Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Latest NewsEconomics, government & business

Spending cuts will make UK ‘a more unequal, more squalid and nastier country’, claims TUC

by Daniel Thomas 19 Oct 2010
by Daniel Thomas 19 Oct 2010

The Government’s planned spending cuts are a political choice, not an economic necessity, and a deliberate policy that will make the UK “a more unequal, more squalid and nastier country”, the general secretary of the TUC will warn today.

At a protest rally held in Westminster on the eve of the Comprehensive Spending Review, Brendan Barber will insist that the emphasis should be on “fair tax and policies that promote growth”.

“Tomorrow the Government will announce unprecedented cuts in public spending – deeper than any of us can remember,” he will say. “They will bite deep into our social fabric – and hit some of the poorest and most vulnerable members of our society.

“At worst the cuts will plunge us back into recession. And at best they will condemn us to lost years of high unemployment and growth so weak that the deficit may well stay high.

The rally, which starts at 12.30pm, will feature union members, community leaders, campaign groups and users of public services and will be followed by lobbying MPs inside Parliament from 2.30pm.

Barber will say: “This event brings together a huge range of people who say that ministers must think again. You will hear from people whose jobs and livelihoods are directly threatened, from those who depend on quality public services, and from those in the private sector whose jobs are as vulnerable to the cuts as anyone working for a local council.”

“What ministers plan is not inevitable,” the TUC leader will conclude. “It’s their political choice and it’s our democratic duty to wage the strongest political campaign of our lifetimes for a change of course. And it starts today.”

In a survey of 500 business leaders released by law firm DLA Piper today, 66% of those from the private sector raised fears that public sector strikes would adversely affect their business. More than a quarter of respondents from larger private companies suggested that union calls for “coordinated action” by public sector worker were a significant threat to business.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

However, Nick Squire, partner at law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, said another “winter of discontent” was unlikely to happen, given changes to trade union legislation since the 1980s.

“While it seems inevitable that we will see strike action in some form or another in parts of the public sector, and certain private sector employers may find themselves involuntarily drawn into a public sector dispute, I don’t expect copycat strikes to spread in the same way as they did in the 1970s,” he said.

TUC
Daniel Thomas

previous post
Training is an investment, so treat it like one
next post
Small firms won’t fill jobs gap created by public sector cuts, warns FSB

You may also like

Number of Neet women rises but figures fall...

23 May 2025

Flexible working for teachers initiative extended

23 May 2025

Unions ponder strike action after public sector pay...

23 May 2025

Sighing in frustration at colleague was discriminatory, judge...

23 May 2025

Fire and rehire: the relocation question

22 May 2025

Public sector workers gain pay rises of up...

22 May 2025

Six ways to kickstart conversations about team stress...

22 May 2025

UK net migration slashed by half in one...

22 May 2025

How neuroscience can unlock employee recognition

22 May 2025

UK universities fret over fall in international students

22 May 2025

  • 2025 Employee Communications Report PROMOTED | HR and leadership...Read more
  • The Majority of Employees Have Their Eyes on Their Next Move PROMOTED | A staggering 65%...Read more
  • Prioritising performance management: Strategies for success (webinar) WEBINAR | In today’s fast-paced...Read more
  • Self-Leadership: The Key to Successful Organisations PROMOTED | Eletive is helping businesses...Read more
  • Retaining Female Talent: Four Ways to Reduce Workplace Drop Out PROMOTED | International Women’s Day...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+