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General Council Report 2021

TUC Congress 2021
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TUC mission statement

The TUC brings together over five and a half million working people who belong to our 48 member unions. We support trade unions to grow and thrive, and we stand up for everyone who works for a living. We campaign every day for more and better jobs, and a more equal, more prosperous country.

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Frances O'Grady © Jess Hurd/reportdigital.co.uk
©Jess Hurd/reportdigital.co.uk

Introduction - Frances O'Grady 

This year, thanks to the heroic efforts of our members in the NHS, the great majority of the adult UK population has been vaccinated against Covid-19, and there is hope on the horizon.

Throughout the crisis, union reps have stepped up to enforce safety standards, as across the UK workers kept the economy running. And, just as the TUC argued, wage subsidy schemes – that at their peak protected over eleven million livelihoods – have secured a faster economic bounce-back, with most of those furloughed now back at work.

The TUC and unions have stood strong to protect working people’s jobs, health and dignity. In turn, more working people have joined unions, with total net membership rising four years in a row.

The drive for digital organising, with online mass meetings and reps training, alongside face-to-face, is beginning to bear fruit.

And we can all share pride in union achievements this year, from protecting safety and skills, to fighting the obscenity of fire and rehire, and winning trailblazing agreements in the gig economy. ’Flexibility’ should not be a one-way street to exploitative fake self-employment, zero-hours contracts and unpaid overtime. The pandemic has unleashed a huge appetite for more positive flexibility to help balance work and family life.

While the government drags its feet on the promise of an employment bill to ‘level up’ rights, it has rushed to sign trade agreements that put jobs and public services in peril. As the host of the G7’s labour arm, the TUC argued to lift global standards for employment, environmental and data privacy rights, and to set a minimum global corporation tax. Global union solidarity has never mattered more as together we demand governments rewrite the rules that have been rigged against working people for far too long.

Instead of tying unions up in red tape, the PM should follow President Biden’s lead and recognise that stronger union rights is one of the best ways to level up at work.

There can be no complacency given the failure of global leadership to vaccinate the world equally, risking the rise of new virus variants, the growth of long Covid cases and the threat of a tough winter ahead. Rather than pull the plug on vital support for working families and our industries, UK nations and regions need ambitious government action to prevent unemployment, and speed a decent jobs-led recovery.

In advance of the COP26 climate conference, the TUC set out a bold £85bn green investment plan that would cut carbon, upskill and create over a million new jobs, and deliver a just transition for our communities. We have called for urgent investment in our public services to fill vacancies, deal with the backlog and pandemic-proof our resilience for the future. And we have launched an AI manifesto calling for new technologies that humanise – not atomise – working lives, and to share their multi-billion pound productivity gains fairly. We demand fair wages for those who can work, and decent pensions and social security for those who cannot.

While inequality did not start with Covid-19, the pandemic has made it a whole lot worse, with those on the frontline much more likely to be women, BME and migrant workers, and on low pay and insecure contracts. Our new Anti-Racism Taskforce aims to put equality at the heart of our organising, bargaining and campaign strategies, and to ensure that the TUC and unions get our own houses in order, leading by example.

Whatever our race, religion, gender, disability, sexuality or class background, everyone should be included and treated with dignity at work.

And we all deserve answers about how austerity cuts left our public services understaffed, overstretched and ill-prepared for the pandemic. We need to know who benefited from multi-million pound government contracts and why there was a catastrophic failure to fix track and trace, sick pay and PPE. And why there has been one rule for the few and quite another for everybody else.

So, the TUC has campaigned for an urgent independent public inquiry into the government’s handling of the pandemic. Many of our members in key worker jobs put their health and lives on the line for the rest of us. We must learn the lessons and deliver a new deal for working people, and a new direction for the UK. Let this Congress mark the beginning.

Frances O'Grady

Leading the response to Covid-19
Tube worker

1.1 Introduction

When the pandemic hit, working people stepped up. Through the second and third lockdowns and as restrictions began to ease, our key workers kept the country going. The TUC argued throughout for decent economic support to protect jobs and stop businesses going to the wall. We stood up for safety at work, and highlighted the impact of the pandemic on Black workers, on women and parents, and on disabled workers. We supported the vaccine rollout and continued to argue for decent sick pay for everyone. As the pandemic recedes, we will argue for a safe reopening of the economy, and a full public inquiry that delivers change on the movement’s policy agenda, accountability for the government’s mishandling of the response, and closure for families who have lost loved ones.

1.2 Economic and labour market measures

Protecting jobs and livelihoods

Responding to the General Council statement on the economy, alongside composite 2 and resolution 8, the TUC has fought to protect jobs and livelihoods throughout the pandemic.

We pushed for the coronavirus job retention scheme (JRS) and the self-employment income support scheme (SEISS), with the general secretary meeting the Chancellor on a number of occasions. In October 2020, the government announced that it would introduce a short-time working scheme to replace the JRS following a TUC campaign to prevent a cliff-edge removal of financial support. As the pandemic worsened, though, under pressure from the TUC the government announced the continuation of the JRS and SEISS until March 2021.

As March 2021 approached, the TUC campaigned anew for the extension of both the JRS and SEISS. The government announced the schemes would continue until September 2021, with employer contributions starting in July, and a less generous SEISS grant. There was limited progress on including more self-employed people. In the summer, the TUC warned that the failure to delay employer contributions or extend the scheme after the extension of restrictions to 19 July posed a serious risk to jobs.

Throughout, the TUC has called for improvements to the schemes, including protection for minimum wage workers and inclusion of those missed out by the SEISS.

We have published a monthly jobs and recession monitor to highlight the need for action on unemployment, focusing on the disproportionate impact of job losses on Black and minority ethnic and young workers.

We have also campaigned to support livelihoods. The need for decent sick pay has never been clearer. In February, we published a report analysing the failings of the new self-isolation payment, gaining widespread media coverage. Additional funding for the self-isolation payment was announced in the budget, but further analysis in June found the cash was still not reaching workers who needed it. Research commissioned from the Fabian Society showed that better sick pay is affordable.

The flaws of universal credit have been further exposed over the past year. The TUC published a report on the devastating impact of the five-week wait for the benefit, and a separate report on the pressures on families.

Shopper

We started a new working group with unions on how to replace universal credit with a decent social security system, and joined other organisations in campaigning to keep the temporary £20 weekly uplift. In line with resolutions 36 and 37, we have looked to highlight the specific impact of the pandemic on maritime workers, including the need for more enforcement of their right to a national minimum wage.

Delivering the jobs of the future through a new industrial strategy

We made the case for a new industrial strategy to deliver decent jobs. We published proposals for how UK procurement and state aid policy could be reformed to support strategic industries, including steel. And, after the announcement of a Brexit deal, we set out a 10-point plan to support jobs, including investment in manufacturing. In June, we published analysis showing how green investment plans in the UK fell short of those in all other G7 countries except Japan.

We used a report on Amazon’s mistreatment of its workforce to make the case for a new retail industrial strategy, in line with resolution 8, and have called for additional support for the retail sector to help deal with the pandemic.

We condemned the government’s decision to disband the Industrial Strategy Council in January. This was another sign of the government’s unwillingness to engage unions in strategic decisions – and it has continued to resist our calls for a tripartite national recovery council.

Building back better with a new deal for workers

The TUC has continued to put the call for a new deal for working people at the forefront of its campaigning work, in line with resolution 58. We have demonstrated the devastating impact of insecure work during the pandemic, with research showing that workers in insecure occupations face higher mortality rates. We showed how zero-hours contracts embed structural racism in the labour market, and demanded a ban. We published an action plan to toughen up labour market enforcement. And we highlighted the new frontiers of worker exploitation, publishing research and a manifesto on the responsible use of artificial intelligence.

We condemned the government’s failure to bring forward an Employment Bill to take action on insecure work, and engaged extensively with the Labour Party to promote proposals for a new deal.

1.3 Safe working

Workplace health and safety has continued to be a critical area of work. While many have been able work from home, in line with government guidance, many working people have continued to attend workplaces, with thousands of key workers facing an increased risk of exposure to Covid-19.

The TUC has supported safety reps to hold employers to account in how they carry out and share risk assessments and ensure Covid-19 safety at work. While many employers have worked with safety reps to agree safe working systems, many reps have told us about unsafe practices, including the complete absence of any risk assessment in some workplaces.

We have demanded that government increases the resources for regulation and enforcement of workplace safety, and challenged the senior leadership of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), both directly and in parliament. The deputy general secretary appeared at a Work and Pensions Select Committee hearing, raising concerns about the quality of contracted-out spot-checks, which have effectively replaced many inspections, and the failure to prosecute any employers for workplace safety violations.

The employee representatives on the HSE board challenged the HSE’s decision to classify Covid-19 as ‘significant’ but not ‘serious’ in its enforcement management model (EMM). There have so far been more than 14,000 working-age Covid-19-related fatalities, alongside massive underreporting of worker fatalities through Riddor, the system for reporting workplace injuries and diseases. We believe the designation of Covid-19 as merely ‘significant’ in the EMM has led to inspectors having fewer enforcement options at their disposal – and that the HSE leadership has not prioritised regulation, enforcement and the prosecution of non-compliant employers.

We have continued to engage with government to provide good, clear guidance to enable employers to deliver Covid-secure workplaces. While unions have secured some excellent sectoral and workplace agreements on standards to protect workers’ health and safety, the guidance produced by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), in consultation with the TUC and unions, has provided a useful benchmark for unions to hold other employers to account. We wrote to the business secretary to urge him to reconsider his decision not to consult with unions and employers before revising this guidance in advance of the economy unlocking on 19 July.

Unions are increasingly grappling with the legacy of coronavirus, in particular the issue of long Covid. As well as working to ensure long Covid is recognised as a disability within the scope of the Equalities Act, the TUC and the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council (IIAC) have called for Covid-19 to be regarded as a proscribed industrial injury.

A social graphic from the #LetsVaccinateBritain campaign
A social graphic from the #LetsVaccinateBritain campaign

The TUC has encouraged all working people to get vaccinated. In early 2021, we joined the Daily Mirror and the Labour Party in the #LetsVaccinateBritain campaign, urging employers to give workers time off for vaccine appointments. The TUC’s position is that no worker should be required to be vaccinated against coronavirus as a condition of their job, as we set out in our response to the Cabinet Office consultation on mandatory vaccinations for social care workers.

1.4 Public services

Key workers across the economy kept Britain going during the pandemic. From retail and distribution, to public transport and logistics, to public services such as health, social care, local government and fire and emergency services as identified in resolution 1, the contribution of working people has been clear – and appreciated by a grateful public.

Bus driver
Like many other key worker groups, bus drivers have suffered a disproportionately high number of deaths during the pandemic © PA Images/Alamy Stock Photo

But that appreciation has not been demonstrated in how key workers are treated. Key workers who have continued to attend workplaces throughout the pandemic have contracted Covid-19 at higher rates. Key worker occupations have had higher numbers of deaths. Throughout, employers and the government have too often failed to put in place necessary safety protections. Those most in need of PPE have been denied access to it and those on the most precarious contracts have endured the poorest safety management. This has had a profoundly unequal impact.

The TUC has worked with unions to lobby government and employers to deliver safe working for key workers, and to make specific interventions in those sectors where the pandemic has had the biggest impact.

In public transport, the TUC supported unions to secure a consistent and effective approach to safe working in our rail and bus networks. We worked with Department for Transport (DfT) ministers and officials to mitigate the impact of the severe decline in passenger numbers, including on Eurostar where unions have pressed the case for UK government support for an essential international corridor.

Aviation has been one of the sectors severely impacted by the government’s response to the pandemic. We have brought unions together to influence DfT and Treasury decisions. Collectively, we worked with employers and industry bodies to seek a coherent, industry-wide support package, and to press the government to provide a more consistent process for the safe reopening of international travel. Aviation is likely to continue to lag behind other sectors in any economic recovery, and we will continue to press government for the tailored support it needs.

Unions have been instrumental in ensuring that school workplaces are as safe as they can be, balancing pressure for schools to be open to as many pupils as possible with the safety of school staff, pupils and their families. In 2021, school staff continued to provide in-school teaching and support for the children of key workers, while also running online teaching and support for children learning from home.

Public inquiry

The prime minister has announced that an independent public inquiry into the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic will commence in spring 2022. We welcomed the announcement but, given the average length of a public inquiry, it is unlikely that a final report will be published before the next general election.

In line with composite 1, the TUC will seek to ensure that the government is subject to robust public scrutiny through a timely and independent inquiry that covers the right ground, is informed by the evidence and holds ministers to account. Most importantly, we want the inquiry to achieve policy change on safety at work, strong public services and a proper social security safety net, alongside action to address inequalities. And we hope that it will provide answers to those who have lost loved ones.

We have established a working group of unions to plan and coordinate activity and to ensure that trade union voices are heard during the inquiry, while recognising the significant resources issues that will arise.

We will continue to press for an accelerated timescale, fast-track process and the early appointment of a chair and panel. We will also seek a proper consultation on the terms of reference, to ensure that the inquiry covers the key issues for trade unions and our members.

Unequal impacts

In line with composite 8 and the General Council statement on the unequal impact of coronavirus...

...the TUC has highlighted how the pandemic, and the government’s response to it, has had a disproportionate impact on a number of groups of workers, deepening existing social and economic inequalities.

During the pandemic, women have borne the brunt of care for children, friends and family, as schools, childcare and support services closed down. Women have also faced a higher risk of losing their jobs and seeing their incomes reduced. But women’s needs have been consistently overlooked by the government.

The TUC has highlighted the devastating impact of disruption to schooling and childcare on maternal employment. We called for immediate changes to the parental leave system, urgent investment in the childcare sector, a day one right to flexible working and for ministers to introduce a right to furlough for those with caring responsibilities. Throughout, we have worked with allies who have enabled us to reach new audiences, such as the influencer and campaigner MotherPukka. Ahead of the autumn budget, the TUC proposed a family stimulus package to boost universal credit and double child benefit. We also exposed the workplace discrimination against new and expectant mothers during the pandemic, and the overlapping disadvantage Black and minority ethnic (BME) women face.

Workers from BME backgrounds have been disproportionately impacted by coronavirus and the government’s response to it. Government policies for dealing with the pandemic did not take account of the economic position of BME people, nor of the structural inequalities that shape the lived experience of people from BME backgrounds and the role that these inequalities play at work. The TUC has consistently highlighted the impact of the pandemic on BME workers, speaking specifically about the higher death rates among BME communities and the differential impact on BME workers in insecure work. This work has informed the programme of the Anti-Racism Taskforce.

© PjrTravel/Alamy Stock Photo
TUC research revealed that one in three disabled workers had been treated unfairly during the pandemic © PjrTravel/Alamy Stock Photo

Covid-19 has also had a disproportionate effect on disabled people. Government data has revealed that six in ten of all deaths involving Covid-19 were disabled people. The TUC has carried out research into the experiences of disabled workers during the pandemic, which found that one in three had been treated unfairly. We are campaigning for mandatory disability pay gap reporting, stronger enforcement of the existing rights to reasonable adjustments, and stronger legislation. Our research evidence has been used by ITV’s Coronation Street to inform a storyline about a disabled worker’s experience during the pandemic.

During the pandemic, the TUC has highlighted the impact of homophobia on key workers, and the ways that lockdowns have particularly disadvantaged LGBT+ workers. Many have been unable to access support services, and some may have been trapped in unsupportive or abusive households.

1.7 Organising and learning

Despite the pandemic, union membership has continued to grow. Officers and reps have found new ways to engage workers, and issues around pay and safety at work have offered compelling reasons to join a union. The TUC has revamped our Join a Union tool, making it more user-friendly and increasing monthly users to more than 5,000.

Megaphone petition

Responding to composite 9, we have also sought to mobilise workers around a common agenda. We held a pre-budget rally, with speakers from across the movement calling for fair pay, decent work and stronger rights. Meanwhile, our Megaphone petition site has been used by more than 400,000 workers to push for change.

The TUC has also initiated a ‘new normal’ project to help unions plan for life after the pandemic. This project is helping unions to think through changes to all aspects of their operations, including organising and campaigning, the work of branches, and meetings and conferences.

We have continued to ensure union reps can access training and support, helping to reduce disruption to affiliates’ education programmes. We have supported tutors to deliver education online, introducing new microlearning modules for reps – primarily on issues related to the pandemic.

The Economy
kids queue for free pizza from Papa John’s in Tower Hamlets, London © Jess Hurd/ reportdigital.co.uk
kids queue for free pizza from Papa John’s in Tower Hamlets, London © Jess Hurd/ reportdigital.co.uk

1.1 Introduction

This year has brought unprecedented economic challenges. But the trade union movement has fought to ensure that ordinary working people don’t bear the burden of the pandemic. We’ve campaigned for job protection, decent work, and higher pay. We’ve made the case for an industrial strategy to deliver better jobs, reforms to how companies work to put workers’ rights centre stage, and trade deals that protect workers’ rights in the UK and around the world. We’ve investigated new challenges to working life from the use of new technology. And we’ve fought for decent social protection and pensions, and against the exploitation of migrant workers.

1.2 The economy and labour market in 2020/21

The impact of the pandemic on the economy is unprecedented. The TUC has focused on monitoring the impact on working people, and lobbying for better government support (including through the furlough scheme, as outlined in Section 1).

In November, we held an online roundtable with Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, and Andy Haldane, deputy governor, to discuss union concerns about the economy.

Figure 1: GDP and share of workforce furloughed, 2020–21
Figure 1: GDP and share of workforce furloughed, 2020–21

Figure 1 shows the level of GDP over the past year and the share of employees on furlough. At the peak of lockdown in April 2020, just over 30 per cent of employees were furloughed, with GDP down by 25 per cent. The economy revived rapidly as lockdown was relaxed, but the lockdown in November pushed furlough rates back up to 17 per cent. However, GDP declined by only 3.7 per cent between October 2020 and January 2021. As this lockdown was eased and the share of workers on furlough fell to around 12 per cent, GDP has picked up and is now within 4 per cent of the pre-pandemic level.

The Guardian newspaper © Kathy deWitt/Alamy Stock Photo
In 2020, The Guardian reports fears of mass unemployment despite the Chancellor’s measures © Kathy deWitt/Alamy Stock Photo

Employment fell by nearly one million between February and November 2020 (a fall of 3.4 per cent). While 430,000 jobs were then created through to May 2021, overall employee jobs are 550,000 below the pre-pandemic level. On the Labour Force Survey measure, unemployment rose by 360,000 to peak at 1,700,000 in the period between November 2020 and January 2021. It then fell back by 90,000 to 1,610,000 in the period between February and April 2021.

Across the economy, just over two jobs have been created for every five lost. But the areas where jobs have been created are not generally those where they have been lost. Jobs have increased only in public services and business services and administration, while across manufacturing, retail, hospitality and the arts, only one in eight jobs lost has been recovered. These are also the sectors where workers are most likely to be furloughed, and there is a significant risk of rising unemployment if the government winds down the scheme prematurely. The TUC has campaigned for job protection to remain in place as long as needed, alongside significantly more job creation.

The furlough scheme and other subsidies to households and business have required a significant increase in government spending, and lower levels of economic activity have meant reduced tax revenues. Public borrowing has inevitably increased – from £57bn in 2019/20, to £299bn in 2020/21. But these costs are smaller and shorter-lived relative to the costs of other exceptional periods, such as the Second World War.

There is now a strong economic consensus that the austerity seen after the financial crisis should not be repeated. The TUC will continue to campaign against unnecessary and damaging cuts to public spending and in favour of investment in a green recovery and public services.

As our A Better Recovery report argued: “We can do what the post-war generation did: grow our way out of this crisis and build a better life for everyone.”

2.4 Key worker pay

Guided by composites 10 and 11, the TUC has campaigned for a pay rise for our key workers. We used our budget submission to argue for an end to the public sector pay freeze, for pay rises that keep pace with the rising cost of living, and for a new minimum wage of £10 per hour.

TUC analysis showed falls in real pay of between 3.5 and 7.5 per cent for a range of key workers. We also raised concerns that many key workers in the private sector are engaged in delivering core public services, but won’t benefit from any pay offer made exclusively to directly employed staff.

Ahead of the budget, the TUC organised meetings with 33 MPs, attended by over 500 activists, to demand a fair pay rise for key workers. Over 60,000 people signed our petition demanding pay justice, while more than 2,400 trade unionists attended our Rally for a Workers’ Budget. Speakers included the then shadow chancellor, trade union leaders, and Michael Foster from the US, who talked about organising Amazon workers in Alabama.

After the budget failed to deliver, TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady wrote to public sector pay review bodies, urging them to recognise and reward the efforts of key workers in public services. The TUC published analysis showing one million children in key worker households are living in poverty. Key worker families in the north-east have the highest levels of child poverty (29 per cent), followed by London (27 per cent), the West Midlands (25 per cent) and Yorkshire and the Humber (25 per cent).

The TUC also called for all key workers to have the dignity, security and safety of proper sick pay. We published analysis showing one in twelve key workers (some 788,000 people) did not qualify for statutory sick pay going into the pandemic – despite many of them being at greater risk of exposure to the virus.

2.5 Tackling insecure work

Insecure work © Hugh Hastings/Getty Images
At least 3.6 million workers in the UK, around one in nine of the workforce, are in insecure work © Hugh Hastings/Getty Images

Our annual analysis showed that the UK still has 3.6 million insecure workers on zero-hours, agency or temporary contracts or in low-paid self-employment. The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted their vulnerability. Some saw work dry up overnight. Others felt compelled to work in unsafe conditions.

The TUC has continued to push for legislation to tackle insecure work. The 2019 Queen’s Speech promised an Employment Bill, and the TUC sought to engage with MPs from all parties on its priorities for legislation. These included a ban on zero-hours contracts, a trade union right of access to workplaces, a right to flexible working from day one, ethnicity pay gap reporting and stronger rights for parents to have time off in emergencies. In February, the TUC gave oral evidence to the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) select committee on these priorities.

As yet, no Employment Bill has been presented and the TUC strongly criticised the fact that it was dropped from the 2021 Queen’s Speech. We continue to campaign for decent rights for all workers.

State enforcement of rights continues to be underfunded and neglected. In May, we published a TUC action plan to reform labour market enforcement. We showed that the UK would need an additional 1,797 labour market inspectors to meet the International Labour Organization benchmark of one inspector for every 10,000 workers. Just one in 171 workplaces had a safety or labour rights inspection during the pandemic.

This situation could put the UK in breach of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement that requires each side to have an effective system of labour inspections.

Due to structural racism, Black and minority ethnic (BME) workers are particularly likely to be on insecure contracts. In a joint report called BME Workers on Zero-Hours Contracts with Race on the Agenda in June, the TUC showed that 4.5 per cent of BME women are on a zero-hours contract, compared to just 2.5 per cent of white men.

2.6 Tackling low pay

In line with composite 9, the TUC has continued to make the case for a real living wage, with an immediate increase in the minimum wage to £10 an hour. Following submissions by the TUC and affiliates, the government announced an increase in the national living wage (NLW) to £8.91 an hour from 1 April 2021. The TUC argues that higher increases will be needed to get the wage floor to 66 per cent of median wages by 2024.

We have also continued to argue that all age groups should be paid the same minimum wage. The government has expanded the age threshold for NLW eligibility from 25+ to everyone aged 23+, with further expansion planned to bring in everyone aged 21+.

As covered by resolution 35, the TUC and unions successfully lobbied government to bring in landmark legislation that means all seafarers in UK waters have been eligible for the minimum wage since 1 October 2020.

Our National Minimum Wage Enforcement Group has met quarterly, bringing together unions, advice agencies, BEIS, the Low Pay Commission (LPC), HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) and the director of Labour Market Enforcement.

The TUC continues to contribute to the work of the Living Wage Foundation, promoting the voluntary living wage as a minimum rate for the lowest-paid workers. TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady sits on the Living Wage Commission, which sets the rate of the living wage. The TUC has supported the Commission’s global living wage work, and its Living Hours campaign alongside a living wage.

2.7 The future of work, automation and AI

The TUC has continued work on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to recruit and manage people at work.

Detail of the cover of the TUC’s AI manifesto Dignity at Work and the AI Revolution © Violeta Stoimenova/Getty Images
Detail of the cover of the TUC’s AI manifesto Dignity at Work and the AI Revolution © Violeta Stoimenova/Getty Images

The TUC carried out surveys to identify the types of technologies being used, and the impact on workers. In November, we published our research findings in Technology Managing People – the Worker Experience.

The TUC then commissioned a legal report from employment rights lawyers Robin Allen QC and Dee Masters, published alongside a TUC AI manifesto, Dignity at Work and the AI Revolution, which received widespread media coverage. This work was recognised by CogX (an organisation that runs an annual festival on AI and emerging technology), shortlisting the TUC for a global leadership award.

We have engaged with a wide variety of stakeholders including the Information Commissioner, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), Acas, TechUK, Uber, the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation (CDEI), academics including lawyers and technologists, the Department of International Trade, the Intellectual Property Office and the Office for AI, as well as MPs and Lords. In March, the TUC recorded a podcast with Hewlett Packard.

In April, the TUC opened the Employment Lawyers Association annual conference season with a seminar on AI at work. The TUC also contributed to the Carnegie Trust/CIPD tech advisory group.

In May, the TUC gave evidence at an All-Party Parliamentary Group inquiry on surveillance. We also contributed to the UCL/British Academy future of work project, while the TUC and UniEuropa gave a joint presentation for the Prospect/Data Justice Lab Challenging Tech event.

The CDEI invited the TUC to join its Recruitment and Workforce Management Advisory Panel and its AI Barometer online workshops. In June, the TUC took part in a CogX festival panel discussion hosted by the CDEI.

2.7 Social security

The TUC has continued to highlight the significant hardship that current sick pay policy causes, as well as the limits it places on the national coronavirus response.   

We have shown how it excludes two million people who do not earn enough to qualify, and that benefit levels are inadequate at just £96 a week.

The TUC was highly critical of the self-isolation payment scheme introduced by the government in September 2020, six months into the pandemic. This offers a one-off £500 payment for those who need to self-isolate because of coronavirus, but cannot work from home. TUC analysis of 175 local authorities showed that demand for the self-isolation scheme easily outstrips allocated funding, leaving 7 in 10 applicants without support.

We have also looked at options for long-term reform on sick pay. The Fabian Society prepared a paper for the TUC that formed the basis for a roundtable discussion with unions and experts, and has now been sent to ministers and MPs. The TUC also met with the Treasury and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to push for reform, and held a briefing for MPs in July.

Our work has shown how the social security safety net has failed during the pandemic. For newly unemployed claimants, the basic rate of universal credit (UC) is worth only around a sixth of average weekly pay.

With UC not fit for purpose, the TUC set up a working group with unions to develop options for its replacement. We also published a report on the human suffering caused by the five-week wait for the first UC payment, based on a TUC survey of claimant experiences.

In response to composite 4, we have continued to play an active role in the End Child Poverty Coalition. The TUC carried out analysis showing how much families have lost as a result of freezes to child benefit coupled with changes to how benefits have been uprated since 2010. A joint report by the TUC and the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) showed how an urgent government cash boost for children would improve their lives and prevent up to 700,000 from living below the poverty line.

The TUC also raised the impact of the pandemic hit to family incomes on their access to housing in a report called
The Impact of the Pandemic on Household Finances, and called for an extension of the eviction ban to prevent homelessness, and a freeze on council tax debt repayment, in line with composite 5.

2.8 Industrial strategy, environment, energy, science and technology, sustainability, defence

Guided by composite 2 and resolution 14, the TUC has continued to make the case for a stronger, greener, more innovative economy. Deputy General Secretary Paul Nowak and General Council member Sue Ferns have represented the TUC on the government’s Green Jobs Taskforce, advocating the policies and investment needed to meet climate targets, protect and create jobs, and improve job quality and inclusion. The Taskforce published its report in July 2021, adopting several TUC recommendations.

The TUC has offered new courses for union reps on climate action and just transition. Wales TUC has developed two new courses and published the toolkit Greener Workplaces for a Just Transition. TUC Northern and TUC South West held training events on greening workplaces, while environmental reps’ networks are active in TUC South West, TUC LESE and Wales TUC. We have also published online learning modules for reps to have conversations on climate change with employers.

In June, the TUC published Ranking G7 Green Recovery Plans and Jobs. The report (covered in print and broadcast media) shows that...

the UK lags well behind G7 peers when it comes to investing in green infrastructure and future-proofing energy-intensive industries.

The TUC has continued to press government for a  balanced, green energy policy, and supported the union campaign to secure a future for Springfield Nuclear Fuels, as called for in emergency resolution 1.

Ahead of the COP26 UN climate talks in Glasgow, the TUC worked with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) to advance the trade union movement’s priorities: just transition, global equity, and a jobs-rich green recovery.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady represented the TUC on the government’s Made Smarter Commission, while Deputy General Secretary Paul Nowak and TUC Northern Regional Secretary Beth Farhat served on the IPPR’s Environmental Justice Commission, which reported in July. The Trade Union Sustainable Development Advisory Committee (TUSDAC) met bi-monthly, including a roundtable with the Green Jobs Taskforce.

TUC offices are active in regional climate action partnerships, including the Liverpool City Region Climate Partnership (TUC North West), Yorkshire & Humber Climate Commission (TUC Yorkshire and the Humber), and the North East Climate Coalition (TUC Northern).

2.9 Creative industries

Our work on the creative industries has been guided by composite 3 and resolutions 13 and 15.

The TUC has attended quarterly meetings of the Federation of Entertainment Unions, ensuring that our work complements that of unions in the creative sector. We continue to work together to press for support for self-employed workers, including improvements to the self-employment income support scheme (SEISS) and additional funding to help the sector through the crisis. And we have continued to push for the suspension of the minimum income floor in universal credit.

The deputy general secretary continued to represent unions on the DCMS Cultural Renewal Taskforce.

2.10 Pensions

The TUC has continued to be a leading advocate for the interests of working people in occupational pensions, and for retired workers.

We have coordinated the union response to public sector pensions challenges. This has included roundtables with Treasury officials to enable unions to influence the development of the McCloud remedy, addressing age discrimination in public sector schemes. TUC officers met the chief secretary of the Treasury to lobby on this, the impact of a proposed cap on public sector exit payments, and the suspension of the cost control mechanism that was due to deliver improved pensions across the public sector.

We have maintained our support for defined benefit schemes. The TUC has engaged with government and The Pensions Regulator (TPR) over proposed funding regulations that threaten the viability of open schemes. A number of General Council members met the TPR’s chief executive.

The TUC has focused on improving workplace pension provision for those on low pay. We have participated in work tackling the problems caused by having multiple small pension pots, addressing issues caused by the tax relief system, and developing a Living Pensions kitemark for employers. The TUC is also part of a TPR project to improve diversity and inclusion in pension scheme governance.

This year’s TUC pensions conference was held online in March and covered pension funds and a just transition, workplace pensions inequalities, collective defined contribution schemes, and the role of the state pension in reducing inequality.

The TUC continues to support the triple lock, which plays a vital role in increasing pensioner incomes. We published Extending Working Lives: Supporting older workers, a report that made the case for freezing the state pension age at 66, alongside better support for those currently unable to work until the state pension age.

2.11 Workers’ capital, corporate governance and executive pay

The TUC has called for conditionality for businesses accessing government support during the pandemic. Businesses should set out plans for fair pay and decent work, pay corporation tax in the UK, and suspend dividend payments to support jobs. In July, the TUC responded to a major government consultation on corporate governance and audit.

We argued that as well as improving audit practices, avoiding corporate failures like Carillion requires wider corporate governance reforms to improve the quality of boardroom decision-making.

Directors’ duties should require them to promote the long-term success of the company as their primary aim, giving workforce and stakeholder interests the same priority as those of shareholders. TUC polling shows that three in four people support this.

We have also called for the word ‘employee’ to be replaced with ‘workforce’ throughout the Companies Act, so that company law requires directors to take responsibility for and report on their whole workforce, not just their directly employed employees as at present. We secured the support of several other organisations for this campaign.

Senior policy officer Janet Williamson represents the TUC on the Financial Reporting Council’s Stakeholder Advisory Committee and the Wates Coalition, and is also a member of the Corporate Governance Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).

The TUC has continued to coordinate Trade Union Share Owners (TUSO), an initiative bringing together union funds to collaborate over voting and engagement with companies. The TUC is an active member of the ITUC’s committee for workers’ capital.

2.12 Brexit

As set out in the General Council statement on an international recovery, the TUC used meetings with government, the shadow cabinet, MPs and peers to argue against the risk to jobs posed by a hard or no-deal Brexit.

In October, we published a report on how state aid should not be a sticking point in the negotiations, followed by a submission to government consultation on subsidies in March this year.

In November, the general secretary met the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) to discuss the ongoing negotiations. In December, the TUC facilitated a meeting with Spanish unions UGT and CC.OO to coordinate joint actions in support of workers in and around Gibraltar.

When the new trade agreement with the EU was announced in December, the TUC argued that it would not protect jobs and would put rights at risk. We published a 10-point plan analysing the deal, and setting out how to address the threats it poses.

The TUC provided regular briefings on the negotiations and an analysis of the outcome to the Executive Committee, union international officers, and individual unions on specific aspects of the deal.

The TUC met with the EU Commission to press for labour clauses in the deal. We also met MEPs and government to argue for the establishment of a domestic advisory group, including a trade union role monitoring the agreement. These meetings were facilitated by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), where the TUC is represented on a taskforce to oversee the deal.

The general secretary met Lord Frost, the minister with responsibility for Brexit implementation, where among other issues she pressed the importance of upholding the Good Friday Agreement and investing for peace.

The TUC has engaged with ETUC, the EU Commission and BEIS to seek changes to the EU’s and UK’s respective guidelines on European Works Councils, so that UK representatives would not be excluded.

2.13 Trade and trade deals

Our work has been guided by the General Council statement on preventing unemployment and resolutions 3 and 5. The TUC has campaigned with international union partners against trade deals that threaten workers’ rights or public services, or that include non-transparent courts. The TUC signed statements with trade union centres in Australia, New Zealand and Norway to highlight these concerns. The general secretary has met with the Secretary of State for International Trade on a number of occasions.

Through TUC Aid’s project with the East African TUC, supported by the TUUT Charitable Trust, the TUC has developed advocacy with the trade union centre in Kenya to raise concerns about the UK-Kenya trade deal signed in November.

In January, the TUC signed a statement with trade unions in Turkey calling for the UK-Turkey trade deal to be suspended due to human and labour rights abuses taking place in Turkey.

The TUC has advocated for unions to be involved in trade negotiations. The government agreed to include trade unions on Trade Advisory Groups, which are consulted on the text of trade negotiations. The government also created a Trade Union Advisory Group chaired by Minister for International Trade Ranil Jayawardena.

The TUC has advocated for new World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules to promote workers’ rights and ensure equitable access to Covid vaccinations. In May, the TUC wrote to trade secretary Liz Truss with the ITUC, TUAC and trade unions from G7 countries calling on the government to support a waiver to WTO intellectual property rules to enable Global South countries to produce low-cost vaccines.

In May, the TUC held a roundtable with Shadow Trade Secretary Emily Thornberry on building a workers’ trade agenda. This brought together members of the shadow cabinet with unions from the US, Europe and Colombia, and the shadow trade team has regularly raised the TUC’s concerns in parliament.

In June, the general secretary met with US Trade Ambassador Katherine Tai to discuss a potential UK-US trade deal, and a worker-centred trade agenda.

The TUC developed advocacy around the eight freeports announced in March, to ensure they do not threaten workers’ rights, displace good jobs or lead to tax evasion.

The TUC continues to develop joint advocacy with other civil society groups. In June, we released a statement with the International Chamber of Commerce, the CBI and others calling for trade deals to enforce international labour conventions, protect public services and promote the UN’s sustainable development goals.

2.14 Migration

In line with the General Council statement on a global recovery, the TUC has campaigned against xenophobic narratives that divide workers and drive down conditions for all. In May, the TUC wrote to the home secretary to oppose proposals preventing asylum seekers claiming protection in the UK. These plans go against the UN refugee convention and would force more asylum seekers into informal employment and exploitation.

The TUC opposed the Immigration and Social Security Coordination Bill for denying EU citizens the right to work and social security support, concerns raised by the shadow home affairs team in parliament.

Our representation on the Home Office’s National Advisory Group enabled us to raise concerns about EU citizens with only ‘pre-settled’ status facing an increased risk of discrimination by employers and losing their legal status. The TUC updated a guide for reps to support EU members concerned about their status.

In February, we ran a course for reps and officers with the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) on organising and empowering undocumented migrants.

In March, the TUC wrote to the home secretary with Anti-Slavery International, the ITUC, Unite, the Voice of Domestic Workers and Kalayaan calling for a reformed overseas domestic workers’ visa to enable domestic workers to change employers and escape abuse.

2.15 Decent work and supply chains

The TUC continues to advocate for decent work, equality and progress on meeting the UN sustainable development goals. We opposed cuts to UK aid, and have engaged with the UK government to call for aid to deliver decent jobs.

In December, the TUC organised a meeting for African sister centres with Labour’s shadow teams, chaired by the TUC president. In April, we organised a session for affiliates and sister centres with Labour on their UN review work.

TUC Aid projects continue to support the delivery of the TUC’s strategy. Trustees met virtually in October, March and July. Current projects focus on: building the capacity of East African trade unions to advocate for trade deals that deliver decent work; supporting Guatemalan banana workers’ union SITRABI to establish new unions; supporting trade union action to tackle gender-based violence in Latin America and the Caribbean; conducting research into human and trade union rights violations in Eswatini; and tackling gender-based violence in Iraq. A breakthrough at the ILO means that 2016 policy on decent work in supply chains is advancing, with a further report expected in March 2022.

We are also using our international experience to support unions to develop a ground-breaking agreement between them, brands and suppliers linked to the Leicester textiles industry.

Respect and a voice at work
Black Lives Matter supporters gather in front of the newly repaired mural of England footballer Marcus Rashford © Christopher Furlong/ Getty Images
Black Lives Matter supporters gather in front of the newly repaired mural of England footballer Marcus Rashford © Christopher Furlong/ Getty Images

3.1 Introduction

Throughout year the TUC has worked with unions to challenge discrimination and promote equality, and to make the case for decent rights and protections at work. Trade unions have worked throughout the pandemic to keep workplaces safe and protect workers. We have challenged employers and the government over inadequate sick pay that makes it difficult for low-paid workers to self-isolate, failures to provide adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) and testing, and the urgent need for investment in safety regulation and enforcement.

Through the Anti-Racism Taskforce we have worked to confront institutional racism and discrimination at work. The taskforce has set about shining a light on racial injustice in the world of work and focused on organising, bargaining and campaigning to secure real change.

We have taken forward our work on class inequality, highlighting the disproportionate impact of the Covid-19 crisis on working-class people, including many key workers. And we have continued our lobbying and campaigning work on behalf of disabled workers, women and LGBT+ workers, with a strong focus on tackling sexual harassment.

The TUC has also stepped up policy and campaign work around trade union and employment rights, including a day one right to request flexible working for all workers.

3.2 Employment and trade union rights

As noted in resolution 39, the election of the current Conservative government has led to renewed hostility to trade union rights.

Bogus self-employment: the supreme court rules that Uber drivers should be classed as workers © Kathy deWitt/Alamy Stock Photo
Bogus self-employment: the supreme court rules that Uber drivers should be classed as workers © Kathy deWitt/Alamy Stock Photo

Ministers have brought forward new anti-trade union legislation, with plans to introduce measures to activate powers contained in the Trade Union Act 2016 that would force trade union members to fund the Certification Office (CO), which regulates trade unions. The measures include imposing a levy that could potentially raise millions of pounds with very little to prevent the Certification Officer or her successors massively expanding its activities, paid for by the working people unions represent. They also plan to give it the power to fine unions up to £20,000 for a breach of trade union law and give it wide-ranging powers to investigate complaints, even if brought by someone not in the union, and demand documents. These are straightforward ideologically driven measures designed to inhibit the activities of unions. The General Council will work to oppose the necessary statutory instruments in parliament.

In line with resolution 38, the General Council upholds the principle that workers choose their own union and demands a reform of trade union legislation.

The government has repeatedly promised to upgrade workers’ rights, including the announcement of an Employment Bill in the Queen’s Speech in 2019.

In our work in lobbying for an Employment Bill that would actually deliver positive change for working people, the TUC has been pushing for a trade union right of access.

This should mirror that given to unions in New Zealand, where unions are able to demand to speak to workers to explain the benefits of joining a union.

The TUC has been at the forefront of demanding action on exploitative umbrella companies. Often employment agencies insist that workers are employed by these firms. But they have a history of not paying the advertised rate and embroiling workers in illegal schemes that could land them with large tax bills in future. In line with resolution 48, we have provided support to amendments to the Finance Bill that could have paved the way for the abolition of these exploitative arrangements. We also commissioned the Low-Income Tax Reform Group to examine this secretive sector. This was followed by a report examining measures, including licensing and abolition. Our work on umbrella companies has been guided in part by the self-employed working group established by the TUC in line with composite 14. The TUC has used the group to share experiences and expertise on the recruitment and organisation of self-employed workers.

In line with composite 8 and resolution 29, the TUC has been at the forefront of campaigning for a day one right to flexible working for all workers. Our report on the future of flexible work exposed the potential for new class divides, with indications that employers are far more likely to offer flexibility to those currently working from home, while those who can’t work from home having little access to any forms of flexible working. The report highlighted the need for stronger rights that provide fair flexibility for all workers.

We have called for the government to introduce a duty for employers to advertise all jobs as flexible from day one (unless there are exceptional circumstances preventing it). And for the extension of the right to request to all workers, from day one in the job, with a much narrower criteria to reject requests to create equal access to flexible work for all.

With the significant levels of enforced home working due to the pandemic, we have highlighted the risks associated with home working and highlighted the need for strengthened rights to protect workers, including a right to disconnect. We called on the government to produce a strategy that clarifies the role that flexible working can play in building a fairer recovery and addresses the impacts of increased remote working on sectors impacted by lower levels of office-based staff.

The TUC has continued to represent affiliates on the BEIS Flexible Working Taskforce, arguing for stronger workplace rights and ensuring trade union feedback shapes new Acas guidance on hybrid working. We have also continued to campaign with the Flex For All coalition.

3.3 Collective bargaining and a new deal for workers

The TUC has continued to promote collective bargaining as the best way to protect the rights and interests of working people, taking account of resolutions 59 and 60.

As set out in resolution 60, collective bargaining and good-quality employment is critical to securing an economic recovery that benefits workers. In September 2020, in A New Jobs Protection and Upskilling Plan, the TUC called for employers to allow unions to access workplaces as a condition of business pandemic support.

The TUC has made a number of interventions, including in response to the government’s Plan for Jobs, calling for the creation of good-quality employment to be at the heart of the levelling-up agenda. Working with a coalition of organisations lobbying government on National Infrastructure Bank (NIB), we have called for good jobs plans, developed with unions, to be developed for all NIB investment and projects.

The TUC has continued to discuss with unions and employers the development of a national strategy for the social care workforce, as a first step towards sectoral bargaining.

3.4 Class

Throughout the pandemic the TUC has continued to expose its disproportionate impact on people in working-class jobs.

We have highlighted the lack of sick pay for those in lower-paid jobs, and continued to campaign for reform. We have shown how key workers are undervalued and underpaid and face insecure working conditions.

The pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on people doing working class jobs © Jeff J Mitchell/ Getty Images
The pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on people doing working class jobs © Jeff J Mitchell/ Getty Images

And we have published research on how insecure occupations have been associated with higher coronavirus mortality rates.

We have also warned of the dangers of a new class divide in access to flexible working, publishing research showing that people in higher-paid occupations are much more likely to have worked from home during the pandemic (60 per cent) than those in working-class jobs (23 per cent). The TUC’s research also shows that those who cannot work from home are significantly more likely to be denied flexible working options by employers after the pandemic.

We have used our communications to emphasise that the working class is diverse, both Black and minority ethnic (BME) workers and women are overrepresented in the lowest-paid jobs.

But the working-class experience of poor pay, long hours and class discrimination that the union movement has fought against remains all too common in today’s UK. And working-class households have been hit hardest by the pandemic.

We have continued to make the case that trade unions and collective bargaining offer the best way to deliver better working-class jobs and power.

3.5 Anti-racism

The TUC Race Relations Committee worked on a range of race equality issues, prioritising its efforts to improve the organisation and recruitment of black workers. The Race Relations Committee and the TUC continued the work to highlight the problems of racism in the UK by hosting the Stand Up to Racism online rally commemorating the International Day for the Elimination of Racism on Saturday 20 March 2021.

In pursuance of composite 6, the TUC has continued to highlight the impact of Covid-19 on Black workers. The General Council has highlighted health and safety as a race equality issue and intensified the campaign to ensure that employers carry out proper workplace risk assessments to protect Black workers who are over-represented in frontline jobs. The TUC has continued to campaign against no recourse to public funds, which places many migrant workers in a position of being forced to work during the pandemic irrespective of their health status.

In pursuance of composite 7, the TUC Race Relations Committee has continued to support campaigns for the decolonising of education, for an anti-racism education system and to promote the work being done by our education affiliates.

In line with resolution 26, the TUC Race Relations Committee and the TUC have continued to campaign for a public inquiry into the disproportionate deaths of Black workers in the pandemic. The TUC has continued to lobby the government to introduce mandatory ethnic pay gap reporting proactively and has worked with the Runnymede Trust to formulate a campaign calling on the government to enact the socio-economic duty in the 2010 Equality Act.

The TUC has continued to highlight and develop actions that affiliates need to take to support Black women in the workplace. As part of this work, the TUC produced a briefing on the issues currently affecting Black women at work and organised an event where Black women discussed what priorities trade unions should focus on to improve their work experience in the workplace.

Led by the General Council statement on anti-racism, the TUC and the Race Relations Committee have continued to campaign against the hostile environment. The TUC, along with other race equality organisations, continues to call for a public inquiry and has continued to campaign for a proper compensation scheme that delivers reparatory justice for those that suffered because of the hostile environment policy. The Race Relations Committee continues to support campaigns against deportations and is working with Equity on a campaign to remove the threat of deportation for one of its members.

The TUC’s Anti-Racism Taskforce is led by NASUWT General Secretary, Dr Patrick Roach © Anna Gordon
The TUC’s Anti-Racism Taskforce is led by NASUWT General Secretary, Dr Patrick Roach © Anna Gordon

3.6 The Anti-Racism Taskforce

Congress 2020 established an Anti-Racism Taskforce comprised of General Council members and led by Dr Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT. The key aims include agreeing priorities for union organising and collective bargaining action to advance racial justice at work; and to increase the representation of Black trade union members at all levels of trade union democratic and employment structures. The Taskforce works with the TUC Race Relations Committee, and has four workstreams covering organising, collective bargaining, public policy and unions as employers.

The Taskforce undertook consultation at the TUC Black Workers Conference 2021 and digested the feedback to guide the direction of action. The Taskforce has also overseen a programme of polling and focus groups into the experiences of Black workers and to test solutions that employers, trades unions and the government can use to address the problem. There has been a wider programme of polling that has uncovered findings in relation to a significant reduction in hours worked by Black workers, in addition to the large rise in Black unemployment during the pandemic. The TUC has publicised this and other related analysis in the media.

The TUC lobbied government over the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, coordinating a letter of 32 general secretaries to the prime minister, and coordinated a letter of unions, race equality groups and Baroness Doreen Lawrence. The latter was part of an ongoing process of dialogue and partnership building with civic society organisations.

The Taskforce is overseeing the development of a Black Leadership and Activism programme, led by Shavanah Taj, general secretary of Wales TUC, to develop leadership, organising and campaign skills among this new cohort and existing Black workplace reps and activists, and establish networks of Black trade union activists at regional and national levels. This will run alongside a campaign to recruit 1,000 new Black workplace reps.

The Taskforce also oversaw surveys to our unions affiliates on the topics of recruitment, retention and promotion of Black staff; collective bargaining; and organising. The surveys sought to drill deeper than previous audits in order to build up a clear picture of what was happening across the movement, and design solutions based on this evidence. Practical tools planned include toolkits on ethnicity pay monitoring and collective bargaining, for use in the workplace and negotiations with employers.

The next stage is building the public campaigns to recruit more Black workers to the movement, and to challenge racial injustice at work. To this end, the Taskforce is developing campaigns around anonymised job applications, and racial disparities at work more broadly, and working with our affiliates to encourage them to take more initiatives across a range of areas such as personnel, and driving up anti-racism activism.

3.7 Opposing the far right

In December 2020, the TUC published its report The Rise of the Far Right: Building a trade union response, written by Trademark Belfast, which highlighted the growing internationalisation of the far right and presented a series of recommendations and held a launch event. The TUC has developed a series of initiatives focused on building international union allies to exchange experiences and learning, and to develop a coordinated approach, working closely with sister centres and the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). In December, the TUC supported the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) workshops for European trade unions on countering the far right. In June, a roadmap was adopted by the ETUC executive and will go to the mid-term conference for discussion. A working group will be set up to support its implementation. The TUC has been developing a programme in conjunction with Unite for working with companies that have sites in the UK and Germany, and discussing it with German unions, with the aim to develop a model for practical workplace-based action to counter the far right. The TUC has worked with Trademark to update the Winning Workplace Unity course materials and has run an initial pilot scheme with ASLEF.

3.8 Sexual harassment

Significant progress has been made in recent years to address the underrepresentation of women in our movement, and to end the everyday sexism and sexual harassment that women encounter. The TUC Women’s Committee has driven action on this issue and achieved significant progress but this is unfinished business.

This is why the TUC and its affiliated unions have initiated a programme of work that offers practical support on how to prevent, tackle and effectively respond to sexual harassment and drive widespread cultural change. This work is being led by TUC President Gail Cartmail, as chair of a new executive committee working group with support from the TUC Women’s Committee chair, Sue Ferns, who is vice chair of the working group.

The working group will have three aims that deliver on our shared commitment to equality, respect and a safe working environment for all:

  • support union leaders to deliver meaningful cultural change that creates safe and inclusive working environments free from harassment for trade union employees
  • ensure unions have robust internal policies and procedures to prevent and respond to sexual harassment within their organisations
  • ensure cultural change is part of a broader endeavour to address the underrepresentation of women and minoritised groups within the trade union movement; identifying and tackling power imbalances; increasing women’s agency and power within union workplaces and the wider movement; and addressing inequality.

This programme of work is intended to energise, and make effective, the transformation demanded by women in our movement and progress the General Council statement of 2018 that recognised the role trade union leaders must play in delivering on our shared aim to end sexual harassment.

In autumn 2020, we held a series of leadership seminars for Executive Committee members on the role of leaders in transforming cultures to successfully tackle sexual harassment within the trade union movement. We have also developed a range of materials designed to support the trade union movement in embedding preventative cultures across trade unions. These will be supplemented by examples of positive practice from trade unions on the approaches they have implemented as employers.

The General Council is determined that the Executive Committee Working Group on Sexual Harassment will mark another important chapter in the history of our trade union movement’s fight for equality and the end of gender-based violence, and that it will be a powerful force for change, demonstrating that our unions are willing and able to take the lead and win change for women working in our movement and outside of it too.

In order to highlight the intersectional discrimination experienced by disabled women we have published a report setting out their experiences of sexual harassment at work. The report makes clear the extent and impact of sexual harassment that disabled women experience, with 7 out of 10 (68 per cent) having experienced this at work, and 1 in 8 (12 per cent) leaving their job as a consequence.

The TUC has continued to campaign for a new, easily enforceable legal duty requiring employers to take all reasonable steps to protect workers from sexual harassment and victimisation and for the ratification of the ILO Convention 190.

3.9 Equality Audit

The TUC Equality Audit 2020 provides analysis of the important work trade unions do to promote equality and tackle discrimination. The audit is conducted every two years and in 2020 it looked at collective bargaining for equality. The audit considers the range of equality issues unions address and the training and guidance they provide on these. The audit examines the processes by which unions work to achieve equality for all, provides examples of where unions have won for members and identifies areas for further work. The survey for the audit was conducted in early 2020 and the information in the report relates to the pre-pandemic period. The process of producing the report was interrupted by the pandemic, and is therefore being launched at the 2021 Congress instead of 2020. The report is supplemented by two surveys of union representatives on equality issues in the workplace and flexible working conducted in June and July 2021. The findings of these will also be launched at Congress. The report and survey results will be disseminated to unions in the autumn, with a focus on using the findings to support further improvements.

3.10 Protecting equalities

Women

The coronavirus pandemic has shone a stark light on the deep and persistent structural inequalities that cut across our country. Women have been disproportionately affected by the health, social and economic crises Covid-19 has created.

Women have borne the brunt of meeting rising care needs both at work and in the home, are at increased risk of domestic abuse, face restrictions accessing sexual health and family planning services, and are more likely to be affected by job losses at a time of economic instability. Nearly two-thirds of the UK’s 9.8 million key workers are women. They kept the health care system and our country functioning as the pandemic hit its peak. And 2.6 million of these women key workers earn less than £10 an hour. Discrimination has left many female key workers at disproportionately high risk of exposure to Covid-19, working without properly fitting personal protective equipment (PPE) or access to PPE at all. Pregnant women have faced escalated workplace discrimination over this period, losing pay or work, with their health and safety poorly protected.

BME women are overrepresented in low-paid and insecure forms of work © Bruno Vincent/Getty Images
BME women are overrepresented in low-paid and insecure forms of work © Bruno Vincent/Getty Images

This is particularly the case for women whose lives are also shaped by other aspects of their identity such as Black women, disabled women, LBT+ women and working-class women.

The TUC’s reports Forced Out: the cost of getting childcare wrong and Working Mums: paying the price evidenced the devastating impact of disruption to schooling and childcare on maternal employment. We called for immediate changes to the parental leave system, urgent investment in the childcare sector and a day one right to flexible work. Ahead of the autumn budget, the TUC proposed a family stimulus package to boost levels of universal credit (UC) and double the rate of child benefit payments. The TUC also exposed the discrimination and unfair treatment of new and expectant mothers at work during the Covid-19 pandemic. New analysis by the TUC revealed intersectional discrimination experienced by BME women who are overrepresented in low-paid and insecure forms of work.

LGBT+ workers

LGBT+ workers are impacted by discrimination at work, in public and when accessing goods and services both at home and abroad. And this year we have seen, and prioritised addressing, the disproportionate impact Covid-19 has had on LGBT+ workers and the LGBT+ community.

We used intelligence gathered from LGBT+ workers and our affiliates on the impact of the pandemic on LGBT+ people to inform briefings sent to MPs, the Labour Policy Forum, and wider awareness-raising efforts including focusing on this topic at the 2021 LGBT+ Conference.

We continued to lobby the government, in line with resolution 30 from Congress 2020, for legislative change to the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) calling on the government to introduce a simplified, free, statutory gender-recognition process based on self-declaration, while maintaining the Equality Act 2010 as it stands. To this end we submitted a consultation response to the Women and Equalities Committee on reform of the GRA.

This year, for Trans Awareness Week, the TUC published a new online learning module on how unions can support non-binary workers and released new guidance on what trade union reps can do to address transphobic hate crime. We also published a video to highlight the important role trade unions have in protecting trans workers.

We have also continued to lobby for a legal duty to prevent sexual harassment of workers, including LGBT+ workers who report experiencing high levels of sexually harassing behaviours.

Disabled workers

Our research has shown that disabled workers are less likely to be in work and, when they are, they are paid less than their non-disabled peers. To address this, in line with resolution 31, we have continued to campaign for mandatory disability pay gap reporting and have highlighted this as a priority issue for government. We have highlighted this inequality in our response to the Work and Pensions Committee inquiry into the disability employment gap.

We have focused on the disproportionate impact Covid-19 has had on disabled workers and people, which has been particularly important with government data revealing that 6 in 10 of all deaths involving Covid-19 were disabled people.

A report focused on how pre-existing workplace barriers have been affected by the pandemic and the impact it has had on disabled workers. It found nearly one in three disabled workers who responded to our survey had reported being treated unfairly at work during the pandemic. It also uncovered issues disabled workers had getting and keeping in place their reasonable adjustments and so we have campaigned for stronger enforcement of reasonable adjustments.

The TUC continues its work calling for universal credit (UC) to be stopped and scrapped. However, as the badly executed benefit was the main mechanism for benefits during the pandemic, we wanted to ensure it delivered as well as possible for those who needed to access it during these difficult times. The TUC campaigned for the £20 uplift during the coronavirus pandemic to be made permanent.

Black workers

The pandemic has disproportionately impacted Black and minority ethnic (BME) people. ONS analysis has shown that BME people are more likely than white people to die from Covid-19, with this being strongly associated with demographic and socio-economic factors, such as place of residences and occupation.

We continued to push for the government to:

  • publish an action plan to tackle the inequalities that BME people face, including in work, health, education and justice
  • introduce mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting and make employers publish action plans to ensure fair treatment for BME workers in the workplace
  • ban zero-hours contracts, and strengthen the rights of insecure workers
  • publish all the equality impact assessments related to its response to Covid-19 and be fully transparent about how it considers BME communities in its policy decisions.

And we called on government to step up efforts to prevent unemployment, which has a disproportionate impact on BME workers. This must include providing more support for struggling industries, as well as creating new jobs by investing in jobs in green infrastructure, transport and our public services.

3.11 Health, safety and regulation

Over the last year, the General Council has campaigned to ensure that the health, safety and welfare of workers is protected by strong union organisation and a network of health and safety reps with access to high-quality guidance and advice. We have challenged the government and safety regulators to improve workplace safety and use enforcement measures where safety rules are violated.

Supporting activists

The TUC produced a range of resources to support and equip health and safety reps, in response to composite 15. We carried out the 13th (and largest-ever) biannual survey of safety reps to understand their demographics, experiences and needs. The weekly health and safety e-bulletin Risks was published throughout the year, and an intensive series of webinars continued to focus on the response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Regular meetings of the Union Health and Safety Specialists (UHSS) group took place, discussing developments within occupational health and safety and providing a forum for unions to share ideas. A new working group of the UHSS is dedicated to tackling work-related stress.

On International Workers’ Memorial Day in April 2021, the TUC called for a public inquiry into the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and remembered the lives of workers lost to the virus and other work-related injury and illness, launching new online campaign resources for members to mark the day.

Campaigns

The General Council campaigned on a wide range of health and safety issues during the year, with the response to coronavirus dominating our work. The TUC produced resources for affiliates and health and safety reps to support these campaigns, including on mental health, safer working from home and PPE – including the steer from resolution 65. In response, we re-established the Gender in Occupational Safety and Health (GOSH) group, and began a project dedicated to joining up our work on anti-racism and health and safety. These strands of work aim to help grow a more diverse base of safety representatives, as called for in composite 15.

The TUC continued in the role of Secretariat to the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Occupational Safety and Health, chaired by Ian Lavery MP, engaging with parliamentarians and sector organisations on a range of issues. Working with the APPG, we have launched a new research project on asbestos in public buildings.

External bodies

The TUC continued to work with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) during the year, making repeated calls for more resources for safety regulation in response to resolution 64. The TUC was represented on the board of the HSE by Kevin Rowan of the TUC, Ged Nichols of Accord and Claire Sullivan of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy.

The TUC is represented on the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council by Doug Russell of Usdaw, Karen Mitchell of RMT and Daniel Shears of GMB. The three TUC nominees played an active role in the work of the Council, including advising on position papers on Covid-19 prescription and occupational cancer among firefighters.

3.12 Skills

Over the past year the General Council has campaigned for greater investment in skills to support jobs growth and reduce the numbers facing unemployment due to the economic fallout from Covid-19. This included giving greater priority to quality funded training for furloughed workers, as is the case in equivalent job retention schemes in other countries. Other key asks were an education and training guarantee for all young people and the development of a massive retraining scheme, especially for workers in those sectors hardest hit by the pandemic.

The government published the Skills for Jobs white paper in January and the Queen’s speech included a ‘Skills and Post-16 Education Bill’. The General Council highlighted that the white paper lacked the necessary scale of ambition to tackle the economic consequences of the pandemic and the impacts of Brexit, automation and the transition to a greener economy. The contribution of the General Council to the Green Jobs Taskforce has included a sharp focus on how adult reskilling and education and training for young people can support a just transition (see Section 2).

General Council members and TUC staff are represented on a range of skills bodies. Tony Burke, assistant general secretary of Unite, is a member of the National Manufacturing Skills Taskforce. Kevin Rowan, head of Organisation, Services and Skills at the TUC, is also a member of this taskforce and of the Strategic Transport Apprenticeship Taskforce.

3.13 Apprenticeships

There was a huge reduction in the number of people starting an apprenticeship during and immediately after the first national lockdown. In that period, recruitment levels were nearly half that recorded in the previous year and apprenticeship starts are yet to fully recover. The government introduced financial incentives to try to encourage more employers to recruit apprentices but did less to tackle increasing redundancies. The TUC and affiliated unions joined with employer and sector bodies to call on government to do more to guarantee apprentices the opportunity to complete their training if they were made redundant. The joint letter also recommended new flexibilities to the apprenticeship levy to boost the recruitment of apprentices, including permitting spending on high-quality pre-apprenticeship programmes and other measures.

The General Council has continued to highlight significant shortcomings in the government’s policy approach in other areas, including slow progress in tackling poor-quality apprenticeships and widening access to under-represented groups. To address this, government urgently needs to enforce apprentices’ employment and training rights, eradicate low pay, widen access, and guarantee minimum progression to an advanced apprenticeship.

In the budget, the chancellor announced a new flexi-job scheme that will be tested in certain sectors. In its response to the consultation, the TUC raised a number of concerns about the proposed model and the potential for apprentices to be exploited when working for multiple employers. To avoid this, the response called for a requirement that the design and regulation of any such scheme is agreed by employers and trade unions in the relevant sector.

3.14 Adult skills

The TUC pointed to the long-term decline in investment in adult skills when it gave oral evidence to the parliamentary Education Select Committee last September. In the last decade the government budget that funds adults to attend college courses was cut by a half. Government spending on the National Skills Fund will reverse only one-third of this reduction, according to estimates by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Investment in skills by employers has been in decline for the past two decades and the proportion not providing any training at all has increased sharply in recent years.

The General Council has criticised the limited skills strategy set out in the white paper. The ‘lifetime skills guarantee’ is much more restrictive than the adult skills entitlements that were abolished around 10 years ago. The new guarantee applies only to a prescribed list of level 3 qualifications and many adults are completely excluded from retraining because they have achieved this level of attainment. TUC research shows that the lifetime skills guarantee will also be taken up by far fewer adults as a result of the disappointing and counter-productive decision by the government to cut the grant for the Union Learning Fund.

The General Council has called for a much more ambitious skills policy than the lifetime skills guarantee © Jess Hurd/reportdigital.co.uk
The General Council has called for a much more ambitious skills policy than the lifetime skills guarantee © Jess Hurd/reportdigital.co.uk

The General Council has called for a much more ambitious skills policy, including:

  • a new right to retrain for everybody, backed up by personal lifelong learning accounts and a significant increase to the government’s adult skills budget
  • new rights for workers giving entitlements to paid time off for education and training and access to regular skills/career reviews
  • development of an all-age careers guidance service.

According to the OECD, the UK lacks the national social partnership arrangements that underpin high-quality skills systems in many other countries. The General Council had pressed the government to establish a national skills taskforce, but the white paper has set out an employer-led skills strategy with no mention of unions.

3.15 Union Learning Fund

Throughout the year Union Learning Fund (ULF) projects, with the support of unionlearn, continued to assist large numbers of workers to access high-quality learning and skills.

Due to the decision by the government to cut the grant funding, learner outcome data are available for only the first nine months of the 2020–21 operational year. However, these statistics evidence that the ULF and unionlearn were maintaining a massive return on the government investment and maximising support for workers facing the greatest barriers during the pandemic.

From April 2020 to January 2021, the General Council supported a total of 187,500 learners via the union route. This comprised take-up of learning and training facilitated through ULF projects and unionlearn and access to TUC Education courses for union reps. The learning outcomes for ULF projects were around 50 per cent greater that the original targets agreed with the government. Considering the impact of Covid-19 on access to workplace training and college courses, this was an outstanding performance.

The General Council launched a major campaign to save the ULF in October, which ran for a number of months in an attempt to get the government to reverse its decision. The campaign publicised a number of calls for action that people could take in support, including signing a national petition and contacting their local MP to add their voice to the campaign. Briefings were produced showing the range of evidence from independent evaluations of about the unique impact of the ULF and in particular how it supported adults most needing opportunities to upskill and retrain.

Further briefings were produced highlighting wide-ranging support from employers, including household names such as Tesco and Heathrow Airport. Manufacturing employer bodies, including Make UK, wrote a joint letter to the government calling for the decision to be reversed. The leading HR body, CIPD, also lent its voice in support of the campaign. The TUC released new research during the campaign, including a report identifying the detrimental impact of the closure of the ULF on the potential take-up of the new level 3 entitlement for adults announced by the prime minister at the end of September.

A new research report by the University of Exeter showed that in the latest year the ULF was generating an overall economic boost of around £1.5bn.

A subsequent report by the Learning and Work Institute recommended that the government should continue to invest in the ULF as part of its central strategy to engage more adults in upskilling and retraining.

The campaign prompted a number of parliamentary debates and questions to government ministers. These culminated in a Westminster Hall debate in November, initiated by Lilian Greenwood MP. The House of Commons Library published a briefing pack for MPs in advance of the debate, which detailed the extensive parliamentary and media coverage of the campaign to save the ULF.

Good Services
Social care workers need improved pay and conditions to offset a decade of cuts © Dean Mitchell/ Getty Image
Social care workers need improved pay and conditions to offset a decade of cuts © Dean Mitchell/ Getty Image

4.1 Introduction

The pandemic has confirmed that the safety and security of society relies on strong and resilient public services, and on our public sector workers who have worked tirelessly to keep essential services going during the crisis.

As we emerge out of the crisis, our public services are best positioned to lead our economic recovery. Guided by resolutions 9 and 40, we used our budget submission to argue for fast-tracking investment in green infrastructure and public services. The TUC set out a plan for 600,000 new, secure jobs in public services to tackle unemployment, support spending in the economy, and address persistent social, regional and health inequalities.

The TUC has lobbied government to reward 4.4 million public service workers with fair pay rises that restore a decade of lost earnings, to defend public service pensions, and to provide a new funding settlement for all our public services. We continue to lobby for a reduced private sector role in public services. And we demand a new approach to procurement that prioritises high-quality service delivery and employment standards, and is subject to strong transparency and accountability requirements.

4.2 Education

Over the past year, the TUC has worked closely with the affiliated unions on policy and workforce issues, including supporting the campaign priorities in resolutions 49, 50 and 51. We have drawn on the input of all the education unions to inform the work of the General Council on education policy and wider campaigning on public services. The government’s inconsistent approach to tackling the impact of the pandemic on our education system was marked by a series of high-profile U-turns. Two notable examples included government strategies on exam grading methodologies and free school meals provision during school holidays. The education unions joined with many other stakeholders to campaign against the government’s initial approach in both areas.

UCU General Secretary Jo Grady joins a student protest outside the Department for Education in Westminster, calling for a full review into grade inequality following the exam results chaos © Stephen Chung/Alamy Stock Photo
UCU General Secretary Jo Grady joins a student protest outside the Department for Education in Westminster, calling for a full review into grade inequality following the exam results chaos © Stephen Chung/Alamy Stock Photo

Throughout the year, the General Council has called for increased resources for education recovery programmes and there was a broad welcome for the scale of funding being considered by Sir Kevan Collins, the education recovery commissioner. The subsequent announcement by government of a £1.4bn package of measures, compared to an anticipated £15bn programme, led to the resignation of the commissioner and a highly critical response. The education unions have also campaigned on a number of other fronts, including the pupil premium, school funding, academisation, assessment and testing, special education provision, and key workforce issues such as increased workload and the pay freeze.

Paul Nowak, TUC deputy general secretary, was a member of the Independent Commission on the College of the Future. It published a series of reports, recommending a significant boost to pay and strengthened social partnership arrangements in the English further education system (FE). In January the government set out its FE strategy in the Skills for Jobs white paper, but this excluded any mention of unions or measures to address the major pay shortfall. See Skills in Section 3 for more detail on the white paper.

Alongside the white paper, the government published a brief interim response to the review, chaired by Philip Augar, of post-18 education and funding that originally reported back in May 2019. The General Council had previously welcomed some of the review’s key proposals, including tackling the FE pay shortfall, boosting long-term funding for colleges, and restoring maintenance grants. However, the government once again delayed its response to these key recommendations until the spending review later this year.

During the past year the government continued its reform of vocational qualifications, including the phased rollout of T-Levels and ongoing reviews of existing qualifications. The TUC responded to two government consultations on post-16 qualifications and strongly recommended that any plans to remove the funding for existing qualifications (eg BTECs) should be delayed until the full T-Level programme is rolled out and evaluated. In line with submissions by Ofqual and other stakeholders, the TUC responses also highlighted that some existing qualifications will remain more suitable than T-Levels for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) students and other groups.

4.3 NHS

The NHS came under acute strain as it dealt with the immediate impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent resurgences. At the same time, the NHS delivered the biggest and most ambitious vaccine campaign in its history. NHS professionals worked tirelessly throughout, risking their safety to care for others, leaving many traumatised and exhausted.

The safety and wellbeing of our NHS workforce remains paramount. In line with resolution 46, the TUC has worked closely with health unions to ensure no worker is subject to violence or harassment when doing their job.

The NHS now faces significant challenges, including clearing a growing backlog with a demoralised and underpaid workforce reeling from the government’s one per cent pay offer. The TUC has supported the union-led #WithNHSStaff campaign, calling on the chair of the NHS pay review body to have the courage and confidence to give NHS workers a significant and early pay rise.

The differential effect of the pandemic on ethnic minority groups and working-class communities underlines the deep roots of health inequalities. Despite the UK’s BME population being around 13 per cent, Black women comprised 55 per cent of women hospitalised while pregnant with coronavirus. In line with resolution 45, the TUC worked with health unions and campaigners to tackle these disparities, including organising a panel discussion at the TUC Women’s Conference 2021 on Black women’s maternal healthcare.

The TUC has continued to oppose NHS procurement processes that undermine efforts to establish integrated care models. Guided by resolution 47, we have argued that procurement should be a function of the NHS and for competition regulations to be replaced by a procurement ‘best value test’. This should prioritise the quality of patient care, employment standards and the interests of the public.               

4.4 Social care

The Covid-19 pandemic has continued to put huge strain on adult social care. The crisis has exacerbated many of the challenges affecting the sector – including inadequate funding, unacceptably high levels of unmet care need, low pay and workforce precarity.

In line with composite 12, the TUC has worked with affiliates in the sector to highlight the inadequacies of the current system, building on our Fixing Social Care report in September 2020. Ahead of the budget, we lobbied government for a new funding settlement for social care to fully offset the cuts of the previous decade and establish future rises at a level that will allow local authorities to meet rising demand and improve pay and conditions for staff. We have campaigned for parity with the NHS, with guaranteed training and progression opportunities for all staff, and a new sectoral minimum wage of £10 per hour.

Analysis for our key worker campaign showed how the lack of adequate sick pay has disproportionately affected care workers, with one in twenty not qualifying for statutory sick pay (SSP).

We worked closely with affiliates to respond to the government consultation on mandatory vaccination for care home staff, highlighting concerns in the sector and calling for targeted support and awareness-raising instead.

4.5 Privatisation

In line with resolution 47, the TUC has continued to make the case that insourcing and social value procurement should be at the heart of local, regional and national recovery plans. We commissioned new analysis by the New Economics Foundation and Landman Economics that showed across six key metrics – including hours, pay, job tenure and qualifications – workers in the public sector had better standards than those performing the same jobs in the private or voluntary sector.

Throughout the pandemic, the TUC called for greater transparency in government procurement and opposed government proposals to expand the scope for the use of informal tendering processes. Neither the Cabinet Office nor the Treasury has reliable or complete data on contracts awarded in Whitehall, and no consolidated data exists for the NHS, local government or the devolved administrations. There is too little information in the public domain to conduct an effective analysis of the performance, rewards and governance of major contractors delivering publicly funded services.

Given the track record of poor procurement practice undertaken by the government during the coronavirus pandemic, we urgently need reforms to the procurement process to restore public confidence in its credibility, probity and efficacy.

Unionised cleaners subcontracted to government department BEIS picket over safer workplaces and better pay © Guy Bell
Unionised cleaners subcontracted to government department BEIS picket over safer workplaces and better pay © Guy Bell

A more strategic and intelligent approach to procurement that levers the purchasing power of the public sector in support of employment standards, jobs, skills and economic development is crucial.

However, plans set out in the Transforming Public Procurement green paper would give new powers to the cabinet secretary to declare crisis conditions that would allow greater use of direct awards and exempt these contracts from automatic suspension if legally challenged. Rather than formalising the practices we saw during the pandemic, the TUC believes that securing an approved supplier list of potential providers through an open procurement process would be a better approach. As well as providing confidence and transparency, this could also develop the capacity of UK supply chains.

4.6 Civil service

As the pandemic has shown, a fair and impartial civil service is crucial to the economic, political and social wellbeing of the country. In line with resolution 52, the TUC has opposed any attempts to undermine the impartiality and professionalism of our civil servants. It is vital that the government works with trade unions to maintain an independent, well-resourced civil service with well-trained, fairly treated employees, a strong public service ethos and high levels of public trust.

The TUC supported civil service unions in calling for government to halt all planned redundancies, including those in the Ministry of Justice and HMRC. We have lobbied government to invest in 600,000 jobs in public services, with a parallel commitment to improve pay and conditions. We believe an additional 30,000 jobs could be created in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to help the universal credit system meet the extra demands of rising unemployment.

After effective lobbying by the TUC and civil service unions, the government revoked plans to introduce a cap on exit payments, a measure that would have disproportionately affected workers with long years of public service.

4.7 Justice

In line with resolution 56, the TUC continues to support unions in probation services to undo the damage caused by the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms. This year those probation services that were being delivered by private community rehabilitation companies returned to the National Probation Service. However, there is still work to be done to ensure a fully unified service delivered in the public sector.

The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) is a non-departmental public body that is currently within the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).

Cafcass is clearly not a priority for the MoJ. We believe that outcomes for Cafcass and its service users would be better served if it was moved to the Department for Education (DfE), where it could fall under the remit of the minister of state for children and families.

As called for in resolution 57, Cafcass services need the right support from government. We support the work of family court unions and the opposition to press government ministers to take necessary steps, including placing it within the remit of the DfE.

The TUC continues to work with prison unions to demand a fair deal for the prison workforce. Our plan for new public sector jobs includes the recruitment of 4,000 new prison officers to address severe understaffing and overcrowding in our prisons.

4.8 Transport

Guided by composite 13, the TUC has continued to make the case for a publicly owned rail system and calls for a new deal for public transport across all modes.

The railways played a vital role in keeping our country running through the Covid-19 pandemic, and will play a key role when we come out of it.

Workers on the railways, buses and across public transport modes have been on the frontline of the pandemic, putting them up to three times more at risk of infection and death.

The Covid-19 crisis has highlighted flaws that were already present in our transport industry, with the sector now facing acute challenges. After the fragmented and chaotic rail franchise system collapsed, the government brought in a concession model that paid a flat fee to train operating companies (TOCs).

While this model gives greater control to the Department for Transport (DfT), it leaves the private sector embedded in the system. That means funding still leaks out through private profit and dividend payments. The Shapps-Williams Review, published in May 2021, leaves this model largely intact.

We believe that only public ownership under a single guiding authority can achieve the levels of investment required to see improvements like electrification. Public ownership would guarantee the coordination required to reunite track and train, enhancing safety standards undermined by the profit motive.

The TUC has continued to make the case for a publicly owned rail industry, both directly to ministers and DfT officials and in our public statements and calls. We continue to argue that a publicly owned transport system is the best way to ensure that we meet our environmental commitments and protect workers and passengers.

We oppose all attempts to impose austerity on public transport, including the attacks on funding for Transport for London (TfL).

Passenger numbers on our bus network have also fallen dramatically, with government stepping in to support services through the Covid-19 Bus Services Support Grant.

This year the government published its National Bus Strategy. While this includes some improvements on the old, unregulated system, it falls well short of the radical change needed.

The TUC supported the successful campaign in Manchester to return buses to public control. We support regional campaigns to persuade metro mayors in the West Midlands and West Yorkshire to use their franchising powers to take greater control of local bus services. We are also engaging with the Liverpool City Region to improve services in Merseyside.

The TUC has also called for local authorities to have the right to run their own municipal services in meetings with DfT ministers and in our public statements.

Winning more for workers
More than 2,000 reps enroled on TUC Stage 1 training courses in 2020 © Monkey Business Images/Getty Images

4.1 Introduction

Working with and supporting unions to be as effective in the workplace as possible is a critical goal for the TUC. Enabling union reps to develop the knowledge, skills and confidence to represent their members has been made more challenging during the pandemic and our Trade Union Education team has built on the experience of developing and delivering online education to ensure that we have continued to deliver mainstream programmes for reps across all of our regions as well as providing bespoke support on a wide range of issues, from employment rights during furlough to ensuring employers are managing the pandemic safely and tackling mental health issues at work.

The Organising Pledge launched in July 2020 has helped provide focus for the challenge faced by all trade unions. The most recent evidence on union membership growth shows some great successes in many areas, but also highlights the task for trade unions in reaching into and growing union membership in the private sector.

As with other issues and areas of work, the restrictions on operating during the period of lockdown have accelerated union innovation and use of technology. Unions have increasingly used digital communications to reach and engage their members and activists and the vast majority of the hundreds of thousands of members recruited in the last year have joined their trade union via an online platform. The TUC’s Digital Lab has supported unions to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by innovation and to align them to organising outcomes.

4.2 Organising and union membership

Between 2019 and 2020, according to statistics from the Labour Force Survey released by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in May 2021, trade union membership increased by 118,000. This is the fourth consecutive year in which it has risen. This was propelled by an increase in trade union membership in the public sector of over 200,000. There are now 6.56 million trade union members in the UK. Union density also increased and now stands at 23.7 per cent.

Healthcare staff © Sturti/Getty Images
© Sturti/Getty Images

Union membership in the private sector fell by 100,000. This is the lowest level of membership in the sector recorded since 1995. This fall reflects a reduction of over 300,000 in the total number of employees in the sector.

Despite this, the movement should take confidence from another year of growth and one in which the TUC and affiliates united to address the key strategic organising and membership challenges that we face.

Following Organise 2020, the TUC and affiliates have been working to deliver on the commitments of the Organising Pledge, signed by all members of the TUC General Council and the general secretaries of all TUC affiliates. The pledge committed the movement to addressing the following six strategic challenges:

  • increasing the number of workers aged under 30 in our movement
  • enthusing thousands of activists from all backgrounds to become new workplace reps, offering them training within the first six months and training every new rep within their first year
  • working cooperatively as TUC unions to bring trade unionism into new and growing sectors
  • working jointly to eliminate insecure employment, including agreeing and pushing common bargaining agendas across sectors
  • modernising how unions operate, organise and communicate for a digital-first era
  • driving up union membership in workplaces where we already have recognition agreements with employers.

TUC Digital Lab

The TUC’s Digital Lab project is in its third year. This year has been dominated by the need for digital change to keep working effectively during lockdowns and social distancing, and many unions have made considerable progress towards this. Work done here will remain valuable to unions in coming years as, while lockdown will pass, trends like working from home will be here to stay.

To address this, the Digital Lab convened a group of senior union leaders to define the key groups of issues facing unions as they adjust to the ‘new normal’ of operating post-pandemic. The TUC will shortly publish a report into good practice ideas across 27 challenges for unions, and the Digital Lab will support affiliates in developing this work within their own organisations.

Tech © Thomas Barwick/Getty Images
© Thomas Barwick/Getty Images

During 2020 and 2021, the Digital Lab has also investigated how unions might respond to digital disruptor services that are starting to operate in areas traditionally more associated with unions. Findings from a workshop with General Council members and case studies from three unions were incorporated into a published report, Unions and Digital Disruptors.

Following 2019’s successful introduction of a digital change module into the TUC’s Leading Change leadership development programme, an opportunity was added for previous Leading Change alumni to update with the new module as a standalone course. In support of the Organising Pledge, a digital campaigning bootcamp series helped practitioners from across TUC affiliates learn and discuss the latest techniques in digital mobilisation.

Several Digital Lab pilot projects with affiliates had to be put on hold as they would have required working physically with reps. As lockdown relaxes, these are being restarted, or transitioned into an online form. Work has been done with BFAWU to test using digital organising techniques to engage with hard-to-reach workers. A pilot with RCM has sought to identify and test opportunities to improve the accuracy of member data.

The TUC has undertaken work on different aspects of how to recommend which union prospective members should join – significantly increasing the proportion of the thousands of users who complete the union finder tool on the TUC website every month, and are directed on to affiliate websites. Another project has developed guidance in capturing useful organising data from paid social media campaigns with non-members.

The Digital Lab has collaborated with a cooperative tech developer to produce Join Together, a best-practice online joining tool that can be used by TUC affiliates in a simple and cost-effective way, integrated with their own brand and office systems. A Digital Lab report benchmarking how unions are using digital to sign up members was also published.

The TUC’s Megaphone.org.uk online campaign network has grown in usage and scope. More than 400,000 people have taken a campaign action on the platform, with 18 affiliates having used it to run their own petitions or email campaigns. The platform has enabled greater segmentation of supporters for organising and helped unions establish ongoing communication with non-members in target employers or sectors.

Megaphone has also supported greater use of new digital organising techniques, such as enabling supporters to run their own MP lobbying events as part of the TUC’s campaign for a pay rise for key workers.

5.3 TUC Communications Awards

In 2021, we were pleased to recommence the awards after a gap in 2020 due to the pandemic. Seventeen unions took part, with 39 individual entries showcasing high-quality communications from across the union movement.

The judges were Helen Watson of the NEU (representing the overall winner from 2019); Hannah Al-Othman of The Sunday Times; Dan Paskins from Save the Children; and Neha D’Souza of digital and campaigns agency Small Axe.

Prospect’s Wanted: union superheroes won the ‘Best communication for reps and activists’ award
Prospect’s Wanted: union superheroes won the ‘Best communication for reps and activists’ award

At the online awards ceremony on 20 July, union communications professionals and members of the General Council celebrated the strength and diversity of union communications and campaigns. The entries included many digital initiatives as well as traditional hardcopy newsletters. A number showcased speedy, effective responses to the pandemic as well as different ways of keeping members, reps and activists informed. The TUC general secretary introduced the awards and the president awarded the certificates.

The winners were:

Best membership communication
UNISON

Best communication for reps and activists
Prospect

Best campaign communication
CWU

5.4 Young workers

TUC analysis has revealed younger workers have experienced the highest rates of redundancy, largest falls in employment, highest rates of furlough with reduced pay, largest falls in weekly pay, and the largest falls in hours worked since the start of the pandemic.

Almost two-thirds of those who have lost jobs since the start of the pandemic are young workers. Young Black and minority ethnic (BME) people are particularly impacted.

In our submission to the spring budget and in written and oral evidence to government inquiries, the TUC set out the case for increased, targeted support for young workers whose future pay and progression opportunities are negatively impacted by the long-term scarring effects of unemployment.

Following the launch of the Kickstart initiative, the TUC has developed a guide for reps to enable trade unions to negotiate good-quality job opportunities for young workers. Greater investment is needed to widen and expand the scheme to ensure it reaches all young people in need of it.

Guided by resolution 32, the TUC and members of the Young Workers Forum worked closely with affiliates to organise more young workers and to address job insecurity, low pay and toxic workplace environments that are contributing to a mental health crisis among our young people, organising roundtables and webinars during Young Workers’ Month.

5.5 TUC Education

TUC Education exists to provide unions and their workplace reps with high-quality training that enables them to organise, campaign and represent members collectively and individually. Our training is delivered in classrooms via our partnerships with further education (FE) colleges in England and Scotland and also online. We have adapted to deliver our training to reps in whatever way they find most accessible and useful, whether that is in a classroom, online or a combination of both. 

Reps on Stage 1 training in 2020

As part of the challenge in the TUC Organising Pledge to find and train the next generation of unions reps, TUC Education committed last year to reporting the number of new reps attending Stage 1 courses.

In 2020, the number of reps attending TUC Stage 1 courses delivered by TUC Education centres in England and Scotland was 2,104 (in 2019 the number was 4,156). The breakdown across each of the three Stage 1 courses (with figures for the previous year in brackets) was:

  • Union Reps Stage 1–1,171 (2,331)
  • Health and Safety Stage 1–869 (1,424)
  • Union Learning Reps Stage 1–64 (401)

In addition to the above, the number of reps completing Stage 1 training using TUC Education Online versions of these courses was:

  • Union Reps Stage 1–170
  • Health and Safety Stage 1–197
  • Union Learning Reps Stage 1–29

Table 1: Reps on 10-day course programme by union

Our offer to reps

During 2020 we continued our investment in online courses and materials, as well as updating the materials used in classrooms, for the three core courses Union Reps 1, Health and Safety 1 and Union Learning Reps 1.

Our online offer is now well established, and reps can complete online versions of the three core courses, access eNotes, short micro learnings and webinars. These can all be accessed at tuc.org.uk/training

Online training and support for union reps

Prior to lockdown, 45 per cent of reps completing Stage 1 training courses did so online. In 2019, 51 per cent of Union Reps Stage 1 learners completed their course in the classroom, with 57 per cent of all Union Learning Reps 1 learners completing their training online.

Following research by Exeter University into the support offered to reps by TUC Education, we made the decision to replace our existing Learning Management System (LMS) with a new learning platform.

With colleges unable to deliver classroom courses due to the pandemic, we decided to bring forward our plans to move all union rep training online and to launch the new learning platform earlier than originally planned. The delivery of online courses changed from online self-study programmes to a tutor-led online offer.

We soft launched Stream in September 2020, with most of our courses made available. Other courses (including diploma courses and self-study online learning) were delivered through our existing LMS.

Before the autumn term began, we ran a series of training sessions for TUC Education Centre tutors. In total 62 tutors have been given training in the use of Stream and tools for online course delivery. We are currently developing a series of videos and resources to provide further development of tutors and affiliates.

Most of the work focused on developing online content to replace courses that had previously been taught in classrooms. In September 2020 we were able to run 27 TUC tutor-led online courses and supported UCU and UNISON to run expanded online training programmes via our learning platforms. UCU and UNISON had previously worked closely with us to develop their online training for reps.

Despite the impact of the pandemic on our training programme, TUC Education managed to successfully deliver 148 courses between April 2020 and February 2021. This includes 73 TUC training courses. The most popular TUC courses are the Certificate in Employment Law, Union Reps 1 and Health and Safety 1. We have trained over 500 reps on these courses.

Table 2: TUC Education online course programme (Apr 2020–Feb 2021)

Webinars

During 2020, TUC Education ran a total of 23 webinars. There were over 17,000 registrations, with an average registration rate per event of 586. The highest-performing webinars in 2020 occurred in the first three months of the first lockdown and three of the top five focused on health and safety and the pandemic (see Table 3).

Table 3: Number of registrations for each webinar (Feb 2020–Feb 2021)

Representatives from a wide range of unions have attended our webinars. Reps from many smaller specialist unions, including Accord, Aegis, BDA, FDA, NAHT and URTU, have taken advantage of their flexibility and convenience.

Microlearning 

At the beginning of the first lockdown, we took the decision to create accessible coronavirus-related content to support union reps. The content needed to respond to specific issues but also be accessible and clear enough to provide reps with key information related to the pandemic.

Each module contains approximately five minutes of learning. In comparison, regular eNotes are 15–20 minutes long. Reducing the overall length allowed us to produce a total of four learning modules (see Table 4).

Table 4: Number of registrations for each microlearning module

To date, there have been over 44,000 unique viewings of the coronavirus-related microlearning. ‘Return to safe workplaces’ has proven to be the most popular, with almost 20,000 learners accessing the module.

eNotes

During the pandemic, workplace representatives have continued to access the TUC Education suite of short interactive learning modules, eNotes. During 2020, eNotes were viewed a total of 6,857 times.

Digital training support for affiliates

In addition to supporting online delivery of the TUC core programme, TUC Education has continued to support unions’ own online training for reps and activists. Over the last year this has included:

  • assisting UNISON to deliver 46 courses attended by over 1,000 reps
  • delivering core training for UCU covering over 450 activists
  • working with ASLEF to deliver a new flexible training offer for reps including a new online Union Reps Stage 1 course
  • supporting delivery of the CSP’s induction course for reps
  • helping NASUWT with its move to a new learning platform
  • supporting delivery of a series of online courses by PCS including use of the TUC’s online learning platform accounts
  • ongoing work with RMT to develop a digital credential framework.

Online organising training for reps 

TUC Education is currently developing a series of short online, self-paced, asynchronous and self-directed learning modules on union organising for workplace representatives. The aim of the new modules is to give union reps a greater understanding of union organising techniques and practices.

The new online learning modules present the skills and knowledge reps need to:

  • increase the number of workers joining their workplace union
  • encourage members to play an active role in their union and find the next generation of activists and reps
  • design successful campaigns that will improve the working lives of their colleagues
  • use digital to support branch organisation.

Each of the new organising modules is short, interactive, up to date, accessible and user-friendly. Each module functions as a discrete piece of content as well as forming part of a self-directed online series. The content can be adapted and repurposed for tutor-led, blended or classroom delivery. We expect to launch the full programme by Easter.

Union professionals and the Organising Academy

In 2020, we took advantage of the hiatus caused by the pandemic to consult with unions on their requirements from these programmes. Our intention in late 2021 is to relaunch both programmes with updated content delivered both in person and online.

Leading Change

Due to the pandemic, there was no Leading Change programme in 2020. However, the TUC has recently announced dates for the 2021/22 programme.

5.6 Trades councils and unemployed workers’ centres

Many trades councils have managed to shift to virtual meetings and online events and this was reflected in a high number of virtual events to commemorate International Workers’ Memorial Day and May Day celebrations. The national committee has met online throughout the year and has helped to shape the wider TUC priorities around tackling racism and harassment, the lack of access to reasonable sick pay and the government’s response to the broad economic challenges in the wake of the pandemic.

During Heart Unions week, trades councils organised a range of actions, within the limitations of public health restrictions. Defending universal credit was a key theme of action for trades councils throughout the year. Trades councils and unemployed workers and community centers campaigned to maintain the uplift.

Trades councils and the TUCJCC have supported the TUC’s Key Workers Need a Payrise campaign. The recent pandemic has brought into stark relief the difference between how much we rely on key workers, from hospital and care staff through to bus drivers and retail workers, and many in-between, and how they are valued by their employers, as demonstrated in their pay packets. Trades councils have mobilised support for key workers and the pay campaign at a local level.

The TUCJCC responded to a call from trades councils to provide support on the impact of rising banking charges, investigating banking charges options and providing advice on alternatives for trades councils to consider.

5.7 Global solidarity

In line with the General Council statement on a global recovery for working people, the TUC has continued to develop its work based on solidarity and internationalism.

The TUC belongs to the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the OECD’s Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC).

The ETUC executive met in October, December, February, March, April and June. TUC members are Frances O’Grady (also on the Steering Committee), General Council spokesperson on Europe Steve Turner, Mary Bousted and Dave Prentis. The Pan-European Regional Council executive committee met in October: Frances O’Grady and Steve Turner are the TUC members.

The TUC attended the ITUC Executive Bureau meeting in October, the ITUC Human and Trade Union Rights Committee in November and the ITUC General Council in November and May. ITUC General Council titular members are Frances O’Grady and Kevin Courtney. TUC Senior International Officer Mariela Kohon is Frances’s first alternate and Gloria Mills is her second alternate. The ICTU’s David Joyce is Kevin’s first alternate and Gail Cartmail the second alternate. ITUC Executive Bureau titular members are Frances O’Grady, Mariela Kohon as her first alternate and Kevin Courtney as her second alternate. TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady represents the TUC on TUAC.

The TUC has continued to focus on Brazil, Colombia, Palestine and Turkey as our priority countries, including chapters on these in our report on the rise of the far right. Over the year we have also shown solidarity with workers in Belarus, Burma, Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Philippines, Zimbabwe, Cuba, India, the United States and Lebanon.

The TUC held several meetings of the International and European Officers’ Network with the AFL-CIO, Labour’s Shadow Foreign and Shadow International Development team, and the Burma Campaign. In October, we held an event to launch the Challenging Amazon report. In April, we held an L7 side event with several international speakers, including a member of US President Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers.

Colombia

Trade unionists and other leaders have continued to face violence, with at least 43 protesters reportedly killed by police during recent national protests and the peace process continues to be undermined by the government.

We have worked closely with sister trade unions and participated in several international events, as well as holding two events with Justice for Colombia in September and May. We have made statements and written letters, and coordinated meetings with affiliates and the Colombian Ambassador to raise concerns. We have facilitated exchanges between prominent figures in the peace process with MPs. We took part in the UNI-Americas global campaign to stop the killings of social leaders.

Turkey

Trade unionists in Turkey continue to face repression. The TUC held roundtables for the international officers’ network with sister centres DISK and KESK to discuss the situation in Turkey and develop coordinated solidarity work. We sent a letter with education unions on the violence faced by peaceful protesters at Boğaziçi University. We facilitated a roundtable with sister centres and the Labour shadow minister in March.

Brazil

Unions in Brazil protest against the Bolsonaro government’s policies on Covid and emergency aid © ZUMA Press/Alamy Stock Photo
Unions in Brazil protest against the Bolsonaro government’s policies on Covid and emergency aid © ZUMA Press/Alamy Stock Photo

In Brazil, former President Lula da Silva – who, in 2018 and 2019 wrote letters thanking the TUC for our solidarity – had his politically motivated corruption convictions quashed by the Supreme Court and his political rights restored. He will now be free to contest the next presidential election against the far-right incumbent, Bolsonaro. We facilitated several meetings with the shadow foreign minister and our sister centre CUT, the Brazilian Workers’ Party, and with a group of indigenous leaders. The demands of the indigenous groups were passed on to the foreign secretary.

Palestine

In support of delivering resolution 66 and the General Council’s explanation, the TUC wrote to the UK government calling on it to take effective measures to ensure that the Israeli government stops or reverses any further annexation of Palestinian territory, ends the occupation and blockade of Gaza and respects the right of Palestinian refugees to return. We expressed concern about the violence in May, which resulted in the deaths of over 200 Palestinians and 12 Israelis and was linked to the forced evictions of Palestinian families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah. We called on the government to help tackle the root causes of this violence, including by publicly opposing the violations of international law by the Israeli government, challenging the systematic discrimination faced by Palestinians, and by recognising the State of Palestine. We expressed solidarity with Palestinian workers taking part in the general strike on 18 May.

The TUC has met regularly with Labour’s shadow team on Palestine. On the UN International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people in November, we published a report, Justice for Palestine: promoting decent work and Palestinian rights, and shared a solidarity message by TUC President Gail Cartmail. To support delivering Congress policy, the TUC organised a briefing related to pension investments and ending company complicity in the occupation. The TUC engaged with several organisations including some that have recently found that apartheid policies and practices are being committed.

International Labour Organization

The International Labour Conference, held virtually, concluded ambitious guidance on responding to Covid, with job creation and inclusion to the fore. It adopted new policy supporting universal social protection. In the Committee on the Application of Standards, Belarus and Zimbabwe received heavy criticism for their treatment of workers. Having received support from employers and governments, Colombia escaped serious censure for its brutality; however, the TUC’s representative outlined the brutal tactics used by the government during the recent mass protests.

Hosting the L7

With the UK assuming the rotating Presidency of the G7 group of industrialised nations, the TUC became chair of the Labour 7 (L7), representing unions of the G7 countries. With the assistance of the ITUC and TUAC, we sought to influence the G7 to adopt policy reflecting the priorities of working people everywhere. Following a meeting with all L7 members to determine our priorities, the virtual L7 summit was held in April.

Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Guy Ryder © Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Guy Ryder © Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Focusing on the themes of democracy, health, climate and prosperity, we had excellent contributions from the global labour movement and its allies, including Guy Ryder, Director General of the ILO. Two UK secretaries of state – Thérèse Coffey (DWP) and Kwasi Kwarteng (BEIS) – also spoke. There was no ministerial focus on employment but, through lobbying by the whole L7, jobs emerged as a major G7 focus. We also made a presentation to an official-level Employment Taskforce, backed by the Youth and the Women’s 7s. Our final statement called for the G7 to “build back fairer”, focusing on universal vaccine access, better pay for key workers, investment in jobs (especially in the care sector and the green economy), a minimum tax floor to help invest in public services, and for governments and international institutions to challenge the rise of the far right.

The final G7 communiqué lacks recognition of the role of social dialogue and collective bargaining, but contains elements of many of our calls, including commitments to a just transition, strengthening public health systems, investing in green infrastructure and jobs, and to “fully respecting the ILO Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work”.

Wales

The pandemic remains the priority in Wales. In January, Wales TUC successfully lobbied for a legal duty on all employers to carry out a Covid risk assessment. A nationwide sick pay scheme for social care workers was also a key union success after months of campaigning.

Wales TUC’s Greener Workplaces for a Just Transition guide
Wales TUC’s Greener Workplaces for a Just Transition guide

Wales TUC campaigned for a green recovery and a just transition as Wales moves towards a net-zero economy.
To support this at workplace level, we developed a new guide, Greener Workplaces for a Just Transition, and a new course ‘Greening our workplaces – “green skills” for trade unionists’.

We supported development of a Welsh Government Anti-Racist Equality Action Plan.

In contrast to the UK government, the Welsh Government recommitted to the Wales Union Learning Fund and we added to our library of resources for reps with toolkits on problem gambling, younger workers and mental health.

Earlier this year the draft Social Partnership and Public Procurement Bill was published, which will introduce a social partnership duty for many of Wales’s public bodies, a fair work duty on Welsh Government and a Social Partnership Council. We have campaigned for government to require all publicly funded organisations to allow trade union access, and welcomed a letter from Welsh Government to all Economic Resilience Fund recipients that backed this.

Regions

Since the exposure of exploited workers in the garment sector in Leicester last year, the TUC has been coordinating a response on behalf of unions in the Midlands Region. A roundtable with fashion labels and unions, hosted jointly by the Mayor of Leicester and the TUC, launched a ground-breaking Workplace Access Agreement to give unions routes into workplaces, prior to membership, within the supply chain of key fashion brands. ASOS, Missguided, New Look and Very have now entered an agreement with the TUC to allow unions access to its factories to ensure that minimum workers’ rights are being upheld. In addition, two outreach workers are being funded, jointly by fashion labels and unions, to enter the factories to recruit union members, and to work within the community to ensure a joined-up approach is adopted.

Our regions have been working with leaders in mayoral authorities to develop employment charters to drive up employment standards and facilitate union engagement with employers to support organising outcomes. Regional TUCs are building learning and skills partnerships in areas with devolved adult skills budgets to focus on trade union education and union-led learning at work, and supporting trade union learning reps to network and support their members access opportunities to learn and develop their skills.

TUC Administration

6.1 Developing the TUC

We’ve continued to develop the TUC through the second lockdown and beyond. But we’ve delivered differently and against a backdrop of continued uncertainty.

Our people, learning and development

We can fulfil our important mission only if our people are happy and able to deliver. In many ways the second wave of coronavirus and the prolonged lockdown was more challenging than the first.

We continue to support staff who have been directly affected by sickness, bereavement and extreme, extended pressures in their working and family lives. Most staff continued to work from home and we used the government’s job retention scheme to furlough staff who could not work because their jobs were directly affected by the pandemic.

We maintained some additional flexibilities to help our staff remain productive and began a review of flexible working and its impacts, consulting closely with staff and reps, to co-design a future where more staff are likely to spend more time working from home.

After a delay due to the pandemic, we began a period of reflection working with consultants and our Black and minority ethnic (BME) staff to better understand the barriers to staff inclusion and development at the TUC. This built on ongoing work looking at the barriers to recruitment, promotion and development.

We were sad to see staff depart under redundancy schemes, whether those who elected to take voluntary redundancy from Estates and Congress Centre teams most impacted by Covid restrictions or those affected by the end of our unionlearn grant. We continue to look carefully at vacancies as they arise, reshaping or moving posts to best meet the demands on the TUC.

In September 2020, Head of Equalities and Strategy (ESD) Nicola Smith left the TUC for a new post at the Nursing and Midwifery Council. We were pleased to welcome Kudsia Batool to the head of ESD post.

Martin Mansfield, Wales general secretary, had been on secondment to the Welsh government for the year and has taken up a new position there working on standards in the social care workforce. Shavanah Taj, who had been covering Martin’s secondment, was confirmed as general secretary of TUC Wales in June. Beth Farhat, regional secretary of Northern Region, is also leaving us for a new position with an affiliate. We wish all our leavers well for the future.

IT strategy and information services

Both teams were very busy supporting remote working over the period. Much of the year focused on a new tender for IT services, which enabled us to make significant savings for the TUC. We strengthened our internal communications, building on past developments.

The information line supported nearly 4,894 public enquiries in 2020, of which 55 per cent were from people who wanted to know how to join a trade union. The pandemic and worries about safety and job security drove even more working people to find out about joining a union. 

Congress House – managing our estates

We actively manage Congress House to make best use of the building for the TUC and the wider trade union movement. Two of our tenants had to leave us at short notice facing bankruptcy due to the pandemic. We re-let one area and continue to seek more tenants for the vacant space in the building. We restarted our delayed programme of works to update and maintain Congress House.

Congress Centre – a valued venue

Over the years, the TUC and its affiliates have enjoyed the wide range of meetings, conferences and events hosted by Congress Centre. It was very sad to close the doors during lockdown after recent huge success. We have brought in very limited income, providing filming locations and hosting online events under strict Covid-secure conditions. We continue to rely on job retention scheme support but, because of our experience in hosting hybrid meetings and our thorough approach to health and safety, we remain positive about the future once pandemic conditions allow.

Affiliations and mergers

There were no affiliations or mergers to the TUC in 2020–21.

6.2 Congress awards

Congress Award for Youth
Lois McCallum
Unite

Health and Safety Rep Award
Katrina Humphreys
Chartered Society of Physiotherapy

Organising Award
Jake McLean
GMB

Women’s Gold Badge 2020
Sian Stockham
UNISON

Women’s Gold Badge 2021
Millie Apedo-Amah
National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers

Union Learning Rep Award 2021
Collina Angus
UNISON

Recipients of special commendation for health and safety for work during the pandemic

Dele Akinfolarin
GMB

Grant Biggerstaff
Community

Alice Butterton
National Education Union

Brett Cornwell
Unite

Michelle Hargreaves
Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers

Jai Lusser
Prospect

Nicolae Macari
Bakers, Food and Allied Workers’ Union

Khalid Rana
ASLEF

Willie Strang
National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers

6.3 Congress

The 2020 Congress was held online, with the business of Congress passed by an extended meeting of the General Council.  Congress carried 33 resolutions, 15 composites and 1 emergency resolution. It also agreed General Council statements on anti-racism, the economy, safe working, the unequal impact of coronavirus, and a global recovery. In June the Executive Committee agreed temporary changes to standing orders to allow the 2021 Congress to be held online.

6.4 General Council

At the time of writing, the General Council has held seven meetings during the Congress year. At the first meeting, held jointly with the outgoing General Council of the 2020 Congress, Gail Cartmail was elected as chair and she will preside at the 2021 Congress. It was agreed that the Executive Committee should be composed of the existing members (apart from Christine Payne and Chris Keates, who were retiring), with the addition of Patrick Roach and Michelle Stanistreet.

Dave Prentis retired from the General Council in December 2020 and was replaced by Christina McAnea in February 2021. Christina McAnea also joined the Executive Committee at that point. In June 2021, Mick Lynch replaced Mick Cash, and Isabelle Gutierrez resigned from the General Council.

During the course of the year, key themes in the General Council’s work have been coronavirus, the future of working, preventing mass unemployment, anti-racism and sexual harassment.

The General Council lead responsibilities for the year 2020–21 have been as follows:

Overall responsibility as lead spokesperson for the TUC
General Secretary, Frances O’Grady

Senior representative throughout the Congress year
The President, Gail Cartmail

Specific areas of responsibility

Digital
Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney

Disabled workers
Dave Allan

Employment rights
Tony Burke

Environment and sustainable development
Sue Ferns

Europe
Steve Turner

Health and safety
Liz Snape MBE

International development
Gail Cartmail

International relations
Kevin Courtney

Learning and skills
Mary Bousted

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights
Maria Exall

Public services
Dave Prentis (until December 2020), Christina McAnea (from February 2021)

Race equality
Gloria Mills MBE

Trades union councils
Steve Gillan

Women
Sue Ferns

Young workers
Charlie Gray

6.5 Conferences

Due to the pandemic, TUC statutory conferences took place online, with extended committee meetings taking care of the democratic business and governance arrangements.

Women’s Conference

The public sessions of Women’s Conference debated statements on three key themes: the unequal impact of Covid-19 on women, ending gender-based violence and harassment, and strengthening women’s rights and representation at work.

The conference was addressed by Frances O’Grady, and Women’s Committee chair and General Council member Sue Ferns. There were panel discussions on: working women; learning, support and wellbeing for women in the community; Mary Macarthur and the women chainmakers; ending inequalities in Black women’s maternal health care; empowering women through place-led change; and strengthening women’s rights and representation at work. There were interactive workshops on: intersectional organising; preventing sexual harassment in the workplace; workplace support for survivors of domestic abuse; organising for equal pay; and health and safety.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans+ Conference

The LGBT+ Conference held four debate sessions on: statements on the Gender Recognition Act; supporting non-binary members at work; the impact of Covid-19 on the mental health of the LGBT+ community; and the unequal impact of Covid-19 on LGBT+ workers.

The conference was addressed by Frances O’Grady, TUC President Gail Cartmail, TUC LGBT+ Committee chair and General Council member Maria Exall, Chief Executive of Stonewall Nancy Kelley and Shadow Minister Charlotte Nichols. There were two well-received panel discussions on Black Lives Matter and on international LGBT+ rights.

Disabled Workers Conference

The Disabled Workers’ Conference held public debate sessions on statements on the unequal impact of Covid-19 on disabled workers and people and reasonable adjustments.

The conference was addressed by Frances O’Grady, Disabled Workers’ Committee co-chair and General Council member Dave Allan, TUC President Gail Cartmail, Shadow Minister Vicky Foxcroft and Rachel O’Brien of Inclusion London. The conference also held a thought-provoking panel discussion on the role of visibility in tackling disability discrimination.

Black Workers Conference

The Black Workers Conference held webinars on: the trade union response to racism; Making Black Lives Matter; and race, Covid-19 and the vaccine. Four workshops were also jointly run with TUC Anti-Racism Taskforce members to engage Black workers with the Taskforce work.

Young Workers Conference

The Young Workers Conference debated the urgent need to stop mass unemployment with a panel discussion including Equity General Secretary Paul Fleming, and how Covid-19 has hit the lives of young people. Frances O’Grady, Shadow Minister Charlotte Nichols, and Wales TUC General Secretary Shavanah Taj addressed the conference and answered questions on getting active in our unions, organising around key issues and how we must tackle racism.

Trades Councils Conference

Participants at the Trades Councils’ Conference heard keynote speeches from Frances O’Grady and from the chair of the Anti-Racism Taskforce, Patrick Roach. TUCJCC members led panel discussions on a fairer, better, greener recovery, tackling racism, and campaigning for workplace safety, with additional speakers including Colin Hampton (Chesterfield UWC) and Janet Newsham from Risks.

6.6 TUC finances

The annual statement of accounts and balance sheet as at 31 December 2020 is set out in Appendix Three. It shows a total deficit across all funds of £10.047m, including asset revaluations and FRS102 pension accounting adjustments. The pandemic meant big variances to our income and expenditure from budget in a difficult year for financial management. The operating surplus on ordinary activities of £947,000 comprises surpluses of £157,000, £162,000, £428,000 and £200,000 on the administration, development, unionlearn and Congress House dilapidations funds respectively.

Development fund

In 2020, 10 per cent of the affiliation fee was allocated to the development fund, alongside some external funding, and was used to promote new work (including on Covid-related campaigning) and General Council initiatives. This was used to support a variety of projects, the main initiatives being:

  • growing the union movement
  • a new deal for working people
  • rebuilding a UK that works for working people after Brexit
  • digital campaigning.

The development fund, representing all non-unionlearn externally funded projects together with projects funded by the affiliation fee, showed an operating surplus of £162,000.

Statement of accounts

The administration fund (covering day-to-day office-running expenses and staff costs) produced a surplus on ordinary activities of £157,000. We lost income from our Congress Centre and Congress House letting activity but the impact of staff costs was reduced by claims from the Job Retention Scheme and we made savings on expenditure from online meetings (including Congress) and other savings. The unionlearn fund produced a surplus of £428,000, which reflects flows at that point of the year; any surplus when the fund closes will be returned to the DfE. The development fund is shown above, while during the year £200,000 was transferred to the dilapidations fund from the administration fund.

During 2020, our calculated FRS102 pension scheme position moved from a £10,297,000 surplus to £4,913,000. This negative movement of £5,384,000, together with the operating surplus of £947,000, the gain of £246,000 on sale of investments, net revaluation and deferred tax reduction of £5,856,000, has decreased the funds of the TUC from £84,952,000 to £74,905,000.

Prospects and developments

A budget for the 2021 administration fund has been agreed by the General Council. This showed a projected deficit of £156,480 but efforts are continuing to minimise any shortfall. The General Council approved a four pence (1.35 per cent) increase in the affiliation fee to £3.01 for 2021.

The TUC has retained its Fair Tax accreditation.

6.7 Library collection

A photo of Mary Macarthur, founder of the National Federation of Women Workers, from one of the TUC Library's exhibitions
A photo of Mary Macarthur, founder of the National Federation of Women Workers, from one of the TUC Library's exhibitions

Located at London Metropolitan University, the TUC library collection provides a wide range of resources on both the history and the current activities of trade unions, industrial relations, labour history and adult education.

Six exhibitions are currently available to loan, the latest on the life of Mary Macarthur. The others are on the history of young workers; 150 years of the TUC; the 1984/85 Miners’ Strike; the Russian Revolution; and American and British labour relations.

Our educational history websites – The Union Makes Us Strong, Workers’ War, Winning Equal Pay and Britain at Work – contain image archives and oral history and can all be accessed from www.unionhistory.info/

TUC Library can be found on social media at:

Enquiries, visits and inductions are very welcome and can be organised through Jeff Howarth at:

London Metropolitan University
The Wash Houses
Old Castle Street
London E1 7NT
tuclib@londonmet.ac.uk
020 7320 3516

Obituaries


We pay your respects to Maureen Cummings, Patrick Hughes, Peter Jacques, Bill McCall, Leif Mills, John Morton, Ramesh Ramnarine, Alec Smith and Dave Storrie.

Maureen Cummings,
Maureen Cummings

Maureen Cummings, who died in March, worked in the TUC’s economic department and latterly as secretary to Assistant General Secretary David Lea. An authoritative figure, she was widely respected in Congress House.

Patrick Hughes
Patrick Hughes

Patrick Hughes, who died in November, worked as the TUC’s regional education officer in the Midlands from 1976 to 1992. Based in Birmingham, he worked tirelessly to deliver trade union education across the region.

Peter Jacques
Peter Jacques

Peter Jacques, who died in December, led the TUC’s social insurance department for over two decades until his retirement in 1993. Born into a working-class family in London, he left school aged 15 with no qualifications – but became one of the leading trade union officials of his generation, influencing public policy and legislation in ways that endure to the current day. Along with General Secretary Len Murray and union leaders such as Jack Jones, his work led the 1974–79 Labour government of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan to introduce reforms such as earnings-related pensions, child benefit paid directly to mothers, and stronger health and safety rights – including new rights for hundreds of thousands of trade union health and safety reps.

Bill McCall
Bill McCall

Bill McCall, who died in April, was general secretary of the Institution of Professional Civil Servants (IPCS, now part of Prospect) and a member of the TUC General Council from 1984 to 1988. After studying at Ruskin College, he joined the TUC’s social insurance department in 1954, before moving to the IPCS in 1958 and becoming general secretary in 1963 at the age of just 33. As well as leading the IPCS into TUC affiliation, he turned it into an industrial force for skilled professionals such as air traffic controllers, scientists, statisticians and health and safety inspectors. He successfully took on Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government, winning a 15 per cent pay rise for government-employed engineers, scientists and lab technicians, and was one of the leading figures in the campaign for trade union rights at GCHQ. By the time he retired in 1989, the IPCS had grown from 55,000 to 90,000 members.

Leif Mills
Leif Mills

Leif Mills, who died in December, was general secretary of banking and finance union Bifu (now part of Unite) and its predecessor Nube from 1972 to 1996. He served on the TUC General Council from 1983 to 1995, acting as Congress president in 1994–95. After joining Nube as a research officer in 1960, he became assistant general secretary, and was instrumental in the huge expansion of white-collar trades unionism that took hold in the 1960s. Leif Mills also chaired the TUC’s Education and Training Committee and Financial Services Committee.

John Morton
John Morton

John Morton, who died in January, was general secretary of the Musicians’ Union (MU) from 1970 to 1990, and served on the TUC General Council from 1975 to 1984 and again from 1987 to 1989. A major modernising figure within the MU, he was at the forefront of the union’s boycott of the Scala Ballroom in Wolverhampton during its so-called ‘colour bar’. With his keen interest in law, he secured collective agreements with the new generation of commercial and independent radio stations and led a strike at the BBC against proposals to close five orchestras, which led to three being reprieved.

Ramesh Ramnarine
Ramesh Ramnarine

Ramesh Ramnarine, who died after a year-long battle with cancer, was a cleaner at the TUC for over 19 years. An avid cricket fan, he was a very popular colleague at Congress House.

Alec Smith,
Alec Smith

Alec Smith, who died in July, was TUC President in 1990–91 and served on the TUC General Council from 1979–92. Active for many years in the National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers (NUTGW), he became the union's assistant general secretary in 1974 and was elected general secretary in 1979. He subsequently led the NUTGW into merger with the GMB, where he served as a national officer.

Dave Storrie
Dave Storrie

Dave Storrie, who died in January, worked for many years as a regional development worker in the TUC’s Northern region, initially on bargaining for skills, employer training pilots and the Learning for All fund. He was a passionate trade unionist, proud of his AEEU membership as an electrician, and deeply committed to adult learning.

Appendices

This includes:

  • Attendance
  • Committee membership 
  • Accounts 
  • TUC rules and standing orders

Download full Appendices (pdf)

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