End this division on pay

Britain is now a much fairer place than it was a few years ago. But more - much more - now needs to be done.

There should be action to help those who do not have enough to get by on each week. And action to deal with fat cat greed - Britain's directors seem to get away with awarding themselves soar-away pay rises every year.

Next week Britain's unions meet in Glasgow at our annual TUC Congress and fairness is the theme that will unite our debates.

We will praise the Government for introducing the minimum wage, but will also issue a clear message that it now needs to rise.

It is easy to understand why it was set at a cautious rate. For years employers warned that a minimum wage would cost jobs and raise prices.

Sensibly, the Government made trade unionists and employers sit round a table together with independent experts in a Low Pay Commission. Their job was to set a rate and monitor how the minimum wage worked. They have done a good job, and they are now clear that the minimum wage has had no impact on either jobs or prices.

Nearly two million people got a pay rise thanks to the National Minimum Wage, but pounds 3.60 - shortly to be pounds 3.70 - is no more than the barest of minimums.

That is why the TUC says the minimum wage should now rise to somewhere between pounds 4.50 and pounds 5 an hour. That is still no fortune, but it's a level that starts to tackle poverty - and it would save the Government money.

One of the Government's best measures - very much the work of Chancellor Gordon Brown who will be our guest on Tuesday - is the working families' tax credit. This makes up the wages of the low paid to a decent level, but welcome though it is to those who receive it, it should not become a welfare state for Britain's meanest bosses.

But while there has been progress for the low paid, nothing much has happened to limit boardroom greed. Later today the TUC will publish figures showing that the gap in pay between top directors and the people they employ continues to get bigger.

Over the past five years directors' pay has gone up by 72 per cent while pay for their staff has risen 18 per cent.

In 1994 the highest- paid director in Britain's biggest companies got 27 times more than the average wage they paid their employees.

Last year that figure had risen to 32 times - and this only takes into account directors' normal pay packets.

It does not include all the share options and bonuses that normally go with a chair in the boardroom.

Why should a director be worth 27 times more than an average employee one year, and 32 times as much five years later?

It is hard to believe that directors have become so much more clever or harder working than their staff over such a short period.

But that would be the only logical reason for pay increases four times as big as the people they employ.

Many would say that it should be the other way round. Stress and pressure of work have increased in almost every workplace in the country, and I will have more to say about that in my speech to the TUC tomorrow.

Disappointingly, it does not look as if the Government will act on top pay.

There is some talk of making companies publish more information, but we already know that the average fat cat is more than willing to suffer a few days' bad publicity in return for a lifetime supply of cream.

Let me make a radical suggestion. Give workers a say in the pay of their boardroom bosses.

If they agree that directors have done exceptionally well - and some do turn companies round or set them on the road to spectacular growth - then I am sure their staff will say: "Well done, you deserve a rise."

While those more interested in their own share options than their staff or customers might find they have their pay claims rejected.

Now that's what I call fairness at work.

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