BECTU response to TUC Strategic Review: Facing the Future

15 January 2004

I write on behalf of BECTU with some specific comments in response to the paper. We have decided to focus on issues of direct and immediate relevance to ourselves rather than some of the broader debates on the role of the TUC:

Atypical workers

Consistent with the aim of 'reaching out' to all workers, we believe that the TUC should place increasing emphasis on issues of relevance to atypical workers - including, from our own viewpoint, freelance and casual workers, some of whom are self-employed for tax purposes.

We readily acknowledge that the TUC has in recent years begun to pay closer and more specific attention to this growing sector of the workforce - for whom, trade union organisation is difficult and employment rights often lacking. We believe that this trend should continue, and that as with equality issues, consideration of the atypical workers' dimension to policy issues should be an automatic concern from the start of all relevant policy debates.

The current review of employment status has highlighted the many ways in which atypical workers in the UK are still disadvantaged in terms of employment rights - notwithstanding the EU programme of social legislation in this area. We believe strong and consistent campaigning on behalf of atypical workers will continue to be necessary - on employment law, pension, health and safety (especially the lack of safety representation) and other issues.

We believe this should be underpinned by a greater degree of TUC expertise on the tax, NI and other insurance issues which sometimes affect atypical workers differently to colleagues employed on a straightforward PAYE/CLASS 1 basis, with all relevant insurance provided by the employer. The emphasis here should be on helping unions to help their atypical members in tax/NI/insurance matters rather than any broader involvement in small business issues.

TU recognition

We strongly support the statement that 'There must be no section of the workforce, where unions fear to tread' and, in particular, that there is a 'collective duty' to 'break through to workers in companies who adopt a sophisticated menu of policies to keep unions out.'

We believe one key aspect of achieving this aim will be for the TUC to place increased emphasis on practical assistance for TU recognition campaigns - especially in circumstances where there is evidence of unfair labour practices ie employer intimidation. Such assistance could take the form of shared information and experience derived from affiliates; assistance with campaign materials and publicity; and specific information on union-busting tactics, as well as a database of companies, law firms and consultants known to be active in this area.

We value the support received from the TUC in relation to our own ongoing recognition campaign at BSkyB. We believe the TUC could be even more effective by an additional focus on this area.

Pensions

Given the ongoing crisis in occupational pensions and the continuing inadequacy of state pensions, we believe there could be a greater role for the TUC as a centre or clearing house of pensions expertise for affiliates to draw on in negotiating and campaigning on pensions issues.

At a policy level, we are clear that the TUC has a comprehensive and sophisticated awareness of current pensions issues, as well as practical activity in the stakeholder area. However, given the extremely complex nature of such matters - which are often well beyond the resources of small or even medium sized unions' abilities to cover them entirely in-house - we believe there is a potential for the TUC to develop a backstop role. The aim would be to provide increased information and advice to affiliates either directly from Congress House or via a network of sympathetic experts.

We believe this would sit well with the aim of providing 'help to affiliates in the development of the services they provide'.

Federation of Entertainment Unions (FEU)

While valuing the special liaison arrangements that already exist between the TUC and FEU, we would like to see increased attention to this area, including scheduled meetings with the General Secretary and a proper follow-up to Congress motions from relevant affiliates. We accept that the TUC has to give due attention to all affiliates and all sectors. However, we believe there are specific factors - including the significance of the audiovisual sector and the particular problems of atypical workers - that would justify some additional special attention to this area.

We look forward to the further development of the Strategic Review and would be happy to engage in further discussion on any of the above points.