The limits of Labour’s Employment Rights Bill
The bill ends some of the worst trade union restrictions imposed by the Tories, but it also shows the limits of Labour's vision
Labour’s Employment Rights Bill isn’t on the side of workers
The bill ends some of the worst trade union restrictions imposed by the Tories, but it also shows the limits of Labour's vision
Labour’s Employment Rights Bill isn’t on the side of workers
(Photo: flickr/Keir Starmer)
COMMENT
By An industrial relations researcher
Tuesday 03 December 2024
COMMENT
By An industrial relations researcher
Tuesday 03 December 2024
SOCIALIST WORKER Issue 2934
Labour’s Employment Rights Bill, which is currently making its way through parliament, is fairly extensive and should make employment lawyers busier than they’ve been for a while. But it isn’t necessarily comprehensive.
A number of measures are also welcome, especially after the attacks of the Tory years. Top of this list is the repealing of one of the the biggest barriers the Tories put in the way of effective industrial action—the Trade Union Act of 2016.
Here, the Bill proposes that a simple majority will be enough for a valid yes vote in a strike ballot, instead of the 50 percent turnout threshold required by the Tory rules.
The Bill will make union recognition easier in several ways. It could strengthen measures aimed at stopping bosses undermining workers figthing for union recognition. This includes bosses using large-scale recruitment to scupper recognition campaigns.
That’s what Amazon did when it brought in 1,300 new workers to dilute the GMB union’s membership, ending any recognition bid for the moment.
Other elements of the Bill aim to make it harder for employers to impose zero hours contracts. And a new requirement for bosses to draw up Equality Action Plans, showing how they intend to reduce gender and other pay gaps, also seems promising.
But much of the Bill brings to mind what the great Irish satirist Jonathan Swift said about the law— or, more precisely, the loopholes in the law.
“Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let hornets and wasps break through,” he wrote.
The Bill’s main weaknesses lie here—and in what it doesn’t cover. A widely trailed promise to introduce electronic balloting is missing. Instead the government has promised a “round table” with various experts.
But this sounds like kicking it into the long grass, presumably for fear that it would actually make organising industrial action easier.
The Bill also includes concessions to bosses. In particular, Labour has weakened a move to make unfair dismissal a “right from day one” rather than the present two years.
Instead, the Bill includes a “light touch” procedure for dismissals during an “initial period” which could be as long as nine months.
Socialists see unions places where workers can learn to fight for a better world. In contrast, Labour regards the main role of unions as “negotiation and dispute resolution”—in the words of an accompanying document to the bill.
Tellingly, the government makes clear that it isn’t repealing legislation limiting unofficial industrial action because it fears more would take place. But this is how the campaign for union recognition at Amazon began, with an unofficial walkout over pay in August 2022.
Unofficial and solidarity action—when workers strike in solidarity with another group—was the sort of activity that built the trade union movement in the first place. And strong shopfloor organisation made Britain a slightly more equal place in the 1970s, before the Tories began their assault on organised labour.
The Employment Rights Bill ends some of the worst restrictions on workers’ organisation imposed by the Tories, but it also shows the limits of Labour’s vision.
It doesn’t go far enough.
Labour’s Employment Rights Bill, which is currently making its way through parliament, is fairly extensive and should make employment lawyers busier than they’ve been for a while. But it isn’t necessarily comprehensive.
A number of measures are also welcome, especially after the attacks of the Tory years. Top of this list is the repealing of one of the the biggest barriers the Tories put in the way of effective industrial action—the Trade Union Act of 2016.
Here, the Bill proposes that a simple majority will be enough for a valid yes vote in a strike ballot, instead of the 50 percent turnout threshold required by the Tory rules.
The Bill will make union recognition easier in several ways. It could strengthen measures aimed at stopping bosses undermining workers figthing for union recognition. This includes bosses using large-scale recruitment to scupper recognition campaigns.
That’s what Amazon did when it brought in 1,300 new workers to dilute the GMB union’s membership, ending any recognition bid for the moment.
Other elements of the Bill aim to make it harder for employers to impose zero hours contracts. And a new requirement for bosses to draw up Equality Action Plans, showing how they intend to reduce gender and other pay gaps, also seems promising.
But much of the Bill brings to mind what the great Irish satirist Jonathan Swift said about the law— or, more precisely, the loopholes in the law.
“Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let hornets and wasps break through,” he wrote.
The Bill’s main weaknesses lie here—and in what it doesn’t cover. A widely trailed promise to introduce electronic balloting is missing. Instead the government has promised a “round table” with various experts.
But this sounds like kicking it into the long grass, presumably for fear that it would actually make organising industrial action easier.
The Bill also includes concessions to bosses. In particular, Labour has weakened a move to make unfair dismissal a “right from day one” rather than the present two years.
Instead, the Bill includes a “light touch” procedure for dismissals during an “initial period” which could be as long as nine months.
Socialists see unions places where workers can learn to fight for a better world. In contrast, Labour regards the main role of unions as “negotiation and dispute resolution”—in the words of an accompanying document to the bill.
Tellingly, the government makes clear that it isn’t repealing legislation limiting unofficial industrial action because it fears more would take place. But this is how the campaign for union recognition at Amazon began, with an unofficial walkout over pay in August 2022.
Unofficial and solidarity action—when workers strike in solidarity with another group—was the sort of activity that built the trade union movement in the first place. And strong shopfloor organisation made Britain a slightly more equal place in the 1970s, before the Tories began their assault on organised labour.
The Employment Rights Bill ends some of the worst restrictions on workers’ organisation imposed by the Tories, but it also shows the limits of Labour’s vision.
It doesn’t go far enough.
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