Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the TUC, has marked her final Congress address before stepping down with a withering attack on the government.
She told delegates at the conference in Brighton: “We know who creates real wealth in this country. It’s not hedge fund managers who made a mint by betting on the pound crashing. The real wealth creators are the people of this country.”
O‘Grady said lifting the cap on bankers’ bonuses at a time when workers were seeing their wages fall relative to inflation and paying more for food and energy was “Robin Hood in reverse”.
The TUC calculates – using Bank of England and ONS figures – that the average worker has lost a total of £24,000 in real terms since 2008 as a result of pay growth lagging behind inflation, and is set to lose a further £4,000 during the next three years.
Unions latest
Railway workers ballot on further strike action
Unions take legal action over agency worker strike regulations
She said the TUC was already co-ordinating industrial action, adding: “When workers are left with no choice but to vote for strike action for decent pay, I say: bring it on.”
She called the mini-budget “pro-greed not pro-growth” and accused ministers of breaking international law by attacking the right to strike.
The country did not need wage restraint, she told delegates; instead “It’s time for profit restraint,” she said, given inflation.
During Covid, “Taxpayers helped business with their bills. Now it’s time to make business play their part. No lay-offs this winter. No boardroom bonanzas and no shareholder sprees,” she said.
She called for a “bigger windfall tax on greedy energy giants, and don’t just bail them out – bring them into public ownership”.
O’Grady said her message for prime minister Liz Truss was that: “Working people are proud of the jobs we do; we work hard. We work the longest hours in Europe.
Demanding an immediate general election she added: “Yet, thanks to your party’s 12 years in government, millions are struggling to make ends meet. We don’t need lectures on working harder. This country needs a proper plan for fairer, greener growth.”
The TUC has warned the Conservative government that it faced a “significant” voter backlash if it followed through on plans to rip up key workplace protections which originated from EU law as it presented the results of a new MRP poll revealing overwhelming public and cross-party support for protecting EU-derived workers’ rights.
The Retained EU Law Bill, soon due for second reading in the Commons, will automatically scrap a swathe of worker protections at the end of 2023, unless ministers choose to retain them.
The TUC has already launched legal action challenging regulations passed earlier in the summer, which allow agency workers to fill in for striking workers.
The TUC is calling on the government to ditch its plans to undermine hard-won rights, adding that the bill will cause chaos in workplaces and in the courts if ministers try and push it through.
Latest HR job opportunities on Personnel Today
Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance
Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday
Browse more human resources jobs
