Union-city Blue  TUC general secretary Paul Nowak is an aspirational Evertonian with an eye for common ground

But the proposition is bilateral, not one-way. The standing man benefits too: soon he will have a partner, an ally who can walk with him. Paul Nowak, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), thinks similarly about unions’ relationship with employers: often, they share similar goals – they walk together.

“The vast majority of people want to go out to work, to have a good, rewarding job, that they can count on to raise their family,” says Nowak. “They want to work for successful organisations. They don’t go to work every day wanting to be class warriors – going to war with the boss. And the vast majority of employers want to do right by their staff.”

Rising star

Nowak first joined a union as a 17-year-old Asda part-timer. By his early twenties, he had become a union organiser in a Merseyside call centre that was riven by an industrial dispute. At the tender age of 25, he was inducted into the inaugural TUC Organising Academy, a training ground for paid union officials. Now 53, he might be a self-described “consensus builder”, but he is no soft touch.

“Are employers, unions and the staff always going to agree on every issue? Absolutely not,” he says. “Because it’s about human relationships, and there are always tensions in human relationships. Sometimes those tensions can be good. Our unions force employers to do a better job, to be better employers. I’ve seen proof of that in workplaces where employers have been challenged by unions: ‘you need to do better on the way that you treat staff’ or ‘you need to do better on pay’. And that has a positive impact on things like staff turnover.”

Does he think the differences between employers’ groups and unions are overblown, that there is more alignment between the goals of companies and their employees than commonly assumed? “I’m not going to pretend everything is harmonious and there is partnership-working all the time in every workplace,” says Nowak. “But some of the most successful companies in this country are those with strong, independent unions that stick up for their staff and do right for their staff. Unions have absolutely got a vested interest in making sure their employer is successful and profitable, and thinking long-term… because they want their members to be in good, quality jobs.”

Shared goals

He identifies several fields where unions and employers’ groups – such as the IoD – find common ground, where, by working together, they can drive towards shared goals. Skills, technology and energy policy are core areas where the TUC and businesses benefit from concerted efforts, he says. “It’s good for our members to see increased investments in skills, give them new access to training opportunities,” says Nowak. “It’s good for employers as well. That’s absolutely the sort of issue we can work on together.

“The same applies to energy prices. We have a real concern about high energy costs for consumers, but also for the energy-intensive industries where our members work. I’ll happily go into bat alongside employers’ organisations, with the Treasury and with government, to say we need to do something about industrial energy prices. Just as I’ve gone into bat with employers to say we need to invest in the next generation of nuclear, or we need to make sure that we support the automotive industry to [electrical] transition. I see my job as making sure that this country’s got a successful economy with viable businesses and a good industrial base.”

Certainly, the TUC sits with employers’ groups on the Industrial Strategy Council – the steering group for the government’s flagship package, which looms large this year. Nowak shares the view with many employers that the government’s other policy agendas must complement, rather than conflict with, its economic priorities. “We need a growing economy, but one that boosts living standards. And 100% we want to work with employers on that industrial strategy – and with government – to make sure we get it right,” he says. “We’re almost at an inflection point. We’ve got a real opportunity – net zero is a challenge and an opportunity. You could decarbonise the economy by not having a steel industry, not having an automotive industry, and not having a viable chemicals industry. Or you could say, ‘actually, we want all of those, but we’re going to get there together on a net zero path.’”

Yet, despite Nowak’s collegiate outlook, there could be a clash coming. The TUC is a resolute supporter of the government’s Employment Rights Bill which, if approved, will trigger the biggest shift in workers’ rights for a generation. Key features of the bill include employees being protected against unfair dismissal immediately – rather than after two years’ employment, as is the current law – and having the right to be offered a guaranteed-hours contract for the shifts they regularly work.

Rights battle

Employers’ groups – including the IoD – contend that the changes will place onerous red tape on companies already grappling with the combined impact of National Insurance hikes and increases to the minimum wage. The package will, they say, make firms more cautious about creating new jobs and less willing to risk hiring new people. Their calculus is that the measures are likely to lower – rather than raise – living standards.

Nowak hits back that the increased protections are growth-positive, and – contrary to companies’ fears – will boost UK output and help the nation tackle its chronic productivity deficit. “There’s a clear – and positive – link,” he says. “These reforms will be good for workers, good for business – and good for the UK economy.” The status quo, he says, has been tried – and found wanting. “We’ve tested this deregulated light-touch approach to employment regulations to destruction over the last decade and a half… Our labour market isn’t working in all sorts of different ways. For too many people, work is low paid, it’s insecure, it’s not rewarding in any sense of the word. But it’s also failing on productivity and investment in skills.”

He contrasts Britain with its international peers. “UK employers invest about half the EU average in skills,” he says. “The UK is probably unique in Western Europe in having a very long tail of low-paid, insecure employment. We’ve got some incredibly productive employers – the Jaguar Land Rovers, the Airbuses of this world – but we’ve got a long tail of low-paid, insecure employment. That’s acted as a brake on growth. It’s acted as a brake on productivity.”

The TUC’s own research forecasts an annual £13 billion boost to the UK economy from the Employment Rights package, Nowak points out. “Why? Because reduced absenteeism and improved morale feeds into improved productivity,” he says. “Some employers – not all by any stretch of the imagination – are reliant on low-paid, insecure work. And this will force them to invest in new ways of working, new kit, new technology – things that the UK economy desperately needs.”

Nevertheless, the bill as drafted is radical. The IoD has proposed that the unfair dismissal protections be reduced to six months – rather than being offered as a day one right. This would still be a huge mitigation on the current 24 months – and half the 12 months in force under the last Labour government. I wonder, in the spirit of walking together, is there room for compromise? Nowak is not for turning. “I wouldn’t think it’s a fair compromise,” he says. “And I’ll tell you for why. What we’re talking about is unfair dismissal. Employers will still be able to dismiss somebody fairly. Are we genuinely saying employers should have the right to unfairly dismiss somebody in the first six months of their employment?”

The government is exploring a statutory probationary period, the details of which are under consultation. “I think we will end up with … something that’s proportionate,” says Nowak. “If you start the job on day one; and day two and three you don’t come in, or you come in late, or you steal from the till, of course, the employer will be able to fairly dismiss you.

“But this is about protection from unfair dismissal. Your face doesn’t fit. ‘Actually, I’d rather employ Charlie than Bill, so I’m sorry, mate, I know you’ve been here five months, but you’re out the door’… That doesn’t mean you’ve got a job for life where you can swing the lead, but it does mean there’s a basic legal protection there.”

Merseyside story

Swinging the lead is an old nautical phrase for slacking off. Lazy sailors, asked to measure the depth of the water by throwing in a weighted rope, would sway it from side to side to appear busy; to avoid being assigned another task. Nowak’s maritime analogy recalls his port-city background. His Chinese grandfather arrived in Liverpool with the Merchant Navy and settled in the city after marrying a Scouse-Irish girl. The couple had 11 children, one of whom was Nowak’s mother.

“My mum was brought up in real poverty,” he says. “She was fiercely bright – but left school at 15.” The family aspired to better themselves. It was a socialism of opportunity rather than objection. “My mum and dad were political with a capital P,” he says. “But they were strong, aspirational, working-class people who wanted the best for their kids – and also for the kids and the families that grew up alongside them.”

Nowak still lives on Merseyside, a regular at Everton Football Club, a lifelong Blue. He admires the work ethic of the club’s tough veteran manager, David Moyes – who dubbed Everton ‘The People’s Club’. The jersey seems to fit. “When I talk to the women who work in a mental health hospital who are having to go on strike because they don’t get shift pay for working weekends, and no sick pay until three days in – and then all they get is statutory sick pay,” says Nowak, “stuff like that makes me absolutely mad. Because this country can afford to pay those women sick pay for weekends and shift pay for bank holidays and for Christmas Day and Boxing Day.”

Sometimes there is commonality with employers. But sometimes there is conflict. “If you think something’s wrong, call it out,” he says. “I’ve always tried to do that in a positive way. I see myself as a consensus builder, but you have got to be prepared to call out stuff when it’s wrong.”

We meet in his London office, an exemplar of modish mid-century furnishings that would have interiors enthusiasts in raptures. But at the weekend, Nowak will trade bookish Bloomsbury for blue-collar Birkenhead. “My mum and dad live next door,” he reveals. “We still have the family rows around the dinner table on a Sunday. They’ll still put me in my place. Everybody in our family’s got an opinion. Everybody was always prepared to speak up. And speaking up, standing up, has driven me my entire working life.”