General Council Report 2022

1.1 Introduction

Over 2021, the UK and world economies continued to recover from the large-scale reduction in economic activity caused by lockdowns to confront the pandemic. The UK economy regained its pre-pandemic level of GDP at the turn of 2022.

The furlough scheme demanded by trade unions helped to protect jobs and prevent against a surge in unemployment across the economy. However, compared to pre-pandemic levels, employment is still down in many industries, especially manufacturing, energy extraction and supply, and finance and insurance. The biggest gains in employee jobs are in activities most closely related to the pandemic, such as health, public administration, IT, ‘professional, scientific and technical’, and ‘administration and support’.

Self-employment jobs have fallen sharply, so that total employment is still down by more than one quarter of a million on the position ahead of the pandemic. Some sectors have reported labour shortages, as workers in sectors dominated by poor terms and conditions have in some cases not returned to these jobs in the wake of Brexit, and there is some evidence of older workers withdrawing from the workforce.

A significant challenge for workers has been the global rise in inflation, triggered by problems in global supply chains, and bottlenecks in transport and energy markets in particular. 

Underlying pay growth is (at the time of writing in July) 4 per cent and is forecast to rise to 5 per cent. At best this will be half the forecast peak in inflation and real pay will decline by 5 per cent. This adds to the pain caused by the longest and harshest real wage squeeze in modern history.

The TUC has been arguing for a new approach. Workers cannot afford to absorb rising prices. Consumer confidence is crashing and the threat of a recession is just around the corner. Further pay cuts for workers could push us over the edge. Telling workers to take the hit while protecting wealth has led us into crisis after crisis; we need a new approach that puts workers ahead of wealth and a productive economy ahead of an extractive economy. As we set out further  in this section of the General Council report, that means investing in UK workers, in the secure green energy supply we need, and in boosting jobs in the UK – in the public and private sector.

1.2 Pay and the national minimum wage

The TUC has campaigned to get wages rising across the economy through its Britain Needs a Pay Rise campaign. We have made regular media interventions, which have kept the pay crisis on the agenda as a central plank of the cost-of-living emergency. TUC analysis showed that energy bills increased 14 times faster than wages. We showed that insecure low-paid work is costing the Treasury £1bn a year. Ahead of the TUC national demonstration, we secured media coverage showing that workers have lost £20,000 since 2008 because pay has not kept pace with inflation.

The TUC has worked with affiliates to establish a new headline minimum wage demand of £15 per hour as soon as possible and the TUC has submitted evidence to the Low Pay Commission calling on the government to set out a plan to reach this target.

We argue that this should be underpinned by a return to normal pre-crisis wage growth of at least 3.8 per cent a year; and an increase in the minimum wage target to 75 per cent of median wages. The Low Pay Commission should continue to work in social partnership with unions to establish the most suitable path based on economic circumstances.

Throughout the year the TUC has made the case for a higher minimum wage, beginning with an immediate increase to £10 an hour. Following submissions by the TUC and affiliates, the government announced an increase in the national living wage (NLW) to £9.50 an hour from April 2022.

The TUC NMW Enforcement Group has met quarterly, bringing together unions, advice agencies and relevant government departments and enforcement bodies. Kate Bell continued to represent the TUC on the Low Pay Commission.

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 pushed for increases to the living wage to be bought forward this year due to high inflation. Following this, it has been agreed that the next living wage rate will be announced two months earlier than usual this year.

1.3 Climate, energy and just transition

The TUC has campaigned hard for a swift and just transition to a net zero economy, intervening around the energy crisis, COP27, specific workplace issues and government policies including the Net Zero Strategy. In the context of the gas price crisis, we campaigned for a windfall tax on oil and gas profits to help pay for help with energy bills, for public ownership of energy, and for a coordinated public-sector led programme of home retrofits.

Responding to the issues adopted in composite 2, the TUC has undertaken a wide range of work. We successfully pushed government to launch a Green Jobs Delivery Group with trade union representation. We published analysis on the need to safeguard and future-proof 660,000 jobs in high-carbon industries by investing in decarbonisation, and supported lobbying and organising within automotive, aerospace, steel and other manufacturing sectors.We have also pushed for the construction of new nuclear plants, including coordinating letters and lobbying government to firm up commitments for Sizewell C. We conducted workshops and published a report on the need to create good jobs in low-carbon heating, covering the need for fair pay, collective bargaining and sectoral agreements. In our engagement with government and media interventions, we highlighted the need for greater investment in zero-carbon hydrogen to support a rapid transition for high carbon industries. And we ran workshops and made submissions to government and select committee inquiries promoting a carbon border adjustment mechanism.

We have also run peer-to-peer workshops for union officials on growing their networks of environment reps, provided resources and micro-learnings for reps, and profiled the work of reps in both media comment articles and TUC blogs. This was alongside a series of regional roundtables for affiliates to develop collective union demands to combined authorities on just transition, procurement and climate action.

In response to resolution 11, the TUC has expanded its internationalist and decolonial approach to climate justice, highlighting structural racism in institutions. We have taken steps to increase climate content in trade union education including publishing new materials, and advocated through the Green Jobs Delivery Group and Green Jobs Task Force for the education system to support the climate transition. In 2021, we conducted a baseline assessment and audit of affiliates’ publications and positions on the climate transition, and have searched for examples of best practice on sustainability.

In response to composite 3, we have commissioned a report on the need to expand and green public transport and pushed government and political parties for more investment in high speed rail connections and metro networks outside London.

1.4 Levelling up at work

The TUC published its response to the government’s levelling up agenda in October. Levelling Up at Work: fixing work to level up across the UK argues that low pay and insecure work are endemic across every region and nation of the UK and that unless this is addressed levelling up will fail. This requires creating an economy based on decent work, with reform of skills, corporate governance and procurement policies, strengthening collective bargaining, investment in green industrial policies, a pay rise for public sector workers and an end to outsourcing of public services.

Meetings were held with government, opposition politicians and other organisations both before and after the publication of the government’s Levelling Up white paper in February. The TUC commented that the white paper’s proposals failed to address the world of work, though it did contain a performance indicator on the proportion of jobs that are low paid.

1.5 Workers’ capital, corporate governance and executive pay

In September, the TUC hosted a union roundtable to feed into a Financial Reporting Council report on corporate culture. The report, published in December, included several quotes from union participants alongside a section on how trade unions contribute to engagement and a positive corporate culture.

A report from the TUC, Common Wealth and the High Pay Centre Do Dividends Pay Our Pensions? was published in January and showed that only a tiny proportion of UK dividends and buybacks accrue to UK pension funds and that pension wealth is very unequally distributed. The report argued for corporate governance reform and measures to promote collective bargaining.

Janet Williamson continues to represent the TUC on the ICAEW’s Corporate Governance Committee and the Wates Coalition responsible for corporate governance principles for large private companies. Research published in February showed that the Wates principles are the most widely adopted corporate governance code used by large private companies.

Trade Union Share Owners has led work with Unite coordinating investors to put pressure on Whitbread to pay the living wage.

The TUC and the High Pay Centre published a joint report on CEO pay in August. The report found that after a dip in 2020 caused by the pandemic, median FTSE 100 CEO pay rose sharply in 2021 to £3.41m – a 39 per cent increase on the 2020 level and 5 per cent higher than in 2019. The ratio of FTSE 100 median CEO pay to median full-time worker pay has now outstripped the pre-Covid level, rising from 107 in 2019 to 109 in 2021.

1.6 International trade

The TUC has advanced resolution 45 by using its positions on the government’s Strategic Trade Advisory Group, EU Domestic Advisory Group and DIT Trade Union Advisory Group to advocate for ethical trade that decreases inequalities between the global north and south.

The TUC met the UK government at the World Trade Organisation Ministerial Conference in June to express concern that the government was actively undermining proposals by South Africa and India to waive international property rules that would allow global south countries to produce affordable versions of Covid-19 vaccines and treatments.

The TUC campaigned with Indian unions to call for trade talks between the UK and Indian governments to be suspended due to concerns about widespread abuses of workers’ rights and civil liberties.

The TUC also opposed trade talks between the UK and Gulf States due to concerns about labour and human rights abuses and advocated against the UK-Australia trade deal and the UK-New Zealand trade deal as neither contained effective mechanisms to enforce labour rights or protect public services, personal data or food standards – as raised in composite 6.

The TUC and its US counterpart, the AFLCIO, took part in UK-US dialogue events with the UK international trade secretary Anne Marie Trevelyan and the US Trade Ambassador Katherine Tai in Baltimore and Aberdeen. The TUC pressed the UK government to follow the worker-centred trade agenda’ of the Biden administration which involves close engagement with unions. The UK international trade secretary affirmed that trade unions would be included in the government’s Trade Advisory Groups that are consulted on trade negotiations, however, this has not yet taken place.

We continued to campaign for the government to uphold commitments to the Level Playing Field in the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) and expressed concern about the Brexit Freedoms Bill and other moves to water down rights. We held an event with Shadow International Trade Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds in January to launch a TUC-commissioned legal report on how workers can use the TCA and its review in 2026 to prevent attacks on rights.

The TUC released a joint statement with the Northern Ireland Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) in June expressing concern that the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill threatened the Good Friday Agreement.

1.7 Social security

Social security plays a vital role in supporting livelihoods. 

We have continued to highlight the inadequacy and the design of universal credit, raised in resolution 31. The TUC working group looking a replacement for universal credit has produced its final report. This was presented to the TUC Executive Committee, and the findings were discussed at an event with the shadow secretary of state for work and pensions, Jonathan Ashworth.

In line with composite 6, the TUC continues to look at the rise in food poverty. We have met with groups including Feeding Britain, which develops projects such as affordable food clubs and school holiday food and activity schemes, to see if there are ways they could work with trade unions.

We continue to campaign on the need for decent sick pay for all.

Kate Bell also represented the TUC on an advisory group for the pilot for a basic income for care leavers in Wales.

1.8 Pensions

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

In line with resolution 30 we have campaigned for auto-enrolment to be extended and improved to better serve workers on low pay. This has included working with an industry and cross-political group to develop and promote a solution to the net pay anomaly that denies tax relief to some low-paid workers. We have also provided written and oral evidence on removing the auto-enrolment earnings trigger and improving saving rates to the Work and Pensions Select Committee, and worked with a range of stakeholders to campaign for higher contribution levels.

This year the TUC has focused particularly on barriers to accessing a decent pension faced by many women, and in May we launched the first annual Gender Pension Gap day to highlight this issue.

Gender inequality was one of the topics highlighted in our annual pensions conference, held in March, which also examined the development of collective defined contribution pensions, scheme investment in private equity and infrastructure, and the state pension age.

In line with composite 13, we have continued to campaign for improvements to the state pension and to public service pensions. We have facilitated ongoing engagement between unions and the Treasury over the McCloud remedy and provided consultation responses in favour of reforming the discount rate mechanism and against changes to the cost control mechanism for public service schemes.

We campaigned publicly for the triple lock promise to be honoured to preserve the value of state pensions. We also produced research exploring the impact of increases to the state pension age on older workers and used the independent review of the state pension age to argue against further increases and for stronger measures to support older workers.

1.9 Support for the arts and a new deal for self-employed workers

The coronavirus pandemic hit the self-employed hard, with the crucial creative industries particularly badly affected. The associated shutdown revealed just how inadequate the UK’s social safety net is for many modern self-employed workers.

There is an urgent need for reforms to allow self-employed workers access to much of the support that is given to those in employed work. Therefore, in line with resolution 23, the TUC formed a Self-Employed Working Group to develop the details of a new deal for the self-employed. This will focus on the needs for collective bargaining rights, stronger health and safety protections, sick pay, parental rights and a system of universal credit that works for self-employed workers.

We also ran a discussion, in line with composite 5, to explore the potential use of a form of universal basic income (UBI). This had input from unions for creative workers from the Republic of Ireland where a universal payment to artists – Basic Income for the Arts – is being piloted.

The TUC has advanced resolution 34 by calling for visa waivers for creative workers touring in the EU in meetings with European Commission and EU embassy officials in London. We are also working with sister unions in EU countries to raise the issue with EU governments.

In line with composite 14 we have opposed efforts to privatise Channel 4. The TUC General Secretary wrote to the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport as part of a wider campaign coordinated by We Own It.

1.10 Transport

In line with resolution 29, Fixing TfL’s Broken Funding Model, TUC colleagues have been active in supporting calls for a sustainable pay settlement for TfL, including producing blogs, reports and articles highlighting the vital role the service plays.

Firefighters put their lives on the line before, throughout and beyond the pandemic. In line with resolution 25, the TUC has supported colleagues in the FBU as they have resisted continuous attacks on their terms and conditions, including ensuring that their voices were heard on the national stage at the recent We Demand Better demonstration on 18 June 2022.

In line with resolution 28, we have supported colleagues in the maritime unions to fight back against attacks on their members, most recently by producing campaign materials, petitions and briefings to highlight the shameful sacking of hundreds of workers at P&O Ferries.

In line with composite 4 we contributed to the Department for Transport consultation on transport labour market and skills, highlighting the need for continued investment in adult learning and skills development and the vital role that unions should play in this process.

We have also produced a report highlighting the need for proper investment in digital skills training for adults and have commissioned a series of articles investigating digitisation in the public sector, one of which will focus on the need for upskilling on digital skills and the role of unions in pushing for this provision for their members.

1.11 Working time

The TUC has made multiple media interventions on working time. We highlighted excessive unpaid overtime for Work Your Proper Hours Day. We have continued to call for the creation of four more bank holidays, particularly during the additional Platinum Jubilee bank holiday.

For resolution 27, we researched workers’ experiences of accessing flexible working. We submitted our response to the BEIS consultation on making flexible working the default and got almost 6,000 members of the public to share their views. We have lobbied government and political parties for their support on policy calls to ensure fair flexibility for everyone and highlighted the risks of uneven access to flexibility without intervention, and provided guidance to reps on collectively negotiating for flexibility.

We have attended meetings of the Working Time Coalition to feed into this work.