Before the TUC, Frances worked for the Transport and General Workers Union where she worked on successful campaigns to stop the abolition of the Agricultural Wages Board and for the introduction of a national minimum wage, equal pay for women, and on a range of industrial wage claims.

In 1994 Frances joined the TUC as Campaigns Officer. She moved up through a variety of positions including heading up the TUC’s organisation department, and was appointed Deputy General Secretary in 2003.

In January 2013 Frances became the General Secretary of the TUC, the first woman ever
to hold this post. Fair pay remains a core ambition - she was on the Resolution Foundation's
Commission on Living Standards, and has been a member of the Low Pay and the High Pay Commissions. Frances is a strong believer in protecting the public service ethos, opposes privatisation and leads the TUC campaign to save the NHS.