and obviously there will be a discussion to be had about the balance of that. but it s getting those reforms agreed, that frees up some resources and that will enable network rail and the train operating companies to make a pay offer to the people who work in the industry. and that s your ambition for what should happen. but there is a big question about how that could happen. now, we ve just heard from frances o grady, and also the rmt union have been saying that, too. they feel the train operators have not been able to make offers to them because the government hasn t given them the flexibility to do so. do you dispute that? no, look, i haven t blocked anything and it s not in my interest to block anything. did your predecessor block anything? but there s a thing that has to be done here, has to be done here, which is you need the reforms agreed. because it s the reforms being agreed that free up the savings that can then be used to make a pay offer. so both of those things have to h
for the 21st century. it s a bit more than that, though, isn t it, secretary of state? i mean, you do have a responsibility for holding the purse strings and for setting the parameters for the negotiations, the mandate that frances o grady was just talking about? well, look. clearly there s a lot of taxpayers money that goes into the rail network. but, look, this dispute is actually a little bit different from some of the other ones you mentioned. and these talks have been going on for some time. a long time. so what we need to try to fix here is, we are trying to modernise how the workforce operates and the detail of how those rail companies operate. now, if we can get that agreement between the trade unions and the companies, the detailed negotiations hammered out, what that does is it frees up financial savings, and then that money can be shared between the taxpayer and the workers. and obviously there will be a discussion to be had about the balance of that. but it s getting those
called for a general election in a scathing attack on the government. addressing herfinal annual meeting before stepping down, frances o grady pledged more strike action across the country and said workers shouldn t have to pay the price for the government s mess. our employment correspondent zoe conway reports. tuc, get off your knees! at the tuc in brighton there is anger, anger about pay not keeping up with inflation, and there is fury at the government. this month hundreds of thousands of public sector workers are being balloted on whether they want to strike. if ministers and employers keep hammering pay packets at the same rate, uk workers are on course to suffer two decades, 20 years, of lost living standards. over the next three years alone, real earnings are set to fall by another £11000.
working people for wanting to have a fair pay increase. what do you mean by that when you say, they seem to be blaming working people? well, they seem to be picking a fight with unions. what do you mean by that, though? ..as representatives of working people. they have been blaming working people for asking for a pay rise and saying they are going to have to tighten their belts. in what way, just to clarify this, frances, in what way have they been blaming people for asking for a pay rise? they have said it publicly that workers should expect to take some pain and what we are saying is that we have seen city bonuses at bumper levels, we have seen the boardroom top pay also at bumper levels and, of course, profits are recovering and all working people are asking for is a fair share of the wealth that we produce and decent public services. we can t have nurses and social care workers queueing up at food banks
lowest paid workers who really need help now. we would like to see workers having a fair bargaining rights, so that those companies that we have seen in the private sector making huge profits actually are encouraged by government to sit down with unions and negotiate fair deals. and of course, the government has got to do the right thing by key workers, public service workers who put their health on the line during the pandemic for the rest of us and at the very least deserve a fair reward. , ., . , at the very least deserve a fair reward. , . . , ,., , reward. the tuc s frances o grady sieakini reward. the tuc s frances o grady speaking to reward. the tuc s frances o grady speaking to me reward. the tuc s frances o grady speaking to me earlier. some asylum seekers who arrive in the uk in small boats or on the back of lorries could be electronically tagged under a new home office trial. the prime minister says it s important to make sure asylum seekers can t just vanish into