Frances speaks at the 'Making work better: An agenda for government’ report launch and debate
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Frances O’Grady’s speech for 'Making work better: An agenda for government’ – report launch and debate event, on Thursday 23 October 2014, at Cornwall Court, Birmingham. Download the report |
Thanks Paul [Hackett]
Thanks for inviting me to give the trade union response to your new report.
And thanks to Ed for producing a really first-class piece of work.
The TUC strongly welcomes the “Making Work Better” report.
Broad in its scope, forensic in its analysis, and wide-ranging in its recommendations.
I believe this new study should act as a wake-up call to politicians and policymakers alike.
Why?
Because we urgently need to have a national conversation about the world of work.
About how we improve the working lives of millions of our fellow citizens.
About how we put better workplaces at the heart of a plan for economic renewal.
The TUC’s thinking is clear.
It’s only by raising our sights and standards that we’ll improve our productivity and performance.
The case for change is utterly compelling.
Britain at work is no longer Britain at its best.
Far from it.
The reality facing people at work can be summarised in one simple sentence.
Having to do more, with less, for less, for longer.
And this is a phenomenon that affects us all.
Those in the middle as well as those at the bottom.
The highly-skilled professional as well as unqualified trainee.
The men and women on fifty grand as well as those on the minimum wage.
As the report lays bare, we face multiple problems.
And they’ve been getting worse since the recession.
First, rising insecurity regardless of job status.
Second, downward pressure on wages and endemic low pay.
Third, systemic inequality affecting women, the young, the old and workers from ethnic minorities.
Fourth, poor management and a lack of voice.
Fifth, injustice and exploitation.
And sixth, wasted talent and unused skills.
All of these things underpin our consistently weak productivity performance.
Alarmingly, Britain increasingly functions as a low wage, low skills, low value economy.
But none of this has happened by accident.
It is the inevitable consequence of three decades of free-market capitalism, flexible labour markets and business-friendly policy.
Doctrines that have systematically disempowered workers, making the employment relationship dangerously imbalanced.
That’s the bad news.
The good news is we can get ourselves out of this mess.
We can build a new post-crash economic settlement.
And we can make better work a big part of it.
None of this is off limits politically.
The 44 recommendations contained in the report are practical, sensible and realisable.
Individually, they address some of our most pressing workplace challenges.
Collectively, they add up to a progressive vision of how Britain at work could be so much better.
Many of the proposals resonate strongly with what unions have been campaigning and lobbying for over many years.
In particular, the focus on “workplace citizenship” chimes with our work on economic democracy.
A stronger voice for workers, more engagement, better employment relations – are all desperately needed in our offices and factories.
More broadly, we welcome the long overdue recognition of the positive role stronger trade unions and more collective bargaining can play.
It’s no coincidence that as unions have been marginalised, work has become more insecure and more casualised.
And, I hardly need add, the spoils of growth have been creamed off by those at the top.
What kind of warped economy do we have when a typical CEO earns more by the 2nd of January than their staff do in an entire year?
So it’s surely time for a fundamental recalibration in the relationship between employers and unions.
With even the IMF calling for measures to boost the bargaining power of low and middle income workers, we need change.
Not just union representation on company remuneration committees and boards.
Nor just measures to boost collective bargaining coverage.
But new sectoral wage setting institutions bringing together government, unions and employers.
The aim?
To deliver fair pay well beyond the level of the minimum wage in the industries that can afford it.
On this – as with so much else – the urgency and gravity of the situation facing us demands boldness.
Incrementalism just won’t cut it.
Regardless of our background, I want us to work together to build better, fairer and more productive workplaces.
Trimming rights, casualising work, giving employers ever-greater freedoms – this is the road to economic perdition.
As the Smith Institute’s study makes clear, we need to take the high road to future success.
But that won’t happen of its own accord.
Making work better demands political choices.
Decency, dignity and security at work can be within our grasp.
But only if good jobs, fair pay and a voice at work become hardwired into the public policy agenda.
And as the party of labour, the Labour Party surely has to lead the way.
Good work must become part of Labour’s DNA once again.
Remember, we’re now less than 200 days away from the general election.
And this is an issue that matters to the majority of the voting public, regardless of class, race or gender.
Work shapes our lives, our life chances and our quality of life.
As the American writer Studs Terkel once said:
“Work is a daily search for meaning as well as bread; for recognition as well as cash; for astonishment rather than torpor; in short for a sort of life, rather than a Monday to Friday sort of dying”.
So I want work to be where it should be.
Right at the heart of our national debate.
About how we build that new economy.
About how we nurture that fair society.
About how we give hope to ordinary people.
Let’s put better work at the centre of a better Britain.
Thanks for listening.