A short-term Budget to shrink the state and help the rich, says TUC

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Responding to the Chancellor’s Budget today (Wednesday), TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said:

“This was a pre-election Budget, with its give-aways aimed at the better off rather than lifting the living standards of the many.
“It will be paid for by further years of austerity, public services brought to near collapse, public sector pay cuts and a welfare cap that bites into the safety net that any of us might need.
“There was nothing for the young who continue to face the worst job market in decades and unaffordable housing.
“Nor was there any relief for low and middle earners who, after years of falling living standards, have no spare cash to take advantage of the help for savers, and who now face year on year cuts in benefits for working families as the welfare cap bites.
“The best news for the long-term health of the economy is the genuine help for manufacturing, but it was the exception in this highly political short-term Budget that continued the Chancellor’s project to shrink the state and help the rich.”

Tony Benn was a friend to the whole labour movement

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Tony Benn speaking at the 2010 Women Chainmakers' Festival

Commenting on the death this morning (Friday) of Tony Benn, TUC General Secretary  Frances O’Grady said:
“Tony Benn was a friend and an inspiration to me personally and to the whole labour movement.
“He believed history shows us that big progressive changes in society are driven not by political elites, but by the endeavours of ordinary working people. His commitment to our causes meant that he was a familiar face at union events from Congress to the annual Tolpuddle Martyrs festival.
“His unceasing willingness to march alongside us and the deep sincerity he showed to everyone he encountered in the labour movement means that he leaves many friends, and has personally inspired the activism of many people from all walks of life.”

Today is ‘national destroy public sector morale day’, says TUC

Commenting on today’s public sector pay announcements, TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady, said: “It is ‘national destroy public sector morale day’ today as the government announces a further cut in the living standards of public sector workers, despite the economic recovery.

“NHS staff have been singled out for particularly harsh treatment, at a time when they are already facing a funding crisis, staff cuts, privatisation and top-down restructuring.

“With public service workers due to pay higher pension contributions, many will see almost no difference in their take home pay despite facing higher bills.

“Ministers’ message to Britain’s young people is that they should not seek a career in health, education or other public services if they want a decent standard of living or to work for an employer who values them.”

Government proposals will fail to tackle abuse of zero-hours contracts

Government proposals to clamp down on the abuse of zero-hours contracts will fail to stem the widespread exploitation of workers, the TUC says today (Thursday) in its response to the government’s consultation.

The TUC submission highlights how zero-hours workers are dogged by low pay, under-employment, and job and income insecurity. Half of all zero-hours workers earn less than £15,000 a year (compared to 6 per cent of other employees) and two in five want to work more hours, according to recent research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

Three-quarters of zero-hours workers report that their hours change each week. These varying hours – and the unstable, irregular income they provide – make it hard for staff to organise childcare, pay monthly bills and plan ahead, says the TUC.

The TUC is concerned that zero-hours contracts allow employers to evade basic employment rights such as maternity and paternity leave and redundancy pay, while some companies pressurise workers to remain available on the off-chance they will be offered work. None of the proposals contained in the government’s consultation deal with any of these problems, warns the TUC.

The TUC instead wants the government to introduce compensation, including travel costs, where shifts for zero-hours workers are cancelled at short notice, as well as written contracts with guaranteed hours where a zero-hours worker does regular shifts. The TUC would also like to see the government simplify employment law so that all workers get the same basic employment rights.

The submission supports the government’s proposal to ban exclusivity clauses – which prevent people from working for anyone else – in employment contracts, though this recommendation on its own will fail to meet the government’s stated aim of ending the abuse of zero-hours contracts.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “The growth of zero-hours contracts, along with other forms of precarious employment, is a key reason why working people have seen their living standards worsen significantly in recent years.

“These contracts are commonly associated with poverty pay, poor terms and conditions, and leave staff vulnerable to exploitation from bad bosses.

“We welcomed the government’s belated acknowledgement last year that abuse of zero-hours contracts needs to be stopped. It’s disappointing therefore that they’ve failed to back this up with any meaningful policies to tackle exploitation.

“If the government wants to be on the side of hard-working people it needs to put proper policies in place to curb exploitative working practices, even if this means ruffling the feathers of a few business lobbyists.”

TUC welcomes minimum wage increase

Commenting on the announcement today (Wednesday) that the government has accepted the Low Pay Commission’s (LPC) recommendation to increase the adult national minimum wage by three per cent – 19p an hour – from this October, TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said:

“It is good that the government has accepted the LPC’s call for an increase in the minimum wage. The rise will benefit around 1.5 million workers, almost two-thirds (61 per cent) of whom will be women.

“But this must be seen as only the first step in a series of bolder increases in future years that will help the many low-paid workers – who are suffering the tightest squeeze in their living standards in a century – and who think the Chancellor promised them £7 an hour.

“We also urge the government to pick up the LPC recommendation to protect migrant domestic workers, as they too often suffer low pay and other forms of abuse.”

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Bob Crow: A life of commitment

11 Mar 2014, By Owen Tudor

The TUC and the British working class has lost one of our outstanding leaders, Bob Crow, the General Secretary of rail and maritime union RMT, who died this morning.

Bob was committed. Whether it was the internationalism he showed through the International Transport Workers’ Federation and his many links around the world with dockers, seafarers and railway workers; or the stalwart opponent of racism and fascism on his doorstep in East London or anywhere in the world, Bob was passionate and determined.

His arguments were forcefully and consistently made, but that didn’t mean they lacked sophistication. Because he opposed British membership of the European Union, people who didn’t listen thought he was anti-European, but nothing could have been further from the truth. On international solidarity, he argued particularly that workers in one country had more in common with the workers in the same job in another country than with employers in their own.

Bob Crow stood up for working people. He demanded that they be respected and valued, and the many tributes paid by employers in the transport industry are testimony to his genuine love for rail. He demonstrated day in, day out, that the work people do defines us and gives us honour and value.  He was unrepentant about wanting the best for workers, and he was unashamed, for example, about taking a holiday he was due. He had little time for circumlocution and was, partly as a result, one of the most recognised and recognisable trade unionists in Britain.

He was respected by those he faced over the negotiating table or the picket line, and admired by those he led and worked with. He knew what he was talking about, whether it was from personal experience and the experiences of his members, or from books and briefings. He was also genuinely and consistently funny, an ability he used to sometimes devastating effect in debate and on the TUC General Council. Despite being unshakeable in his arguments, he could disarm opponents as well as enrage them.

His commitment extended to every facet of his life. His family, whom he had to defend against a predatory media, and his beloved Millwall football club whom it would have been out of character and the spirit of the club to ‘defend’. (Their slogan “no one likes us, we don’t care” was often suggested as a personal credo for Bob.) And he was a demon bowler too, often the key player on the TUC cricket team.

Because as every trade unionist should be, Bob was a team player. No setback at the hands of a supposed colleague, no defeat in a vote at Congress or on the General Council ever shook his loyalty to trade union unity. Unequivocally on the left, totally on the side of workers not least because he was so viscerally one of them, and an unceasing advocate for the members who elected him time and time again.

Bob Crow was born in east London, moved to Essex as a toddler, left school at the age of 16 and worked on the railways for the rest of his life. His first job was on London Underground as an apprentice track worker, although he soon became involved in union activity, becoming a local representative for the then National Union of Railwaymen at the age of 20. Twenty years later, in 2002, he became General Secretary of RMT and he died today, aged just 52.

Reprinted from the TUC Stronger Unions blog

Public servants earn less and face greater job insecurity than private sector workers

Commenting on figures published today (Monday) by the Office for National Statistics on the differences between public and private sector pay, TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said:

“Years of freezes, real terms pay cuts and rounds of redundancies have left public servants facing a sharp squeeze in their living standards.

“Not only do public sector workers earn less than equivalent staff in the private sector, they also face greater job insecurity as hundreds of thousands of posts are set to go in the coming years.

“Top earners in the private sector enjoy a huge wage premium over the public sector but the lowest paid do even worse than their public sector counterparts. If private businesses paid their lowest paid staff more fairly we’d make huge inroads into reducing in-work poverty.”