TUC: Workers on boards is a proven policy that’s better for business

9 Nov 2016 01:44 PM

The TUC has responded to reports yesterday (Tuesday) that the government may consider a voluntary approach to workers on boards by encouraging the Prime Minister to see her pledge through.

The Prime Minister promised to put workers on boards both when she campaigned to win the leadership of the Conservative Party, and after she became Prime Minister in her speech to the Conservative Party conference.

She said: “A change has got to come. So later this year we will publish our plans to have not just consumers represented on company boards, but workers as well. Because we are the party of workers.”

Seeing through her policy without watering it down is a test of the Prime Minister’s commitment to an economy that works for everyone, says the TUC. But a voluntary approach would fatally undermine her reform and risk turning it into little more than a PR exercise.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Theresa May has every reason to keep her promise to be a reforming Prime Minister who will make business work for all of Britain again.

“Many of the most successful industrial nations already give working people the right to representation on the board. So this is a policy that works – it’s tried, it’s tested, it’s proven. And it will work for Britain too, helping us build a stronger and fairer economy.

“A few business leaders will moan as surely as bears do their business in the woods. But they‘ll get over it. Others will see this for what it is – an opportunity to bring on board ideas and insight from the workforce that will help bring greater long-term success.”

Notes to Editors: