£88,000 a year, 47 days holiday and a gold-plated pension ...apply to the TUC
AN £88,000-a-year salary, generous pension and a 35-hour week with plenty of time for lunch.
It’s the kind of job package that normally has trade union bosses crying ‘fatcat’.
Not this time – because all this and more is on offer to the next deputy general secretary of the Trades Union Congress.
It is likely to have the typical worker struggling to pay the bills on a fraction of that salary wondering who the fatcats really are.
The job, advertised on the TUC website, offers the kind of final salary pension most employees can only dream of these days and up to 47 days holiday every year.
The successful applicant will be paid £87,982, which is more than three times Britain’s average salary. The job involves a working day that starts at 9.15am and finishes at 5.15pm with an hour for lunch.
After three years in the job, the new deputy general secretary will get 30 days holiday a year, plus ‘statutory and customary holidays’.
But the TUC’s definition of these extra holidays is a lot more generous than most private sector employers. At the TUC, you get four days for Easter, three for the May bank holidays, one in August and ‘between five and nine’ at Christmas depending on when the religious holiday falls – a total of between 13 and 17 ‘extra’ days.
In comparison, a typical fulltime worker gets 28 days off each year, but this can often mean 20 days holiday plus the usual eight bank holidays. Tory MP Dominic Raab said: ‘This shows how out of touch certain union leaders are.
‘Many rank and file members will be shocked to learn they are paying for their union bosses on such cushy terms, wholly disconnected from the daily reality facing the hard-working majority in this country.’
Matthew Sinclair, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘It is disingenuous for the union top brass to claim they speak for workers and arrange disruptive strikes when they are so used to overly-generous pay and perks themselves.’
The current deputy general secretary is Frances O’Grady, 52, who is being promoted to replace general secretary Brendan Barber when he retires at the end of the year with a ‘golden goodbye’ of more than £100,000, the equivalent of one year’s salary.
The new deputy general secretary also gets one of the best parental leave packages in Britain. Maternity leave is 13 weeks at full pay, then 13 at half-pay and 13 at statutory maternity pay, currently £135.45 per week.
A father gets 15 working days paternity leave. By comparison, most men get only ten days.
The deadline for applications is noon on November 1. No qualifications are required after union bosses complained the original advertisement insisted the applicant had a degree.
It comes as the TUC plots another massive demonstration against the Government’s austerity drive, with rallies in London, Glasgow and Belfast on Saturday.