General Council Report 2024
2.1 The economy
Over the last year, as the Conservative government’s economic policy failed to deliver, working people have continued to experience huge pressures on their living standards. UK disposable income growth has been the weakest of all G7 economies. The UK is one of only three OECD economies with household/consumer demand below the position before the start of the pandemic.
In the three years to April 2024, prices were up 21.3 per cent on the consumer price index (CPI) measures and 27.9 per cent on the retail price index (RPI) measure. The disparity between official measures of inflation remains a concern and a new trade union inflation group has been to set up to progress resolution 19.
Despite very recent real wage growth, real average weekly earnings still remain slightly below their 2008 levels. This 16-year pay squeeze is the worst on record and, according to historical estimates, is the worst for two centuries. If wages had instead grown at the pre-financial crisis rate over the past 16 years, the average worker would now be earning £14,700 more a year. The worst inflation for 40 years has had nothing to do with workers, but by portraying workers’ pay as an inflationary threat, the Conservative government sought to unfairly blame working people for its own failure to deliver decent living standards.
UK disposable income growth has been the weakest of all G7 economies. The UK is one of only three OECD economies with household/consumer demand below the position before the start of the pandemic.
Alongside increased costs, households and businesses have faced the steepest rise in interest rates for more than 40 years, with the Bank of England base rate rising from 0.10 per cent to 5.25 per cent in under two years. Homeowners have on average faced mortgage interest payments that have more than doubled, increasing 115 per cent between April 2021 and April 2024. Households and businesses with loans have also faced steep rises in debt service payments.
Under the Conservative government, the labour market also showed signs of deterioration. Unemployment was rising, with the most recent data in June 2024, when the unemployment rate was 4.4 per cent. The number of people unemployed has risen by 157,000 across the same period. There has also been a drop in employment (down by 359,000 on a year ago), as well as a fall in vacancies (though they still remain relatively high). A particular concern is record high levels of people out of work due to long-term sickness – 2.83 million working-age people are now out of the labour market due to ill health, up from around 2 million in 2019.
Weak incomes and weak spending have been critical factors in the prolonged stagnation of gross domestic product (GDP). TUC analysis shows that the period from 2010 to 2024 was the worst for economic growth since modern records began after the Second World War.
The problem with the economy is not that workers have too much, but that they have too little. TUC work has set out that strong public services, improved rights at work and increased public investment will strengthen worker incomes, spending and growth. This includes investment in green infrastructure and affordable housing, in line with composite 7.
At the same time, it is right that those with the broadest shoulders should pay their fair share. In line with composite 6, the TUC has continued to campaign for a more progressive system on wealth and excess profits and, in line with resolution 28, for the restraint of profiteering, particularly by banks and energy companies. Our new research, including analysis with TaxWatch showing a £36bn tax gap, advocates for increased HMRC staffing. Our spring budget submission highlighted international evidence on the case for progressive taxation, while TUC analysis made the case against the Conservative government’s cuts to the bank surcharge.
2.2 Pay and the national minimum wage
The TUC has continued to campaign to get wages rising across the economy. Our regular interventions have maintained a strong media focus on the pay crisis facing workers.
Throughout the year, we made the case for a £15 minimum wage for all workers regardless of age, in line with resolution 41. This included submitting evidence to the Low Pay Commission calling on the government to set out a plan to rapidly reach a £15 minimum wage. We also led a delegation of unions to give oral evidence to the Low Pay Commission. Following submissions by the TUC and affiliates, the Conservative government announced an increase in the national living wage to £11.44 an hour from April 2024, and an expansion of headline minimum wage coverage to all workers aged 21 and over.
The TUC Minimum Wage Enforcement Group has continued to meet, bringing together unions, advice agencies and relevant government departments and enforcement bodies.
We continue to contribute to the work of the Living Wage Foundation, promoting the voluntary living wage as a minimum rate for the lowest- paid workers.
The TUC has also coordinated the Our Work Matters: justice for outsourced workers campaign. Organising low-paid workers is a key plank of the fight for £15, with this collaborative joint union campaign connecting low-paid outsourced workers including cleaners, security guards and other facilities management workers. Regional TUC campaigns have allowed workers to share organising tactics and undertake training. We have also supported workers to lobby politicians and create solidarity networks.
2.3 Industry and climate
Our work in this area has been guided by composites 3 and 5, and resolutions 17 and 18.
The TUC has campaigned for investment in a strong and sustainable domestic steel industry. We made the case for improved procurement rules to support domestic production and for a strategic government plan including transitioning to clean steel.
Our wider work has focused on securing a worker-led transition to net zero. Key activity included:
pushing the former government to invest in the climate and environmental workforce, including by future-proofing skills and making training fully accessible and funded
promoting collective bargaining processes with trade unions in net-zero industries
lobbying government to recommit to its climate commitments and for a Just Transition Commission
preparing an updated version of the handbook for green reps in the workplace, and pushing for facility time for green reps
supporting International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) engagement with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations, including the ITUC delegation at COP 28 in Dubai.
We published proposals (including the report Public Power: turning it into reality) for a new publicly owned national energy champion company to be set up. This would support good jobs, clean power and lower bills. TUC commentary on energy company profiteering regularly gained high-profile media coverage and contributed to Labour's manifesto commitment to set up Great British Energy. In line with all four resolutions and composites, the TUC expanded its work on future- proofing industry and jobs:
In the pilot year of our Worker-led Transition project, the TUC focused on automotive and steel, working with national trade union officers and convenors to provide research support, coalition- building with climate groups, and training to workplace reps. We secured funding to expand the project to cover additional high-carbon manufacturing sectors.
Our analysis showed that 660,000 to 834,000 jobs in UK steel, automotive and other manufacturing and supply chain industries could be offshored without rapid decarbonisation. Shifting these industries to net zero could future-proof jobs for current workers and future generations. Our Pulling All the Levers report called on government to implement a clean industrial strategy to defend jobs.
The TUC published the Invest in Our Future report calling for public investment in the first term of a new government to future- proof industrial jobs and infrastructure, keep homes warm, improve transport connections and meet climate targets.
The TUC’s TUSDAC committee met bimonthly, and we introduced a regular meeting of the TUC’s energy unions.
2.4 Workers' capital, corporate governance and executive pay
The TUC continued to coordinate Trade Union Share Owners (TUSO), an initiative bringing together union funds to collaborate over voting and engagement with companies. In November 2023, TUSO hosted a well-attended in-person investor seminar on freedom of association in collaboration with UNI Global. Speakers set out the benefits of freedom of association to both workers and sustainable businesses, including the union contribution to a just transition in the energy and automotive industries. An Amazon worker also described their experience of unionising the firm’s Coventry warehouse.
TUSO has also been working on a collective approach to asset managers to enable members to vote according to TUSO voting guidelines in pooled funds.
In June, the TUC responded to a government consultation on non-financial reporting, opposing the proposal to exempt medium-sized companies from the requirement to produce a strategic report and raise the employee threshold for medium-sized companies to 500.
The TUC was represented on the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales’s (ICAEW’s) corporate governance committee, the Wates Coalition responsible for corporate governance principles for large private companies, and the High Pay Centre’s board.
In line with emergency resolution 2, we continued to make the case for corporate governance reform to ensure the interests of workers are better prioritised.
2.5 Trade
The TUC retained the vice-chair of the UK-EU Domestic Advisory Group for the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA).
We used this position to raise concerns with business groups, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), and EU unions and businesses that the Conservative government’s Retained EU Law Act and Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act contravened the UK’s commitments to maintain a level playing field on rights in the TCA.
As a result of these concerns being raised, in October the European Commission raised an official concern with the former government.
The TUC developed trade union objectives for the 2026 review of the UK-EU Agreement. We then secured support for these from the businesses and civil society groups on the Domestic Advisory Group, in its report released in April.
The TUC held meetings with Nick Thomas Symonds MP, then shadow cabinet minister responsible for the UK-EU agreement. He supported our objectives and spoke publicly about the need for the UK to follow EU standards on employment rights.
The TUC continued to highlight the failure of the UK's social security system to provide an adequate safety net
In March, the TUC wrote to the trade secretary asking for UK-Israel trade talks to be halted following the ruling of the International Court of Justice that it was ‘plausible’ Israel was committing genocide in the Gaza conflict. We also called for an end to both arms sales to Israel and trade in goods from the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
The TUC campaigned against trade talks between the UK and Gulf States, India and Turkey due to ongoing abuses of human and labour rights in these countries. We worked closely with then shadow trade ministers to raise concerns about these trade talks and about the UK acceding to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) trade agreement. This contains countries such as Vietnam and Brunei where independent unions are banned. Then shadow trade minister Gareth Thomas MP and shadow exports minister Tan Dhesi MP raised these concerns in parliament and the media.
2.6 Social security and sick pay
Our work in this area was informed by composites 8 and 9 and by resolution 79.
The TUC continued to highlight the failure of the UK’s social security system to provide an adequate safety net. We showed that the rising cost of living was making it even harder to survive on benefits.
We called on the former government to set a path to significant and permanent improvements in the levels of social security. We set out the need to stop policies that needlessly take money out of families’ pockets, including harsh benefit deductions, the arbitrary benefit cap and the five-week wait in universal credit. We also developed a proposal for how the new government could plan to address social security challenges.
We further developed our campaign for decent sick pay for all. We published a press story, responded to the Work and Pensions Select Committee inquiry into statutory sick pay, and gave oral evidence to the Work and Pensions Select Committee, setting out the case for change.
More widely, the TUC continued to highlight the problems with universal credit and make the case for its replacement, following on from our 2020 publication A Replacement for Universal Credit. This included raising the issues faced by self-employed people on universal credit, along with atypical workers and those on insecure contracts.
We also continued to work with affiliated unions to campaign for free school meals for children.
2.7 Pensions
The TUC continued to advocate for the interests of working people in the pension system. We engaged with government, select committees and regulators through consultation processes and roundtables.
We used these opportunities to argue for better funding regulation for defined benefit (DB) schemes, improvements to defined contribution (DC) schemes through consolidation of small pots, and better processes to turn savings into retirement incomes. We also sought to promote a wide range of collective defined contribution (CDC) schemes.
The TUC pensions conference in March focussed on our priorities in an election year and included an opening keynote from then shadow work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall MP.
Sessions focused on expanding auto-enrolment and increasing employer pension contributions, the state pension age, and the role of pension funds in investing in a just transition to a low-carbon economy.
The TUC also worked with the Committee on Workers’ Capital to jointly organise a seminar for trustees, encouraging investors to promote high employment standards and responsible corporate behaviour in companies they invest in.
In line with composite 10, we made a submission to the Women and Equalities Committee inquiry into the rights of older people, highlighting the issue of digital exclusion.
2.8 Transport
As set out in composite 4, the TUC continued to make the case for sustainable investment in transport services and infrastructure. We strongly and publicly opposed the decision to cancel phase two of HS2 and maintained constructive external engagement on the best way forward for rail investment.
In our response to the former government’s proposals on adapting the transport system to the realities of the climate emergency, we made a clear case for the importance of worker voice in the relevant decision-making processes, and for a more ambitious and interventionist role for government. This included providing both written and oral evidence to the independent Rail and Urban Transport Review, where we were also represented on the review panel.
We published new research – Fare Outcomes: understanding transport in Welsh cities – on the transformative impact that transport investment can have on the economic prospects of cities. We also set out options for funding that investment at a local level. Our public work highlighted the continued disgraceful cost of travel in the UK through media interventions demonstrating the vastly lower costs across Europe for equivalent journeys.
In line with emergency resolution 1 and resolution 14, the TUC supported the successful union campaign to prevent the Conservative government’s planned railway ticket office closures.
Two years on from the illegal mass sackings at P&O, we worked with affiliates in the UK and international partners to shine a light on the Conservative government’s inaction. In line with resolution 15, we made the case for a mandatory seafarers’ charter that takes account of the need for collectively bargained agreements. We progressed this work in the media, at demonstrations and in evidence sessions in parliament.
The TUC produced an AI Bill with the input of creative unions, setting out regulations on the use of AI in the workplace to enhance workers' rights.
2.9 Arts and creative sector
The arts and culture sector employs 700,000 people, of whom half are self-employed. The TUC has long campaigned for improved rights for self- employed workers, as well as for a crackdown on bogus self- employment. Across the year we continued to develop our policy in this area.
Pay in the sector is annually £6,000 lower than in other industries. The TUC policy of a £15 minimum wage would improve pay across industries, and our calls for strengthened labour market enforcement would ensure workers are paid at least the legal minimum. We have made this case to the Low Pay Commission, supporting resolution 9. We have also supported union campaigns for fairer pay, in line with resolution 10, and for a properly funded BBC, in line with composite 20.
There is a growing risk that artificial intelligence (AI) will infringe on the rights of workers in this sector. The TUC produced an AI Bill with the input of creative unions, setting out regulations on the use of AI in the workplace to enhance workers’ rights related to algorithmic management. We continue to engage with the creative unions to develop our response in the sector.
In line with composite 2, we have called for government funding for the arts to be brought up to the European average. The TUC is also campaigning on equitable arts funding for every region and nation across the UK. Our regional offices have produced local cultural manifestos and hosted events on organising in creative industries.
The TUC has also taken part in meetings of the Federation of Entertainment Unions throughout the year.
2.10 Working time and flexible working
After the Flexible Working Bill reached royal assent in July 2023, the TUC responded to the new Acas statutory code of practice and promoted the new legislation to union reps via webinars and online learning. We also responded to a call for evidence on non- statutory flexible working. We continue to call for further improvements to flexible working legislation, promoting our calls for a right to flexible working and an advertising duty, and continue to engage with Labour on the need for wider legislative changes.
We published research showing half of new fathers and partners don’t get the flexibility they ask for at work. This rises to two- thirds for those in lower-income households and demonstrates the limitations of a right-to- request system for flexible work.
We also produced a report – Making Hybrid Inclusive – on BME workers’ experiences of hybrid working following the Covid-19 pandemic, showing how workplace racism impacts on flexible working. Much of our work highlighted the importance of flexible working in the recruitment and retention of staff, supporting resolution 16.
2.11 Health and safety
Noting resolution 78, the TUC campaigned to ensure that the health, safety and welfare of workers is protected by strong union organisation and a growing network of health and safety reps with access to high- quality advice and guidance.
For the first time, we organised a national training event, bringing together hundreds of safety reps. This marked the 50th anniversary of the Health and Safety at Work Act and featured a series of introductory courses. These targeted women, Black workers and young members, who are underrepresented in the safety rep role.
In response to last year’s General Council statement on RAAC, TUC Education produced a range of resources to support workplace activists. These included webinars focused on inspections, working in extreme temperatures, and stress. We also launched a brand new reps’ course and produced supplementary education resources on safety in the built environment, preceded by an ‘inspections week of action’. This enabled hundreds of safety reps to take coordinated action inspecting their workplaces for structural risks including RAAC.
2.12 Covid-19 public inquiry
In line with composite 11, the TUC has been a core participant in inquiry modules examining government decision-making in Westminster, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as in the early stages of the module looking at the impacts on the NHS and healthcare workforce. Representatives from the TUC, TUC Cymru, STUC and ICTU-NI gave powerful testimony and, for the first time in the inquiry, some of our NHS frontline members gave evidence in the courtroom.
Our legal representatives from Doughty Street Chambers – supported by Thompsons Solicitors – put questions directly to former ministers. We held Boris Johnson, who was prime minister during the pandemic, to account about messages that showed the ‘no surrender’ attitude that he and other ministers took towards trade unions. We questioned Rishi Sunak, who was then chancellor, on his failure to provide financial support for working people to self-isolate, and pressed cabinet secretary Simon Case and former adviser Dominic Cummings to acknowledge that not enough support had been given to the poorest to isolate. We also asked then health secretary Matt Hancock MP to confirm his support for increasing statutory sick pay.
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