welsh Government has once again accepted the findings of the unaccountable NHS Pay Review Body (NHSPRB) and has recommended a 3.3% increase for 2026/27, an offer well below the current level of inflation. This will lead Wales into even further pay erosion.

This Congress believes that the NHS Pay Review Body (PRB) is not fit for purpose and cannot offer a route to pay restoration to 2008 real term levels that the Welsh Government committed to in 2023.

Congress welcomes the fact that Welsh Government will apply the Real Living Wage top up to the lowest bands.  However, this also means staff working at different bands are on the same rate, which is unsustainable.

In Scotland, NHS workers are paid 3.5% more than equivalent workers in Wales through direct tripartite talks.

This Congress calls on the Wales TUC to urge Welsh Government to abandon the Pay Review Body approach and move to full collective bargaining with Welsh trade Unions.

A new negotiating body will soon be established for care workers in Wales, and Congress believes that collective bargaining should be extended to NHS staff too.

Congress believes that the new Welsh Government can avoid a damaging pay dispute by entering direct pay negotiations with A4C unions immediately to improve the 2026-27 pay award and commit direct pay negotiations in subsequent years.

Congress calls on the General Council to:

• Support TUC Cymru affiliates’ pay campaigns and any resulting pay disputes arising from the real terms pay cut imposed by the NHSPRB
• Facilitate affiliates to engage with the new Welsh Government on structural reform talks
• Develop a coordinated campaign to secure full funding from Welsh Government for NHS pay awards, ensuring Agenda for Change improvements are fully resourced and not funded through cuts to services, staffing or existing NHS budgets.
• Engage affiliates to work together to ensure the new Welsh Government moves to direct pay negotiations with NHS Wales AfC staff through their trade unions to improve the pay award for 2026.
• Calls on Welsh Government to lobby the UK Labour Government in Westminster to properly fund the commitments made by Welsh Government on pay restoration.

Moved by: UNISON Cymru and UNITE

Congress recognises that many performers and creative workers in Wales continue to face poverty pay, chronic insecurity, unsafe working conditions, and forced exit from the sector. These conditions weaken communities, undermine cultural provision, and waste public investment, despite the vital contribution culture makes to wellbeing, local economies, and national life.

Congress affirms that culture is skilled work and a core part of Wales’s foundational economy, rooted in place, language, community, and public value, and that winning fair work for all cultural workers is essential to its sustainability.

Congress welcomes the creation of the Arts, Creative & Media Sector Workforce Social Partnership, which brings together employers, workers, and unions to promote fair work for employed, freelance, and self-employed workers. However, the Partnership must deliver tangible change and measurable outcomes, not discussion alone.

Congress notes that the Welsh Government has devolved responsibility for culture, public funding, social partnership, and public sector conditionality, and that these powers must be used to secure fair, inclusive, and sustainable creative work.

Congress therefore calls on TUC Cymru, working with affiliated creative unions, to urge the new Welsh Government to:

• develop a long-term national culture strategy with sustained public investment, recognising culture as essential national infrastructure, supporting skills retention and workforce planning;
• embed fair pay and union-negotiated terms as a condition of public funding;
• include clauses requiring publicly funded organisations to prioritise local casting and recruitment opportunities for freelancers living in Wales and;
• strengthen monitoring and enforcement of fair-work requirements.

Congress affirms that publicly funded culture must guarantee fair pay, dignity, equality, and access for all.

Moved by Equity

Congress recognises the difficulties that freelance and self-employed workers across Wales continue to face, including poor pay, insecurity, and unsafe working conditions.

Congress therefore welcomes the new document ‘Engaging Creative Freelancers: Best Practice Guide’ published by the Musicians’ Union, Bectu, Equity, and Writers’ Guild through CULT Cymru, which offers practical guidance for organisations, engagers, and individuals on how freelancers can be engaged fairly and productively.

Congress agrees that guidance like this is positive for workers and good engagers across all sectors and engagers, not just the creative industries.

Congress calls on TUC Cymru to:

• continue it’s recent valuable work supporting fair work and social partnership in the creative industries;
• strengthen the newly established Social Partnership working group in the Arts, Creative and Media Sector to drive forward the implementation of fair, equitable and safe working practices;
• draw on ‘Engaging Creative Freelancers’ to develop and publish similar guidance across all sectors;
• seek to ensure that the resulting guidance is adopted by public bodies and engagers across all sectors;
• work with unions and the TUC to seek stronger protections for freelancers as part of their engagement with the Welsh and UK Governments on the ongoing implementation of the Employment Rights Act 2025, the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Act 2023, and the Plan to Make Work Pay.

Moved by the MU

We are seeing a rise in executive headships, collaborations and federations in Wales. We appreciate that in some cases these reforms are of great benefit to learners and the communities they serve.

However, we are concerned that these changes are being pursued in some cases to save money and in turn, put our middle leader members in a difficult position.

There is also little research on the repercussions for leaders in taking on schools with significant additional responsibilities across multiple sites with little additional pay.

There are currently no mechanisms to pay or support new leadership positions that are created in these federations and collaboration models – such as head of phase or head of school.

There is no support put in place to ensure existing middle leaders, such as deputy and assistant heads are protected in these new structures and in turn then no career progression opportunities in federations.

We call on Congress to campaign for national guidance on collaborations/federations and for changes to be made to the STPC(W)D (School teachers' pay and conditions (Wales) Document) to ensure middle leaders are appropriately recognised and renumerated for the roles they take on.

Moved by NAHT

Congress believes that the social care system in Wales is in crisis, with over 20% of revenue siphoned off to private equity companies often in tax havens abroad.

Welsh Government estimates that staffing levels are 20,000 short of what is required. With average wage for care workers barely at minimum wage level, there is little prospect of attracting the additional staff needed.

An underfunded, overstretched NHS suffers an even greater shortage of beds because social care places are not available.

Welsh Government set out its vision for social care in Wales in 2019 in 'A Healthier Wales: Our Plan For Health and Social Care' which envisaged a National Care Service, free at the point of delivery and providing a comprehensive, quality service to all who need it. However, their strategy would leave the provision of social care mainly in private hands. While social care remains in private ownership, the Welsh Government's vision of a National Care Service can never be fully realised.

Congress instructs the incoming general council to work with unions in the social care sector and sympathetic members of the Senedd to:-

• demand urgent action and additional funding to address the crisis in social care,
• support the unions in the care sector to campaign for decent pay and conditions for care workers
• demand that social care provision is brought into public ownership with no third sector involvement or private sector outsourcing, as part of a national, integrated health and social care service, free at the point of use.
• That an in-sourced National Care Service for Wales provide employment for the Care Sector with Trade Union recognition and Fair Work as expected by the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Act 2023

Moved by Swansea Trades Council

Congress notes that the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Act 2023 part 3 requires all public procurement to be 'socially responsible'.

Congress believes employers that refuse to recognise trade unions are not acting in a 'socially responsible' manner. Despite this there are currently many organisations granted public contracts in Wales that do not recognise trade unions. Congress believes that public money should not be given to such organisations.

Huge sums of money are involved, with the Welsh government alone spending around £675 million on goods and services every year (gov.uk). Many thousands of workers work in services which have been outsourced, generally leading to a race to the bottom and lack of employment rights. Congress believes we need to fight for the rights of these workers, and that union recognition is a first step towards this.

Congress calls on Welsh Government to undertake:

• That no public contracts in Wales will be given to organisations that refuse to recognise trade unions or that have a poor record in relation to workers' rights.
• That public services will be taken in-house and delivered to meet public need rather than for profit
• To invest in public services in order to ensure decent terms and conditions for all work.

Moved by Rhondda Cynon Taff Trades Council

Congress notes the publication of the Welsh Government’s Quality Statement for Maternity and Neonatal Services (February 2025), which highlights rising complexity in pregnancy, including increased rates of diabetes, higher BMI, and growing perinatal mental health needs, alongside persistent and unacceptable disparities affecting Black, Asian, and minority ethnic women.

Congress further notes warnings from the Royal College of Midwives that safe, high-quality care requires sufficient numbers of staff with the right skills, education, and training, particularly as midwives face increasing clinical acuity and more complex social and safeguarding needs.

Congress is deeply concerned by findings from multiple reviews, including the February 2026 independent review of the Birthrate Plus methodology and recent Maternity and Neonatal Assurance reviews, which identify serious and systemic failings linked to staffing pressures, skill-mix challenges, reduced capacity for education and supervision, and cultural issues within maternity services.

Congress believes that safe staffing is fundamental to delivering safe, equitable, and compassionate care for women, birthing people, babies, and the workforce.

Congress therefore calls on the Wales TUC to:

• Campaign for a fully funded national safe-staffing framework for maternity and neonatal services, aligned with evidence-based workforce tools.
• Press the Welsh Government to implement and deliver the comprehensive perinatal workforce plan.
• Advocate for the implementation of protected 52 hours for multidisciplinary training and supervision.
• Demand transparent reporting of staffing levels and red-flag incidents across all Welsh health boards.
• Champion the wellbeing of midwives and maternity support workers as a core component of maternity safety.
• Furthermore, Congress also notes that other NHS services are also suffering unsafe staffing numbers putting patients at risk across the health service.

Moved by RCM

Congress is outraged that the thousands of school support staff entrusted with our children’s welfare and supporting their learning are trapped in in-work poverty.

Many of the mainly female workforce take second jobs to survive or are forced to rely on in work benefits.

Congress agrees schools couldn’t function without them and Wales is letting them down.

Congress notes low pay is common and support staff are further trapped by term time only pay.

Career development and training opportunities are limited, and job descriptions can be vague. Support staff are regularly doing tasks above their grade for no extra pay and fixed term contracts lead to job insecurity.

Congress believes if we want an education system that delivers the best for young people, we need to ensure school support staff are treated and rewarded fairly.

Congress commends UNISON Cymru for its authoritative Labour Research Department commissioned report which concludes the creation of a Wales School Support Staff Negotiating Body (WSSSNB) is the most effective route to raise support staff pay and conditions, which will also have a positive impact on the education system. The negotiating parties for a WSSSNB will be the three unions recognised for collective bargaining purposes for school support staff in the current National Joint Council.

Congress calls on the new Welsh government to lift support staff out of poverty by creating a WSSSNB and commit to ending term time only pay as a matter of urgency.

Moved by UNISON