A new deal: TUC statement on the spending review

Ruling out the possibility of a no-deal Brexit

• The Government should rule out the possibility of a no-deal Brexit and find a solution to the Brexit crisis which protects jobs, rights and peace in Northern Ireland. Without ruling this out, the Chancellor cannot begin the vital work of rebuilding Britain’s economy and public services.

Fixing the broken economy

• The Chancellor should set out a plan to raise investment to the OECD average, and show how this will be used to help meet the target of net zero emissions.
• This must be used to deliver a just transition for workers. Government should:
  • Set up a cross-party commission on long-term energy and energy usage strategy
  • Use its procurement powers to ensure that jobs generated benefit workers in the local community and throughout the supply chain
  • set an ambition to increase investment in both workforce and out of work training to the EU average within the next five years
  • introduce a comprehensive package of adult skills entitlements that could be accessed through an expanded National Retraining Scheme and the introduction of lifelong learning accounts
  • give workers an entitlement to a mid-life skills/career review to consider their employment and skills trajectory going forward
  • reform the existing right to request time to train so that it is transformed into a new strengthened entitlement to paid time off for education and training. 

Rebuilding public services

•  After ten years of austerity, the government now needs to set out a ten year plan for how to restore our public services to world class standards, with long term funding commitments. This must go beyond schools and hospitals, vital as they are, to cover the whole public sector, and include fair pay rises for all public sector workers. 

Delivering a new deal for workers

• Government should abolish the Trade Union Act 2016, introduce new rights for unions to access workplaces, strengthen workplace bargaining rights, and allow trade unions to negotiate pay and conditions across sectors.
• The TUC believes the national minimum wage should rise to £10 an hour as quickly as possible, and agree that the minimum wage should meet a target of two thirds of median earnings on a swift timescale.
• 21-24 year olds should be included in the highest rate (the ‘National Living Wage’)
• Government should improve employment rights with:
  • a ban on zero-hours contracts and bogus self-employment
  • a decent floor of rights for all workers and the return of protection against unfair dismissal to millions of working people
  • ensuring workers enjoy the same basic rights as employees, including redundancy pay and family-friendly rights
• Government must also improve the enforcement of rights, and should double the funding for the employment agency standards inspectorate, and invest sufficient resources in the employment tribunal system to clear the backlog and ensure that the system has enough resources to deal swiftly with ongoing cases.
• The TUC believes Universal Credit should be stopped and scrapped. The government should help families immediately by removing the five week wait ofr Universal Credit to be paid.
• The Government should reverse the cuts to the UC work allowance in full,  the removal of the first child premium in UC, the unfair ‘two-child’ policy.
• The Government should scrap the benefits freeze immediately.