Why Labour’s Employment Rights Bill is the biggest upgrade in workers’ and trade union rights in a generation
Left Foot Forward
We know that driving up employment standards is good for workers, good for business and good for growth
Paul Nowak is General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress
Last week brought long overdue cause for celebration for working people – and trade unions.
Labour’s Employment Rights Bill, published on Thursday, is the biggest upgrade in workers’ and trade union rights in a generation.
Delivered in full, this positive and ambitious plan has the potential to radically improve working lives for millions of workers in every part of the UK.
And after 14 years of stagnating living standards under the Conservatives, that has never been more needed.
Because thanks to the toxic economic legacy left by Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss and Sunak, we now have over four million people trapped in jobs with little or no security, unable to plan their budgets and childcare from one week to the next.
From hospital workers in Warrington to train operators in Wembley; from teachers in Swansea to firefighters in Surrey, we all desperately need hope after more than a decade of Conservative misrule and misery.
The very least working people should be able to hope for is a job that they can build a life on. Not a job where they worry about how much work or pay they’ll get from one week to the next. And not a job where they have to go to work when they are ill because they don’t get sick pay from day one.
We know that driving up employment standards is good for workers, good for business and good for growth. It will give workers more security and predictability and it will stop good employers from being undercut by the bad.
Whether it’s tackling the scourge of zero-hours contracts and fire and rehire, improving access to sick pay and parental leave, or clamping down on exploitation – this bill highlights Labour’s commitment to upgrade rights and protections for millions.
And it is a seismic shift away from the Tories’ failed low pay, low rights, low productivity economy.
Ahead of the second reading of the bill on Monday (21 October), it is vital that we now get the details right and we get on with making work pay for all.
Improving the quality of work in this country has to be top of the government’s in-tray.
When people are treated fairly and feel valued at work, they are more productive, they work harder, and they are far more likely to stay.
And good employers agree. Polling by the TUC and IPPR found that most managers and senior decision-makers support strengthening rights and protections at work.
They see that this bill is a chance for employers and unions to come together in support of progressive employment rights. They know it will be good for their companies and businesses. And they recognise the many benefits giving staff extra security will bring – in making workforces happier, healthier and more productive.
And by establishing a level playing field on worker’s rights we can stop decent companies from being undercut by the cowboys – and call out that minority of bosses who are fixated with continuing a race to the bottom and seem hellbent on treating their staff like disposable, throwaway commodities.
It is time to write a positive new chapter for working people in this country.
And the TUC and unions are ready to roll up our sleeves and work with the government to get this milestone legislation past the finish line in full.
Yes, Labour's workers' rights bill is an upgrade. But the UK still has a lot of catching up to do
The Employment Rights Bill marks a big shift for UK workers. But how much will change? University of Birmingham's Tony Dobbins explores
Tony Dobbins
THE BIG ISSUE
16 Oct 2024
A health worker during Covid wearing PPE that wasn't destroyed or written off. Image: UK government
The Labour government’s new Employment Rights Bill undoubtedly heralds a significant boost in workers’ rights after 14 years of Conservative government espousal of a liberalised flexible labour market model – translated as let the market run its course/let people do as they choose. The problem with this ‘survival of the fittest’ model is that it has created too much in-work poverty, insecurity, precarity, low pay and destitution for far too many people.
As the first phase of delivering the Plan to Make Work Pay, the Employment Rights Bill contains numerous proposals on mainly individual employment rights reforms, including: a new Fair Work Agency for stronger enforcement, better statutory sick pay, protection against unfair dismissal from day one (rather than two years at present, although it seems that there will be a nine-month probationary period for new recruits), a cost of living measure for setting the minimum wage, and making flexible working the default where practical.
Regarding collective employment rights, the government has promised new rights to online union balloting, union access to workplaces, simplification of the union recognition procedure, and to repeal anti-trade union laws enacted by the Conservatives in recent years. It also contains proposals for collective bargaining/negotiating bodies for adult social care and school support staff.
Will the Employment Rights Bill support employer relations?
Elements of the employer community will likely be concerned about the extent and impact of the new rights envisaged. A more positive (or ‘beneficial constraints’) perspective is possible, however, if the new rights are framed as supporting better employers/employment relations and constraining a race to the bottom by more exploitative employers.
Nonetheless, it could take two years or more before we see some of these rights taking effect in workplaces, with further consultations likely and more detail needed to put flesh on the bones of many proposals.
What is missing or diluted in the Employment Rights Bill?
Advocates of stronger workers’ rights will also likely be wary that original proposals on banning zero hours contracts and fire and rehire have apparently been diluted under pressure from business lobbying, with potential loopholes.
Other “wider reforms” are not included in this Employment Rights Bill and have been put on the long finger. Consequently, alongside the legislation, a ‘Next Steps to Make Work Pay’ document has been published, which also outlines some longer-term proposals. This includes guidance (a code of practice) – which is not mandatory – on the right to disconnect from work, and consultation on a move towards a single status of worker (one of the most notable proposals left out of the Employment Rights Bill).
There is lack of clarity on other collective employment rights initially promised by Labour, notably extending sectoral collective bargaining more widely across the foundational economy. This is significant because stronger collective rights are most likely to shift the balance of power in employment relationships.
Other collective employment rights that are missing altogether from government policy documents include board-level worker directors, and stronger rights to form works councils/codetermination forums.
Upgrading from a low regulatory base?
There is some truth when the government claims it is “delivering the biggest upgrade to rights at work for a generation”, yet the UK has a long way to catch-up on employment rights, as measured by The Centre for Business Research Labour Regulation Index (CBR-LRI). The UK currently has one of the most lightly regulated labour markets among advanced economies, notably in a European comparative context.
The test will be how many of the original proposals in the New Deal for Working People remain intact and operational in practice across UK workplaces and improve work and working lives. The risk is that – with workers’ rights starting from such a weak regulatory base – if the Government goes too far to appease business the new framework will be too weak to rebalance power relations at work and shift the dial on one-sided flexible labour markets.
Prisoners of economic orthodoxy?
An important issue will be how the new employment rights framework intersects with economic policy issues, notably whether Labour is serious about pursuing a good jobs agenda and investing in an industrial strategy for the everyday economy in UK regions and repairing public services. Concerns have been expressed that the Treasury appears intent on continuing Conservative austerity and economic orthodoxy (including rigid fiscal/debt rules holding back much needed investment). If so, this would jeopardize the investment required to support better jobs in regional economies like the Midlands and the North of England.
The Budget on 30 October should provide more clarity on the government’s economic direction and how this might impact and interrelate with possibilities for better work and employment rights.
Tony Dobbins is a professor of work and employment relations at the University of Birmingham.
No comments:
Post a Comment