Mike Clancy: Looking ahead to 2025

This is a big year for our union where we will be using our influence to help the government get the big decisions right and help to deliver progress and change for our members, writes Prospect General Secretary, Mike Clancy.

Prospect General Secretary Mike Clancy

2024 was another significant year for Prospect members which brought opportunities for progress, despite the continuing challenging economic climate. We saw a hugely significant general election, producing the first change in government in almost 15 years – and 2025 promises to be a big year for the union, as we engage with the government to drive real progress and change for our members.

Employment Rights Bill

2025 will see the passage of the Employment Rights Bill, representing the biggest change to workers’ rights in decades. The Bill, which is currently being debated in parliament, includes essential measures for workers, such as addressing flexible working and statutory sick pay, alongside changes designed to shift the balance of power towards workers and unions to make work fair, such as simplifying union access to workplaces.

However, there is work to be done to improve the Bill, for example to ensure that legislation will apply to the creative sector and its workforce. Our Bectu sector has been clear that freelancers must not be left out in the cold and will continue to lobby the government in 2025 to appoint a Freelance Commissioner, that can work with unions to advocate for the rights of the self-employed. As the Bill moves through Parliament, it is critical that unions, employers and government continue to work in tandem to ensure the best outcome for members. We will keep members updated on the Bill, and what it means for them, throughout the year.

Europe

We will also see a renegotiation of the Brexit deal, which is up for review in 2025. We have long been critical of the current deal, which does little for the UK and its workforce – we need a new deal that delivers for the economy, and for the sectors that Prospect represents.

For example, as it stands, the UK/EU trade deal has imposed strict visa and permit restrictions on touring professionals, placing a huge financial and logistical burden on thousands of workers and resulting in many members losing work. Our Bectu sector has long been lobbying the government to resolve restriction of movement for touring professionals and will continue to do so as we approach renegotiations.

Prospect will also be campaigning for ongoing dynamic alignment of employment protections and regulations to protect workers rights with the EU, as we described in a motion we championed and which was carried at the TUC annual Congress a few months ago. This means that UK workers would not be left behind the rest of Europe on workers’ rights. Our motion also called for rapid progress on reducing trade barriers and streamlined processes for essential cross-border movement of workers and equipment. We must secure a better deal for the UK and its workforce, and I will be using my new position as the Chair of the Domestic Advisory Group for UK-EU Trade and Cooperation to push on these issues.

Civil Service

The new government has signalled that 2025 will also be a year of civil service reform. Our members in the civil service tell us how a decade and a half of underfunding and pay cuts have left them desperately short of the staff and skills they need to deliver for the public. We have been open with government that we are willing to work with them on reform, but they need to understand the real pressures facing civil servants, particularly in specialist areas.

Industrial strategy

Prospect will also be seeking to work with the government on its industrial strategy, which covers many sectors that we represent – creative industries, energy, defence and science. The union has achieved important influence over the last year at the highest levels of government; Head of Bectu Philippa Childs has been invited to sit on the government’s recently formed Creative Industries Taskforce, and Deputy General Secretary Steve Thomas is on the government’s Offshore Wind Taskforce. In addition, I have been appointed to the board of non-executive directors in the Department for Business and Trade.

Achieving such positions of influence is a testament to the strength of our lobbying work over recent years and the way in which we are able to draw on the expertise of our members to help advise on policy questions. This will present the union with more opportunities in the coming years to influence government policy and address the UK’s urgent need to boost investment and innovation across the industries we represent.

And all of this is important because the economy is still struggling – and so are many of our members. We see this across our sectors, whether it be the ongoing film and TV slowdown that has left thousands of freelancers without work, or a civil service that is still facing a crisis of recruitment and retention, or a heritage sector that has been hit hard by the combination of chronic low pay and a brutal cost of living crisis.

Better workplaces

The union will also continue to stamp down workplace cultures that promote or tolerate bullying and harassment, particularly in sectors where misconduct is often commonplace and persistent, such as the creative industries and the defence sector. In 2024, we took steps  to improve the support and advice we offer members on these matters, updating our workplace guidance and launching our new Sexual Harassment Support Service, which is available for all members to report something, whether recent or historical.

Prospect will always campaign for policies at a national level that will benefit our members: from those affecting all members such as employment rights, to sector specific policies to benefit the industries you work in. But the government must get the big decisions right – and we will be using our influence and the expertise of our talented members to help them to do so.