Trade Union Boss Accuses UK Government of Putting ‘Fingers in Their Ears’ Over Pay Disputes

The new General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress, Paul Nowak, pictured outside the TUC's office in London, England, on Dec. 21, 2022. PA

The new general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has accused Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government of refusing to listen or negotiate about pay demands which have led to strikes on Britain’s railways and in the National Health Service.

Train services over Christmas were badly hit by strikes and Network Rail warned this week that “industrial action means rail travel will be significantly disrupted throughout December and January.”

The NHS has seen unprecedented strikes by nurses and ambulance workers this month and there have also been pay disputes with postal workers, civil servants, and university staff which have led to industrial action.

Paul Nowak, who will take over as TUC general secretary next week, accused the government of refusing to negotiate over NHS pay claims.

He said in an interview with PA: “We want to see public services where workers are properly rewarded and respected. There is overwhelming support for NHS workers, so it is not good enough for government ministers to continue to put their fingers in their ears.”

Ambulances parked during a strike outside Waterloo ambulance station, London, on Dec. 21, 2022. Kirsty O'Connor/PA Media

In an interview with the BBC’s Today programme, Nowak also doubted whether pay review bodies were “genuinely independent” and said they found their “hands tied” by the government.

Nowak said: “Our unions are looking very seriously at the pay review bodies and looking particularly at the way the Government has used them effectively as a human shield in this discussion about public sector pay.”

He added: “The pay review body process itself is in danger of being brought into disrepute because the government is hiding behind the pay review bodies, refusing to negotiate on pay and refusing to reach a reasonable settlement with our public sector unions.”

The government, which is battling inflation and trying to keep down the national deficit, has tried to restrict pay rises.

But Nowak said: “Starting off the conversation about NHS pay by saying ‘We’ve got this limited amount of money, that’s all there is, it doesn’t matter what evidence the unions bring to the table, it doesn’t matter what the pressures are on the workforce’ I don’t think is a reasonable starting point for a reasonable conversation about public sector pay.”

Nowak’s Predecessor Has Become Labour Peer

Nowak, who replaces Frances O'Grady—who was given a peerage in October and became a Labour peer, Dame O'Grady of Upper Holloway—accused the government of “sabotaging” attempts to resolve the wave of strikes which have spread across the country since the summer.

He added: “Today I am issuing a challenge to government and employers. Work with unions to end Britain’s living standards nightmare. UK workers are on course for two decades of lost pay. This is the longest squeeze on earnings in modern history. We can’t go on like this.”

Nowak said: “We can’t be a country where nurses are having to use food banks, while City bankers get unlimited bonuses. Unless we get wages rising across the economy, families will just keep lurching from crisis to crisis.”

“Unions stand ready to work with good employers to drive up growth, living standards, and productivity,” he added.

Passengers wait at the barriers at King's Cross station following a strike by members of the Rail, Maritime, and Transport union (RMT), in a long-running dispute over jobs and pensions, in London, on Dec. 27, 2022. James Manning/PA Media

The TUC—an umbrella group which speaks up for the whole trade union movement in Britain—has traditionally been allied to the Labour Party and, with a general election looming in the next two years, Nowak made a party political point when he said: “For too long we have been trapped in a vicious Conservative cycle of stagnant growth, stagnant investment, and stagnant wages. It’s time for a proper long-term economic plan that rewards work not wealth.”

‘Dangerous Trap’

Earlier this month Health Secretary Steve Barclay accused the Unite, Unison, and GMB unions, which have been coordinating the ambulance strike, of refusing to work with the government at the national level to set out plans for dealing with medical emergencies during the strike.

In an article in The Telegraph on Dec. 20, Barclay said: “The British people would not forgive if politicians like me spent every single winter frozen in negotiations with trade unions, rather than getting on and solving the very real challenges we face as a country. It is a dangerous trap we have been determined to avoid.”

Barclay said the government had accepted the advice of the independent NHS pay review body and he added: “Most ambulance staff received a rise of at least four per cent this year, following the body’s recommendation. On average, ambulance staff have additional earnings worth around 37 per cent of basic pay, covering unsocial hours, geographical supplements and overtime. This takes total earnings to around £47,000 per person.”

But Nowak said workers were facing two decades of “lost pay” and he accused the government of being “blind” to the staffing crisis in the NHS, which he said was largely the fault of low pay.

A government spokeswoman told The Epoch Times, in an email: “The unions have chosen to strike over Christmas to cause maximum disruption. We are doing all we can to mitigate the impact, but the union bosses should be reasonable, stay around the negotiating table and call off these damaging strikes.”

She added: “Pay must be affordable and fair, which is why we accepted the recommendations from the independent pay review bodies to pay our valued public servants more. Inflation-matching pay increases for all public sector workers would cost everyone more long-term—worsening debt, fuelling inflation, and costing every household an extra £1,000.”

PA Media contributed to this report.