Frances O'Grady

She has been a member of the Resolution Foundation's Commission on Living Standards, as well as serving on the TUC’s Commission on Vulnerable Employment, the Low Pay Commission and the High Pay Commission. She has campaigned prominently during the referendum on EU membership, as the TUC registered for the remain side, particularly citing concerns around the impact on workers' rights and jobs in export led industries.

She was appointed as a Non-Executive Director of Bank of England in June 2019.

She became TUC General Secretary in January 2013, succeeding Brendan Barber.

In 2013, in line with the TUC, she was among those who gave their support to the People's Assembly in a letter published by The Guardian newspaper.

O'Grady has led a protest outside Bestway, Britain's largest family owned business. In February 2013 she was, as a result of her efforts, assessed as the 11th most powerful woman in Britain by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4.

She led on the establishment of the union learning organisation unionlearn, which came into being in 2006. Unionlearn works with employers, unions and government to help around 220,000 workers per year to improve basic skills and access lifelong learning.

She became head of the TUC's organisation department in 1999, and was then elected as Deputy General Secretary in 2003.

O'Grady worked for the Transport and General Workers' Union, where she opposed the abolition of the Agricultural Wages Board, and campaigned for a minimum wage. She became TUC Campaigns Secretary in 1994 and founded the TUC Organising Academy in 1997, a scheme aimed at supporting a younger and more representative group of workers to become labour movement organisers.

Frances Lorraine O'Grady (born 9 November 1959) is the General Secretary of the British Trades Union Congress (TUC), the first woman to hold the position.