RETIRING TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady lambasted the government’s failure to act against bosses’ “disgraceful treatment of workers” on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs programme today.

Ms O’Grady, who will stand down as leader of the union organisation at the end of this year, told presenter Lauren Laverne that victories were being achieved and union membership was growing.

But she said legislation had not kept up with the growing power of employers in the workplace.

“I feel there is a mood for change,” she said. “I know cases of disgraceful treatment of workers — fire and rehire, zero hours. 

“People feel this is wrong, especially after the pandemic when we had so many workers putting their health on the line for the rest of us.”

Questioned about the unlawful sacking of 800 P&O ferry workers, she said: “That just shows you how weak legal rights are for workers in Britain, which they could not have got away with in other countries.

“The government could have taken strong action from the start, could have said we are taking away all your contracts, and if you do not reinstate all those workers we are taking over as operator of last resort, just as they have done with the railways. 

“They could have done that. That would have sent a strong message not just to P&O but to every bad employer out there.”

Ms O’Grady’s musical choices included Pieces of a Man by Gil Scott-Heron.

She said: “I think he writes poetry, it’s about the daily indignities, injustices that people face, the hurt and harm that is caused from unemployment, losing your job, redundancy.”

Her other choices included A Change is Gonna Come by Sam Cooke, Joy Division’s Atmosphere and Dexys Midnight Runners’ Burn It Down.