General Council Report 2022
3.1 Introduction
Public sector workers have remained at the forefront of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, tackling backlogs in health, education and justice, shifting to a ‘new normal’ where pandemic responses are embedded into the daily delivery of many of our public services while seeking to address climate change.
In line with resolutions 12, 13 and 24, the TUC campaigned for an end to the public sector pay freeze at the 2021 autumn budget. Throughout 2022, we continued to lobby ministers, including writing to the chancellor, making the case for public sector pay rises that keep pace with the cost of living and begin to restore a decade of real-terms pay cuts.
Guided by resolution 1, the TUC has fought to protect jobs, working conditions and pensions. In line with resolution 12, we made the case for sustainable investment in public services and a long-term workforce plan, produced in consultation with unions, to end excessive workloads and staff burnout. We investigated the new challenges and opportunities of increased digitisation, a greener public transport system and a revitalised trade union agenda on skills, as well as the role of procurement in levelling up and promoting insourcing.
3.2 NHS
In its third year, the catastrophic impact of the pandemic on those waiting for care and those working to deliver it is ever more evident.
The scale of the backlog facing our NHS is staggering, placing increased pressure for effective regulation, as articulated in resolution 60 on regulatory reform. In April 2022, 6.2 million people were waiting to receive treatment.
The TUC is calling for sustainable long-term investment in health services to tackle this backlog. Additional funding raised by the new Health and Social Care Levy (an unfair increase in National Insurance) will go a small way towards this and, even then, only if funding is targeted effectively. That means addressing the staffing crisis that is undermining our health and social care system.
Vacancies in the NHS have reached the highest levels on record, with one in ten jobs currently vacant. The TUC has worked alongside affiliates in the sector to call for an immediate retention package, with a decent pay rise at its heart, to prevent further workforce losses and to address the low morale of underpaid and overworked staff.
TUC analysis found NHS workers are still earning thousands of pounds a year less, in real terms, than in 2010. We sent briefings to every MP in the country, mapping backlogs and staff shortages against the real-terms wage cuts of NHS workers in their constituency. In May 2022, the TUC warned government that if it continued to hold down NHS wages, it would suck demand out of the economy and stunt economic growth. The economy would experience a whopping £2.1bn loss of economic activity if NHS wages fail to keep pace with inflation.
3.3 Social care
The TUC has continued to influence the agenda on social care, ensuring improvements for the workforce are at the centre of any debate. In line with resolution 12, we published A New Deal for Social Care: a new deal for the workforce at Congress 2021. This landmark report proposed to transform care delivery through improvements in the pay and conditions of the workforce – including a new sectoral minimum wage raised through reforms to capital gains tax, the establishment of a new Social Care Forum and a long-term workforce strategy developed with unions. We developed evidence on public support for reforms, carrying out a poll of working adults that identified widespread support among the electorate for improving care workers’ pay and conditions.
Ahead of the 2021 autumn budget and comprehensive spending review, we called on government to increase funding for social care. Throughout 2022, we worked closely with affiliates and key stakeholders to oppose government plans to introduce mandatory vaccination requirements in social care, produced written evidence for the House of Lords Adult Social Care Committee’s inquiry on the invisibility of care work and gave oral evidence to Labour’s policy-making forum on fair pay agreements and a national care service.
3.4 Civil service and justice
Guided by resolution 62, the TUC used its oral and written submission to the House of Lords Public Services Committee inquiry Public Services Workforce for the Future to condemn the government’s model of routinely briefing against and undermining both the civil service and its senior leadership. Such high-profile attacks lead to a demoralised workforce and act as a deterrent to anyone considering a career in the civil service.
Low morale among civil servants has been compounded by a lack of a credible, robust and fair pay progression system, further undermining recruitment and retention efforts. Throughout the year, the TUC has pursued meetings with Cabinet Office ministers and officials, making the case for a civil servant pay structure and putting up a robust defence of jobs in the civil service. TUC analysis revealed government plans to cut 91,000 civil service jobs will be deeper than the deepest point of the previous programme of austerity cuts in the last decade. The cuts under then chancellor George Osborne set a record for the fewest civil service employees since the Second World War: if these cuts go ahead, they will break that record.
The justice sector saw some of the deepest cuts during the period of austerity. Despite promising to rectify this, the government has failed to commit the financial investment required to undo the decades of damage that has been done to legal aid or address the huge backlogs in the courts system.
In 2022, the probation service completed the process of unifying the publicly owned service (since 2015 called the National Probation Service) and dozens of community interest companies. While it is right that probation is brought back into public ownership, the service in its current guise is not fit for purpose. In line with resolution 63, the TUC and its affiliates in the sector continued to call for probation to be separated from HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) and re-localised. Meanwhile, despite slight falls in the last year, the Children and Family Court Advice and Support Service (CAFCASS) continues to face unmanageable workloads to the detriment of staff and service users alike. The TUC and affiliates are calling for a fair funding settlement in line with resolution 64 and an end to the outsourcing and privatisation that have damaged our justice system.
3.5 Transport
Good-quality public transport is essential for passengers and communities and for creating a sustainable future. In line with resolution 3, the TUC and affiliated unions in the sector have commissioned a report on the benefits of investing in green public transport.
Transport workers were rightly hailed as heroes during the pandemic, but they have suffered sustained attacks on their jobs, terms and conditions to the detriment of safety and services for passengers as well as workers.
The Williams/Shapps plan for rail threatened cuts of £1.5bn over five years. At the end of 2021, the Department for Transport (DfT) announced plans to impose cuts of 10 per cent across the industry.
Meanwhile, Network Rail has committed to billions of pounds of cuts between 2019 and 2024. These cuts threaten a vicious spiral of declining service, driving reduced passenger numbers and further cuts.
In response, rail workers delivered a resounding mandate for industrial action across train operating companies and Network Rail. The TUC has provided support with online campaigning and digital organising, as well as producing a report making the case for sustained investment in rail. We commissioned a legal opinion by Michael Ford QC that makes clear government’s responsibility for resolving disputes over pay, terms and conditions.
Bus services have long been neglected by central government despite the vital role they play connecting businesses, workers and communities. Across much of the country bus services have been deregulated, becoming unreliable and expensive as a result of private profiteering and the hollowing out of local government funding. In 2021, the government published Bus Back Better, which attempted to address these issues by requiring local transport authorities to produce Bus Service Improvement Plans and either enter enhanced partnerships or begin the process of franchising where relevant. Though it represented an improvement on the status quo it was not commensurate with the scale of the challenge. This year the TUC has supported campaigns for metro mayors to begin the process of franchising in Liverpool, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. We maintain that lifting the ban and allowing municipalised bus services is the best option for bus passengers, workers and the country.
The aviation industry is a vital component of our economy, providing essential transport links and high-skilled, unionised jobs to thousands of workers. The aviation industry is currently struggling to meet the upsurge in demand due to staffing and skills shortages. Unions persistently warned government about these risks and called for measures such as short-time working to preserve vital skills from haemorrhaging out of the industry, skills that will be expensive and difficult to replace. From air traffic control to security and baggage handling we are now seeing the impact of government’s refusal to listen to unions.
3.6 Education and skills
Massive cuts in funding and the abolition of adult skills entitlements over the last decade have led to a sharp decline in lifelong learning and training. At the same time economic and social trends are requiring workers to upskill and retrain more than ever before. While responding to the impact of the pandemic remains an immediate priority, there are significant skills challenges arising out of the impacts of Brexit, automation/AI and the transition to a greener economy.
Over the last year, the TUC has engaged with industry and government stakeholders to promote a package of measures that could boost lifelong learning for adults. These should be implemented through a new national lifelong learning and skills strategy based on a vision of a high-skill economy, where workers are able to quickly gain both transferable and specialist skills to build their job prospects. A strategic approach could be delivered at pace by a National Skills Taskforce that would bring together employers, unions and other key stakeholders alongside government
Establishing a wider range of skills entitlements for adults and introducing a new right to paid time off to train should be a priority. Over time these entitlements would be incorporated into lifelong learning accounts that would facilitate additional workplace learning, including encouraging co-investment by employers.
The government can use its position as an employer in the public sector to lead by example, focusing on equipping workers with the digital skills needed to deliver on the government’s ambition for digital by default public services, providing training for those whose jobs are at risk due to automation and as we transition to net zero, and increasing access to upskilling and retraining opportunities to help more public sector workers progress in their careers.
A national lifelong learning and skills strategy should contain an explicit boost to FE and skills funding over a multi-year period and this long-term funding picture should be updated regularly. This financial investment should be mirrored at all other stages of the education system, from the early years onwards.
Over the past year, the TUC has worked closely with affiliated unions on education policy and workforce issues, including supporting the campaign priorities in resolutions 11, 46 and 61. We have supported affiliates with campaigning and digital organising as they represent members in HE and FE involved in disputes over pay and casualisation. Since 2009, all college staff have suffered a real-term pay cut of 30 per cent.
Ahead of the autumn budget, the TUC highlighted the sharp decline in teachers’ pay over the last decade and that critical and deep-rooted recruitment and retention problems have not been solved. We have campaigned for an early and meaningful pay rise for the entire teaching profession, not just that of new starters but of teaching assistants, experienced teachers and those working in the early years, to ensure that the education sector is well placed to attract high-quality graduates and retain experienced education staff. Tackling excessive workloads and the lack of flexible working should also be addressed, through a long-term workforce plan, produced in consultation with unions.
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