On Thursday 18th April the Trades Council is hosting a meeting in Blackburn Library on the topic of “Decent Work – what can we do locally to promote it?“.
It is scheduled to begin at 3pm and finish at 5pm, and the speakers will be:
Dr Adrian Wright – Associate Dean of the School of Management, and director of the Institute for Research into Organisations, Work and Employment (UCLAN), author of “Does ‘Good Work’ provide an answer to Lancashire’s challenges?”
Sophie Little – Senior Programme Manager – North West | Living Wage Foundation
Mat Johnson – Manchester University “Decent work and the City” project and joint Author of “Working Futures”
Julia Mwaluke – UNISON Vice-President, and part of “Stand Up For Social Care”, who has been a support worker in Salford for the past 12 years and played a key role in organising to win the Living Wage Foundation’s living wage for care workers
The main way in which Trade Unions seek to improve the quality of work, of course, is through collective organisation and engaging directly with our own employers. Setting up this meeting does not mean we have abandoned this. We remain convinced that the “Union effect” is the best road for progress and the foundation for all our endeavours.
Trade Unions have, nevertheless, always sought to compliment their workplace and sectoral efforts with campaigns aimed at securing change on a wider social level. Sometimes this might be through working to achieve changes in national legislation. And sometimes it has a more local focus.
At the end of the 19th century trades councils were involved in trying to get public contracts to incorporate “fair wages clauses”, in a way that mirrors current efforts around the “real living wage”. Alan Clinton, in his book “The Trade Union Rank and File” (a history of Trades Councils) writes: (In 1889) “the Hull and Birmingham trades councils began to campaign on the question, and in 1891 these conditions were agreed locally as a result of the actions of the trades councils in Sheffield and Manchester. By 1894 150 local authorities had adopted fair wages resolutions.” Some of the early C20th Annual Reports of our own Trades Council included lists of firms offering Trade Union agreed rates, and encouraging the patronage of these.
You might think that the idea of having a local “decent work agenda” is pretty straightforward, but even a cursory internet search reveals that there are people all over the globe thinking about “good work” or “decent work” in a bewildering variety of circumstances – and that it’s not so simple as there being one off-the-shelf one-size-fits-all model. Everything that is thought about or proposed has to take into account differing national and local contexts.
The International Labour Organisation has “decent work” as one of its topics, and in September 2015, UN General Assembly made decent work and the four pillars of the Decent Work Agenda – employment creation, social protection, rights at work, and social dialogue – integral elements of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Goal 8 of the 2030 Agenda calls for the promotion of sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work. There is a “World Day for Decent Work” (October 7th).
A House of Commons Library Research Briefing by Tony Dobbins – “Good Work: policy and research on the quality of work in the UK” June 2022 – set out this handy table of the range of topics various “good work” initiatives tried to cover:
Bodies in Britain that have advocated for a proactive approach to decent work include the Local Government Association, which says that; “Better work means higher levels of local employment, a stronger local economy and greater economic prosperity. Increasing levels of ‘good work’ also has the potential to greatly support improved health and wellbeing among a local population and reduce pressures on associated support services”. They also argue that a “good work” approach benefits employers also: “Providing fairly paid work and adequate opportunities for development and progression can help employers to keep employees motivated in their work, build loyalty towards the organisation, provide them with the skills to progress, fill skill gaps within the business and help the organisation stay ahead of competitors”.
Measures that their “Good Work Project” advocates include local “Good Work Charters” and “Creating social value through procurement and grant giving” – that is, requiring suppliers and receivers of grants to accept certain basic obligations.
The “Centre for Progressive Policy” has an index of fair employment “Charters” (https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.progressive-policy.net%2Fdownloads%2Ffiles%2FSummary-of-Good-Work-Indices-2020.xlsx&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK) showing some of the things they cover – which include paying the “real Living Wage”, giving minimum hours guarantees and training and recruitment policies.
Greater Manchester City Region launched a Good Employment Charter in 2020 and Liverpool City Region introduced a Fair Employment Charter in 2021 – which include endorsing voluntary real living wage accreditation.
The IPPR North report, Decent Work: Harnessing the power of local government, outlined the ways Local Authorities can overcome financial challenges and legal issues, alongside exerting influence, to promote decent work. Alongside supporting the real Living Wage and local “charters” it suggested that Councils should encourage other local anchor organisations such as universities, colleges and health authorities to adopt decent work principles. It proposed that public sector commissioners could make reference to the “Social Value Act” of 2012 in setting more challenging objectives for potential suppliers: “Government guidance makes clear that commissioners ‘should be taking a value for money approach – not lowest costs,’ and, as a matter of good practice, should consider social value in order to obtain maximum value for money – where value explicitly includes social value (Cabinet Office 2012). This is in keeping with the Social Value Act amending the aforementioned Section 17 of the Local Government Act 1988. The amendment states that where ‘the authority considers it necessary or expedient to do so to enable or facilitate compliance’ with the Social Value Act, Section 17 does not prevent these non-commercial considerations”.
The Trades Union Congress has also produced a Report on “Linking employment charters to procurement” – Linking employment charters to procurement | TUC. This gives examples of how local statements about expected standards can move beyond exhortation to have a real impact on public decision making. It says, for example, that in 2013 Southwark Borough Council adapted the Ethical Care Charter developed by UNISON and published a Southwark Ethical Care Charter (SECC), which stipulates the requirements the council has of home care providers. “Key provisions in the SECC relating to employment standards include occupational sick pay schemes and training for care workers, and a stipulation that ‘zero hour contracts will not be used in place of permanent contracts for care workers.’ Care commissioning documents published by Southwark Council confirm that the SECC features throughout its procurement process, with tender documents including a stipulation around compliance with the SECC and award notices confirming that successful bidders meet these requirements”.
UNISON’s “Stand Up for Social Care” is an example of a Regional campaign. Throughout 2021, workers lobbied councils and employers, demanding the real Living Wage for all workers in the social care sector. After securing commitments from all ten councils in Greater Manchester, the campaign moved to the Liverpool City Region in 2022. Whereas prior to 2021 only two Councils in the North West (out of 23) had made real Living Wage commitments, that number had risen to 15 by 2023.
In 2020 our Trades Council drew up its own version of an “Employment Charter” – Employment Charter – Blackburn and District Trades Union Council (bdtuc.co.uk). We have to admit, though, that that is not normally how they come about. The reality is that they appear to depend considerably on leadership from the Local Authority and then on often extensive consultation processes (and compromises) informing their development and implementation.
Our meeting on 18th April, therefore, is intended to be more open-ended and exploratory. We present it as part of the campaign around our Charter, but in the sense of trying to open up the issues raised for discussion – but with a particular emphasis on the real Living Wage. We are hoping for a meeting that will involve not just trade unionists but also local businesses, community organisations and Councillors. Can we achieve that? Only time will tell.
It will help us plan refreshments if you register here https://decentworkblackburn.eventbrite.com if you intend to attend.