Trade Union Congress 2024: Monday

(better late than never) Day 2 of TUC started for me with a session in the hotel's gym followed by a jog along a damp and windy Brighton prom. Congress started at 9.30am. First item again was a short general video celebrating "Union wins"  including UNISON pay and conditions victories for workers.

Motions to be debated this morning where themed around "Winning a better future for working people" with debates on wider schools, education, health & safety, prisons, teachers pensions, transport, merchant navy & "The future of football and the need for player engagement" (moved by the PFA - the most highly paid trade unionists in the UK). 

Next the TUC General Secretary address by Paul Nowak. He spoke passionately about his joy at the end of 14 years of Tory rule. He welcomed the increase in trade union membership by 90,000 in the last year and the repeal of anti-strike legislation by the new Labour government. He said it shows the difference, unity and solidarity makes. "Keir Starmer and this government has the interests of workers at heart in a way that the Tories never had". 

He spoke about a recent visit to Ukraine. He visited destroyed factories, blocks of flats and children hospitals. He attacked the far right such as the Putin apologist, Farage, as as not being patriots, they are frauds. He reminded Congress of his speech last year that his grandfather Joe, was a migrant who served in the Polish Air Force in the second world war. 

He welcomed that that there was positive relationships with good employers and we will use new rights to hold bad bosses to account. To put Amazon and every other anti union, anti worker employer on notice, "our movement is coming for you". 

Next debates themed "Protecting the right to strike and winning the New Deal". A number of interesting points about the need to control those employers who may pay lip service but do not believe in social dialogue and must be brought to heal. End the current "Wild West" in UK employment law.  

Congress finished slightly late for lunch to finish business. I went to the "COVID19 Enquiry - the story so far" fringe and listened to speakers from Thompsons solicitors, UNISON (Gloria Mills), TUC, NASUWT and bereaved families. 

Congress reopened at 2.15pm. Theme was "Building a Fairer Economy". More motions on the economy, fair tax, pay, North sea, Industrial strategy, union recognition, climate, Europe, UK steel, Royal mail  and public interest.  Some of  them motions have been composited (merged to save time). 

UNISON spoke against Composite 5 moved by Unite regarding the use of fossil fuels since it was felt that it went against our conference policies over climate change. Other Public sector unions also spoke against. The Unite right to reply stated that we had to retain a variable fossil fuel industry until transition takes place or we will simply run out of fuel to cook our food and heat our homes. It went to a card vote. UNISON had 1,187,000 votes (the biggest affiliate). In Favour 2,712,000 v 2 457,000 for Against. Composite was  carried. 

Motion 20 "Relations with Europe" moved by Prospect was another controversial one. The TUC General Council read out a statement on the motion (written in classical TUC speak). The RMT opposed on grounds that if we were in EU (or had "dynamic alignment" to their social legislation) the anti-privatisation laws currently being passed by the UK would be illegal. Motion was carried overwhelmingly. 

At end of conference I went to the Labour Unions fringe which was packed. Unfortunately the main speaker, Angela Rayner MP could not attend but we had a number of excellent speakers at the fringe. 

Performance management is a bad business

I support 100% this criticism about so-called "Performance Management". It is in my experience divisive, unfair and destroys team work. Didn't realise that it encouraged "cannibalism" but...

"Performance management, a worker assessment system that pits workers against each other and is linked to a massive intensification of work (Risks 624), is also a very bad idea for business, the union Prospect has said. Studies have shown the approach to cause high levels of workplace stress, burnout (Risks 664) and ill-health (Risks 661). 

But Prospect says while a long list of blue chip companies have abandoned the “rank and yank” system, the UK civil service is persisting with an approach that is bad for staff and bad for performance (Risks 639). Prospect national safety officer Sarah Page says it is now a year since software giant Microsoft announced to its staff its decision to abandon the performance management system that had been blamed for 10 years of lost creativity, instead creating “a culture of cannibalism”. 

Big names that have also dropped performance management include Ford, General Electric and Caterpillar, she says. The Prospect safety specialist adds that in the wake of financial scandals, “when many like Prospect are promoting Good Work – employee voice, a culture based on trust and fairness etc – it is alarming to witness the apparent corrosion of civil service performance management.” 

She warns: “The predictable escalating conflict and levels of employee ill-health with their inevitable impact on service delivery will expose this false economy.” Hat tip TUC risks

Ÿ  Prospect safety blog, Good Work campaign,

Ÿ  stress resources and advice on performance management.

Ÿ  The Guardian.

TUC Pension Trustee 12: "Tools For Challenging Scheme Closures"

After the opening speeches at last weeks TUC Pension Trustee Conference 2012, I went to the "Tools for Challenging Scheme Closures" workshop led by Hilary Salt from First Actuarial & Neil Walsh, Pensions officer at Prospect.

This workshop, is of course, right up my street. Decent defined benefit schemes are being closed down completely unnecessarily and being replaced usually with third rate, inadequate alternatives which will result in employees being dependant on the state when they retire and then dying in poverty.

The first tool they described is a "tape measure". How you measure your pension liabilities? At the moment the tape measure used (the yield in Government loans called gilts) is broken. Due to Quantitative easing and the so called "flight to quality" from the weaker Eurozone countries, gilt yields in the UK are not only historically low but even negative. Pension liabilities may have increased during the last 12 months but nothing has really really changed. It is the broken tape measure.

There are a number of things should be considered long before closure :- tiered contribution levels, changes in retirement age, CARE (career average) rather than Final Salary, reducing  accruals, longevity adjustments, caps on salary, inflation measure, contract back into SSP, Cash balance schemes, hybrid DB/DC etc.

Trustees should also consider the "Sledgehammer" approach of winding up schemes if closed.

All schemes are different and trustees must refer to the trust rules and make sure they get truly independent advice. If contributions have to go up then time with any pay rises and consider salary sacrifice.

CARE schemes are not only fairer but if risk is the real driver for the employer to close the scheme rather than cost then they will reduce salary risk. Consider risk sharing such as contribution caps.

In the Q&A I asked about the argument that closing schemes did not get rid of the deficit and that they can make things worse. Hilary said that this can be true and that a closed defined benefit scheme can be as inefficient as defined contribution schemes. They become like annuities invested solely in gilts and cash.

Hilary has recently written an excellent booklet for the TUC on "The Future of Defined Benefit Schemes" here.

While the Association of Member Nominated Trustees (AMNT) will be producing their own guide on what to do if your employer tries to close your scheme on December 11 at our AGM. 

TUC 2012: Unions21 fringe - Extending collective bargaining; Extending union influence

Lunchtime fringe sponsored by Unions21. Somewhat similar content to last nights History & Policy fringe.

Meeting Chaired by Brian Groom. Business & Employment Editor of the FT.

Paul Nowak (left of picture) from the TUC spoke first about the crisis in the private sector. The Government is trying to drive a wedge between the public and private sector.  The reason why there tends to be poorer terms and conditions in the private sector is due to low density. His 3 big ideas are:- due to fragmented workplaces we need to work better together, we need to think strategically; examine other sources of leverage such as the campaign for a living wage & develop a coherent political narrative or "ask".

Christine Payne General Secretary of Equity. Her union has gone from 35k to 43k members in 6 yrs with no extra staffing resource. Her 3 ideas are to increase member participation in the running of the union, involve young people & improve communications.

Mike Clancy, General Secretary Designate of  Prospect was a little provocative. He posed the question How well have we really done during the last few days? Surely quality is better than quantity? All the breast beating, the suicidal brand damage we have done to ourselves in the last 24 hours?

Frances, our new GS will have her work cut out. We have got to be part of economic alternative that is believable. Not just about fairness at work but message that unions are good for business. We will still be the sword of justice for our members. We have got to be realistic. Is there an alternative to a market economy by 2pm today? How to make the market economy better for all. We have got to be credible.  Why is it that we all consider ourselves to be progressive but we appear to be so conservative?

Tess Lanning,  IPPR Research Fellow, spoke last (apologies but out of photo). She quoted Tony Benn "nationalisation & robens doesn't mean socialism". In Europe they tend to do things better. Trade Unions involved in redesigning work & jobs; they favour the "high road to growth". UNISON praised for helping to win an in-house bid in Newcastle.

My question (modified from last night's fringe) was piped to the post by Paul from 1st Actuarial who also asked whether there is a role for unions to play in the provision of pensions. I made the specific reference to organising around running a decent defined benefit scheme based on the new look LGPS.

UNISON trade union recognition in Civil Service?

I suppose that many people will be surprised that the largest public sector trade union in the country is not recognised by the Government. There are around 2000 UNISON members who work for the “Core” Civil
Service and probably another 10,000 who work for related outside bodies.  Yet there is no formal recognition agreement with UNISON. This is not to say that the traditional Civil Service unions, the PCS,
Prospect and FDA are not doing an excellent job for their members.  It only seems fair that UNISON should take their place alongside the other unions.

Especially now that the Civil Service is doing away with devolved bargaining and negotiations and having a national framework instead.

Without recognition this could mean that UNISON members have changes to their terms and conditions without their union even being consulted.  This cannot be right.  Even worse, if the government does
go ahead and bring in universal credit.  One consequence of this could be another 10,000 UNISON members who are currently housing benefit officers in local councils may well find themselves under Civil
Services terms (again).

In the run up to the Tolpuddle Festival next month this is a good time to remind the Civil Service managers that everyone is entitled to collective bargaining.  Never mind universal credits this is a universal and fundamental human right.

World Day for Decent Work: Think Global Act Union

Today is the World Day for Decent Work (WDDW) which is a new designated international trade union campaigning “Day” to promote the concept of decent work.

I went to a series of workshops at the TUC, Congress House. There were events in over 100 countries today.

At Congress house we had international trade union representatives from all over the world, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber (speech here); TUC Deputy General Secretary Frances O'Grady (speech); TUC General Councillor Paul Talbot (and Unite Assistant General Secretary) (speech) and many others.

There were loads of NGO’s speakers and stalls as well.

This is what the WDDW website had to say about the day:-
“As every person should be able to have a job that enables them to live a good life in which their basic needs are met, decent work is the focus for World day for decent Work (WDDW). This is an opportunity for trade unions and organisations to join a broad global mobilisation involving a large number of people and a wide range of activities. The activities can be connected with three major themes: Rights at work, a theme dealing with the rights of working women and men; Solidarity, a theme focused on practical action involving cooperation between affiliates on a bilateral or multilateral basis; and Ending Poverty and Inequality, a theme emanating from the new globalisation”.

I have made some notes and will try and post later on about the workshops I attended. Some very good stuff.

I also met for the first time face to face (as opposed to virtual) top “UK Labor geek” TIGMOO and Johninnit blogger John W, who was rushing around organising a WDDW event on “Second Life”.

I’ve stolen the slogan (and main picture above) “Think Global Act Union” from the “Professionals Union” Prospect. Sue Ferns (head of research) used it at the “Decent Work and Human Rights” workshop. There were jokes made by other panel members that they will also “appropriate” this slogan since it is so absolutely encapsulates the spirit of international trade unionism.

After all if property is theft.....