Tory leader to face unions
a country where the democratic right to withhold labour is under threat that encourages other unions to join in the strike action. What we re seeing is not just disputes about terms and conditions, but the rise again of a political agenda, says Richard Short, co-founder and director of Union Blue, a centre-right think-tank and pressure group rooted in the idea of moderate trade unionism.
With a Tory Party that is in danger of losing its 2019 majority and a Labour Party that hasn t capitalised on that disarray, he argues Lynch and some other union bosses see a vacuum they are trying to exploit, whether that serves their workers or not.
For all the bluster, though, the threat of a general strike is overblown. A general strike refers to a large portion of the unionised workforce withholding labour to force concessions around pay or conditions. In 1926, about 3-million union members stopped work for nine days. Strikes during the original winter of discontent”— in the autumn and winter of 19781979 didn t qualify. Nor is one likely to now. Even though Britain is more unionised than Germany,
France, the US or Japan, it is nowhere near the levels of unionisation in the late 1970s. About 6.4-million UK employees just over a fifth (23.1%) of the workforce were union members in 2021, the lowest rate on record since 1995 and less than half of what it was in 1979. The majority of today s unionised workers, however, are in the public sector, which gets to the heart of the problem for the next government. Not only are these workers facing deep structural changes (for example, remote work affecting travel) and crushing backlogs due to the pandemic, but the spike in living costs has
hit real wages hard. And all of that comes at a time when, relatively speaking, real wages had already been stagnant for over a decade and labour markets are exceptionally tight, notes Connor MacDonald, director of economic policy research at the think-tank Policy Exchange. Truss s approach of channelling Tory hero Margaret Thatcher who vastly curbed the strength of powerful unions will appeal to the Tory members who vote for the next leader. It s also unfinished business. Despite a 2019 manifesto pledge, it was only in June that Boris Johnson got
Cyber risk resilience ‘should be a priority’
get attacked, it s a matter of when it will happen, which makes it all the more surprising that organisations continue to take a siloed approach rather than looking at the risk from an enterprise-wide perspective, says Spiros Fatouros, CEO of Marsh Africa Many organisations are still struggling to understand the risks posed by their vendors and digital supply chains as part of their cybersecurity strategies. More than half of respondents 60% said they have not conducted a risk assessment of their vendors or supply chains. A lack of adequate skills is one of the top barriers holding companies back from implementing more formal and rigorous risk assessment methods. Other findings included in the report are that more than a third of organisations (37%) admitted to not having any kind of cyber insurance in place even though it is a key element in managing cyber risk. This is despite a rapid increase in the
number of cyberattacks over the past few years and omnipresence of this risk. Microsoft, for example, says it receives 24-trillion security signals a day. More than half (54%) of the those organisations which had secured insurance acknowledged that doing so was accepted best practice within their business sector and had helped them adopt a more stringent and resilient approach to cyber risks. Some 75% recognised that insurance was an important part of any cyber risk management strategy. As cyber risks become increasingly pervasive across most organisations, successfully countering cyber threats needs to be an enterprise-wide goal, aimed at building cyber resilience across the firm, rather than singular investments in incident prevention or cyber defence, says Fatouros. Cyber risk management should be a shared responsibility with risk managers, chief financial officers, chief information security officers, executive leaders and their teams discussing key cyber risks and working together to identify, quantify and manage them. The research revealed that IT and cybersecurity professionals tend to be the decision makers for cyber incident management and cybersecurity tools and services with boards, CEOs and company presidents most likely
to see themselves as the ultimate decision makers on cyber insurance. While 90% of risk manager respondents said their company had a risk-incident response plan in place, only 60% of executive leaders said they had a plan in place. The report suggests that some of the low response among executives could possibly have to do with a lack of engagement with those responsible for cyber risk management than a lack of an actual plan. The report also revealed that there is broad consensus on the need to increase investments in cyber risk management resources and capabilities Like most budgetary decisions, deciding where to invest can be a complicated, time-consuming matter. The report revealed that different roles and departments typically have varied plans and priorities for future investments. IT and cybersecurity respondents are more likely to plan increased spending on cybersecurity technology, less so for those in finance and procurement roles. Risk management and insurance leaders are more likely to anticipate greater spending on cyber insurance and on hiring more cybersecurity professionals, while those at board and CEO level are less likely to anticipate greater spending in these areas. Greater cross-enterprise communication can help the region s businesses bridge the gaps that currently exist, boost confidence and better inform overall strategic decision
around to introducing a series of measures to limit unions ability to disrupt essential services. (Truss has promised to pass these laws in her first 30 days.)
But if she wins the race to be prime minister, she ll need more in her toolbox. Her plan to pay public servants differently depending on where they live (and extending that potentially to public sector pay more widely) has been mooted in the past. It’s a debate worth having, but it will put her on a collision course with unions. It also won t deliver the scale of change she needs.
Ultimately, Truss will need to find a way to deliver both better public services and real wage growth for those working in the public sector. That will take deep reforms to public services, something Johnson talked about (when Dominic Cummings was his adviser), but never managed. A change in how services are structured and managed will be more likely to succeed if it involves deep consultation with unions, who will need to accept that trade-offs are necessary.
PRAGMATIC APPROACH
In other words, the Tories need to stand up to the unions, but also make peace with them. That might seem counterintuitive, but this kind of pragmatism is rooted in the party s past.
It s often forgotten that Thatcher, who was a member and proponent of the Conservative Trade Unionists (CTU), argued for moderate unionism and even encouraging Conservatives to be trade union officials. Though there is reflexive anti-unionism in parts
of the party, there has also been a rapprochement between Conservatives and unions over the years, too. David Cameron became the first Conservative to address the Trades Union Conference and appointed an envoy to help repair relations with the unions.
In a 2012 paper, the Tory MP Robert Halfon urged Conservatives to lean into these roots, noting there are many millions more Tory voters among union members than there are party members and the two had many interests in common
Of course, there is always going to be a tension here. The right to withhold labour is only effective if there is the potential to cause some pain for employers. That’s why British Airways settled its dispute with check-in staff at Heathrow airport who wanted a 10% pay cut introduced during the pandemic reversed. And there are times when workers
