Group of doctors makes opioid crisis policy recommendations to Alberta government

A group of doctors has a few recommendations on how to tackle Alberta's opioid poisoning crisis.

VOTE NDP IN 2023

© (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)

FILE - This June 17, 2019, file photo shows 5-mg pills of Oxycodone.

Morgan Black -

GLOBAL NEWS

The Edmonton Zone Medical Staff Association's opioid poisoning committee says it would like to see the province broaden access to supervised consumption sites, focus on providing a supply of regulated drugs to people and also work with the federal government to decriminalize small amounts of drugs for personal use.

"There are no silver bullets," Dr. Ginetta Salvalaggio said on Thursday. "It has to be considered as a problem that requires multiple interventions. They have to be implemented as a package."

The doctors also noted data can be a critical tool in the crisis. The committee wants the province to include more frequent updates and specific neighbourhood locations. Salvalaggio noted that kind of data was included in more frequent reports until 2020.

"The public doesn't have the data they need to mobilize in an effective response," Salvalaggio said. "We applaud the (province's) efforts to optimize the Alberta Substance Use Surveillance System. We do know that the platform has the potential to be more powerful."

In a statement to Global Edmonton, the spokesperson for the associate ministry of mental health and addictions said the Alberta government's data is confirmed through toxicology reports through the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner prior to publishing.

"We have no interest in publishing unverified data," Eric Engler said.

In response to the committee's other recommendations, Engler said the province is awaiting its own "safe supply" report, but doesn't view the program favourably.

"(Our select special committee) heard from a variety of experts on this issue, many of whom have made clear that there is no evidence to support this practice, and in fact there is a mountain of evidence that shows the more opioids there are in the community, the more harms the community suffers," he said.

Read more:

NDP members resign from Alberta safe drug supply committee, calling it a ‘political stunt’

When it comes to decriminalization, the spokesperson said "while Alberta’s government does not believe in criminalizing a health-care issue, you cannot simply take away penalties and expect things to get better."

The province is currently working with Boyle Street Community Services to set up a new overdose prevention service.

Read more:

Alberta talking with social agencies about opening overdose prevention sites

The opioid poisoning committee said its recommendations follow consultations with front-line and policy experts, people who use drugs and their family members as well as available peer-reviewed literature and epidemiology.

In 2021, Alberta recorded 1,771 poisoning deaths. It is the deadliest year ever recorded in the province.

CANNABIS CANADA

Feds to establish industry panel for legal cannabis sector

By David George-Cosh

Canada’s cannabis industry is finally getting an audience with Ottawa.

More than three years after Canada legalized cannabis, the government plans to form a strategic panel led by the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development aimed at engaging with industry participants and other stakeholders to help grow the country’s domestic legal marijuana industry.

The measures will likely be welcomed by industry executives and advocates who have complained about a lack of interest from Ottawa in fixing regulations that have weighed on Canada’s licensed cannabis producers, many of whom have struggled to make a profit.

“Today's budget recognizes the scale and impact of Canada's cannabis sector,” said George Smitherman, chief executive officer of the Cannabis Council of Canada and a former Ontario health minister.

“The amendments to the cannabis excise duty framework are both technical and consequential for many license holders and the promised launch of a cannabis industry strategy table at ISED is a means for our sector to contribute more to the public health, social and economic goals for Canada.”

Health Canada is tasked with coordinated a mandated review of the Cannabis Act, the legislation that legalized recreational cannabis sales in Canada, but has yet to formally begin that process. Industry participants have stated their need to address several regulations in the legislation, namely potency levels on cannabis products such as edibles, excise tax amendments and clarifying inconsistent lab testing standards which would all help drive away illicit operators from selling to consumers. The review of the Cannabis Act is slated to be completed a year from now.

In addition to establishing the industry group, the Finance Ministry plans to amend several cannabis-related excise tax regulations that include allowing duty payments to be made on a quarterly basis, transferring excise stamps between licensed producers, and penalty provisions on lost excise stamps. Ottawa also plans to continue working with Indigenous groups to create a potential fuel, alcohol, cannabis, and tobacco sales tax framework for those communities.

N.L. budget forecasts $351M deficit, drop in oil revenues

Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press

An iceberg is seen just outside of the Narrows of St. John's Harbour on Friday, June 13, 2014. , The Canadian Press

Newfoundland and Labrador forecast a $351-million deficit in its budget tabled on Thursday, projecting a significant drop in oil royalties for the 2022-23 fiscal year at a time when oil prices are skyrocketing.

Provincial net debt is to hit $17.1 billion, which works out to about $32,700 per person in the province of about 522,500 people.

The budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year shows the province has steadily slashed its deficit over the past two years. The shortfall for the previous fiscal year was $400 million, down from a projected $826 million last spring. The deficit for 2020-21 was $1.5 billion.

Called “Change is in the air,” this year's $9.42-billion budget unveils a commitment to amalgamate the province’s four regional health authorities and increase spending in health and education. 

Finance Minister Siobhan Coady summed up the budget with one word: “Balance.” 

With no increase in taxes and a 50 per cent cut to vehicle registration costs, the budget strikes an even keel between hammering down the provincial debt and helping residents weather the increasing cost of living, Coady told reporters.

“We don’t want to have austerity budgets," she said during a news conference in St. John’s. "We want to get to a place where Newfoundland and Labrador is sustainable."

The province has long struggled with staggering debts and deficits, but Coady said Thursday her government is on track to hit a surplus in the 2026-27 fiscal year. That forecast “will only get better,” she said, as the province works out a benefits agreement for a controversial new oil project approved by Ottawa.

Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault green-lit Equinor’s Bay du Nord offshore development project on Wednesday evening, despite vehement opposition from climate scientists and environmentalists.

Meanwhile, the budget projects some of the lowest oil revenues the province has seen in years. Oil royalties — at about $866 million — will account for just 10 per cent of the province’s revenues in the 2022-23 fiscal year, down from $1.14 billion last fiscal year. By comparison, in a peak year like 2011-12, oil accounted for 32 per cent of the province’s income, budget documents say.

The dip in oil revenue is the result of a drop in production, which Energy Minister Andrew Parsons largely attributed to planned maintenance and shutdowns in the province’s four oilfields.

Health Minister John Haggie said the decision to fold the four provincial health authorities into one was driven largely by a desire for efficiency and better care.

“This is about enhancing front-line services and spending our money wisely,” Haggie told reporters. He couldn't put a figure on how much money the province might save from the amalgamation, which he said was likely to happen within the next 18 months.

The budget earmarks $14 million for efforts to recruit and retain nurses and doctors, and it includes $10 million to overhaul the emergency room at the Health Sciences Centre in St. John’s. The Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association has said around 90,000 people in the province are without a family doctor.

The province is seeing an increase in K-12 students for the first time in decades, with an expected jump in enrolment of about 1,000 children. The budget allotted an extra $11.6 million for teaching services to meet that demand.

Coady said the population has jumped by about 2,800 people — a big number in a province used to residents moving away for better jobs and deaths outpacing births. Pandemic-related remote work options have allowed some of those people to move home, she said. 

With $1 million in the budget for “immediate supports” for Ukrainian refugees who choose to settle in Newfoundland and Labrador, she said the government hopes the province's population will continue to rise.

Tony Wakeham, finance critic for the Progressive Conservatives, said he would have liked to see more spending on efforts to ease the cost of living for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, even if it means taking a smaller bite out of the deficit.

The NDP, meanwhile, says the province needs to start addressing the root causes of poverty and take the idea of a basic income program more seriously.

"Maybe there's a way we can deal with this long term, instead of coming up with these piecemeal measures," New Democrat Leader Jim Dinn said in an interview Thursday.

THE STATE HATES COMPETITION

US prosecutors say alleged yakuza boss planned to sell missiles to Myanmar rebels

Story by Reuters - 
CNN
© US Department of Justice


US authorities have arrested the alleged leader of a Japanese crime syndicate on charges of plotting to distribute drugs in the United States and purchase weapons including US-made surface-to-air missiles, according to prosecutors on Thursday.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said Takeshi Ebisawa, who they described as a leader in a network of Japanese crime families known as yakuza, and a co-conspirator agreed to buy the missiles for rebel groups in Myanmar during conversations with an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agent.

The weapons were intended to protect drug shipments, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Thursday. Ebisawa planned to distribute heroin and methamphetamine in the US, prosecutors said.

"The drugs were destined for New York streets, and the weapons shipments were meant for factions in unstable nations," Damian Williams, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement. "Members of this international crime syndicate can no longer put lives in danger."

Ebisawa, 57, and three alleged co-conspirators were detained in Manhattan this week on charges including narcotics importation conspiracy and conspiracy to possess firearms, according to prosecutors. A lawyer for Ebisawa did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Each of the four alleged co-conspirators face maximum sentences of life imprisonment.

 CAPITALI$M 101

Suncor shares go from first to worst in oil-sands boom

Geoffrey Morgan, Bloomberg News

Suncor Energy Inc., once Canada’s most valuable oil producer, is now seeing rivals outrun it in the stock market on the heels of the oil-price boom.

Over the past year, Suncor shares have risen 56 per cent. That’s less than half the gain for competitor Cenovus Energy Inc., which is up 125 per cent, and about half the 103 per cent advance for Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. Suncor is also the only Canadian oil-sands producer to underperform the rise in West Texas Intermediate crude prices during that time.

Analysts say the stock is being weighed down by a checkered operational track record compared with its rivals, including a fire that resulted in an injury at a refinery last month and fatal accidents in the last two years. Suncor also cut its production guidance at its Fort Hills oil sands mine in 2021 after finding slopes in the mine were not stable.

Rafi Tahmazian, a senior portfolio manager with Calgary-based Canoe Financial, said the stock was hurt by the company’s decision to slash its dividend during the pandemic, though it has since raised the payout back to 2019 levels.

“The market is looking for proverbial leadership” from Suncor, Tahmazian said.

Suncor has lagged even smaller oil sands names like MEG Energy Corp., which is up more than 270 per cent since the beginning of 2021. “You’re being compared against all ships rising,” Tahmazian said.

In an effort to boost performance, Calgary-based Suncor said Monday it would divest its wind and solar assets to focus on its oil-sands business as well as its hydrogen and renewable-fuels ventures -- the latest in a series of announcements that signal a sharper focus on core operations.

The company also replaced its executive vice-president of mining and upgrading, Mike MacSween, with former LNG Canada CEO Peter Zebedee in the middle of March. But investors say the stock’s performance won’t improve until the market has confidence it has ironed out its problems.

“It does take a while for operational improvements to show up,” said Brompton Group Chief Investment Officer Laura Lau.

She said Suncor is “benchmarked” against Canadian Natural, which has doubled its dividend since 2019 and has not experienced the same operational challenges as Suncor. Canadian Natural overtook Suncor to become the most valuable oil and gas producer in Canada last year.

“Why would I own Suncor when I can own Cenovus?” said Eric Nuttall, a senior portfolio manager at Ninepoint Partners, adding that a string of safety issues need to be addressed before the stock’s performance improves.

THE RICH ARE TAX CHEATS

Sunak’s Super-Rich Wife Exploits Tax Break to Cut U.K. Payments

WHICH IS THE HOW AND WHY OF THEIR WEALTH

Alex Morales, Bloomberg News

LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 09: Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and Akshata Murthy attend a reception to celebrate the British Asian Trust at The British Museum on February 09, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by Tristan Fewings/Getty Images) , Photographer: Tristan Fewings/Getty Images Europe

(Bloomberg) --

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murthy, holds non-domiciled status in the U.K., meaning she doesn’t pay British taxes on her foreign earnings. 

The tax status, first revealed by the Independent and confirmed in a statement by a spokesperson for Murthy, could potentially save Murthy millions of pounds over many years in U.K. tax payments. Murthy is the daughter of Indian billionaire, Infosys Ltd. co-founder Narayana Murthy, and she owns 0.93% of the company’s shares, according to Bloomberg data. That’s valued at almost $1 billion at current prices.

Murthy “is a citizen of India, the country of her birth and parent’s home,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “India does not allow its citizens to hold the citizenship of another country simultaneously. So, according to British law, Ms Murthy is treated as non-domiciled for U.K. tax purposes. She has always and will continue to pay U.K. taxes on all her U.K. income.”

While there is no suggestion the chancellor or his wife have broken any laws, the revelation will add to the perception that Sunak is out of touch with the struggles of ordinary Britons. The chancellor has been losing support of both the general public and within his own Conservative Party in recent weeks, after delivering a mini-budget in March that critics said doesn’t do enough to tackle a growing cost-of-living crisis.

Sunak declared Murthy’s tax status to the Cabinet Office when he first became a minister in 2018, and the Treasury was also made aware in order to manage any potential conflicts. Murthy has lived in the U.K. for nine years, and after 15 years in the country will automatically be deemed domiciled in Britain for tax purposes. She pays tax abroad on her foreign income.

Recent missteps by the chancellor seized upon by the British media include wearing an expensive pair of sneakers and filling a small car that wasn’t his own for a photo-opportunity to publicize a cut in fuel duty. In 2020, he was photographed with a 180-pound ($236) coffee cup as he finalized plans to prevent mass unemployment at the height of the pandemic. 

On Wednesday, a YouGov poll found that Sunak’s net favorability is down 24 points in the two weeks since he delivered his Spring Statement. His current score of minus 29 is the lowest he’s ever recorded. That came after a separate survey earlier in the week showed his popularity has slumped among Conservative Party members. 

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

 #BANHYPERSONICWEAPONS

To avoid tensions with Russia;

US secretly test-fires hypersonic missile in mid-March

TEHRAN, Apr. 05 (MNA) – The United States carried out a test-fire of a hypersonic missile in mid-March, but kept it secret in order to avoid tensions with Russia.

According to CNN, "The US successfully tested a hypersonic missile in mid-March but kept it quiet for two weeks to avoid escalating tensions with Russia as President Joe Biden was about to travel to Europe," where he was scheduled to participate in the extraordinary session of NATO as well as in the G7 summit.

The US-based television network reported referring to its anonymous defense official familiar with the matter that "the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) was launched from a B-52 bomber off the west coast…, in the first successful test of the Lockheed Martin version of the system. A booster engine accelerated the missile to high speed, at which point the air-breathing scramjet engine ignited and propelled the missile at hypersonic speeds of Mach 5 and above."

The defense official refused to give further details, according to CNN, and the agency only added that "the missile flew above 65,000 feet [over 19.8 kilometers] and for more than 300 miles [almost 483 kilometers]. But even at the lower end of the hypersonic range — about 3,800 miles per hour -, a flight of 300 miles is less than 5 minutes".

The US test is the second test of a HAWC missile, and it is the first of the Lockheed Martin version of the weapon. Last September, the Air Force tested the Raytheon HAWC, powered by a Northrop Grumman scramjet engine.

HINDUTVA/HINDU NATIONALISM IS NOT HINDUISM

 Islamophobia in India;

Notorious Indian priest urges Hindus to take up arms against Muslims

INDIA IS A SECULAR STATE

April 5, 2022 - 10:52 AM News Code : 1244905 Source : GeoLink: 

Yati Narsinghanand, the head priest of the Dasna Devi temple in Uttar Pradesh of India, claimed that 50% of Hindus would convert to Islam if a Muslim were to become the Prime Minister of India, Zee News reported.

AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Yati Narsinghanand, the head priest of the Dasna Devi temple in Uttar Pradesh of India, claimed that 50% of Hindus would convert to Islam if a Muslim were to become the Prime Minister of India, Zee News reported.

In a recent 'Hindu Mahapanchayat' attended by many Hindu supremacists, he also encouraged Hindus to hold arms to fight for themselves.

"If you want to change the future, become a man, man is the one who has arms in hand," Yati is heard saying in the video.

The priest warned the Hindu listeners against Muslim leadership in India in the future saying that Muslims in India had not come from "Arab" but from among them.

Journalist Mahmodul Hassan published a part of Narsinghanand's speech on Twitter.

The police said that the Delhi administration had not granted permission for the event.

Narsinghanand is notorious for making controversial and extremist comments against Muslims.

He was taken into custody earlier in the Haridwar hate speech case for which he got released on bail.

The group that organised this Mahapanchayat, Save India Foundation, has previously orchestrated events such as Jantar Mantar where anti-Muslim slogans were raised.

Preet Singh of Save India Foundation was even arrested by Delhi Police for hate speech.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for HINDUISM IS FASCISM 

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2006/10/hinduism-is-fascism.html

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Proposed Animal Protection Legislation Ignores Rights of LocalCommunities to Practice their Approach to Conservation

By Leslé Jansen

During the last couple of decades, the mountain gorilla population in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park has steadily increased to more than 400. 

Credit: UNEP / Kibuuka Mukisa

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Apr 5 2022 (IPS) - On the battleground that has become African wildlife conservation, rural communities find themselves in the middle of a tug-of-war that is bound to the past on one side, and their future, on the other.

And judging from political developments in former colonial power, Britain, these communities – the custodians of wildlife in several southern African countries – are holding fast in their fight to secure a future in which the power to use their natural resources for their own good, rest firmly in their hands.

The UK government intends passing anti-hunting legislation containing a ban on British hunters bringing their trophies home. For African communities that rely on so-called trophy hunting as a major source of income, such bans not only undermine their right to sustainably use and manage their wildlife, which includes hunting, to their benefit but also threaten their livelihoods.

And there’s evidence, as in the case of Kenya, that they harm conservation as well.

According to reports, the government no longer intends to introduce its Animals Abroad Bill in the current parliamentary session, citing a lack of parliamentary time. Similar planned legislative restrictions in the United States, intended to undermine hunting tourism in Africa, have also failed to materialise. There also now appears to be legislation proposals with a similar objective in the making in Italy and Belgium.

The hunting trophy import ban represents a conflict between two distinct schools of thought on conservation. One is an approach supported by African governments’ policies and international conservation authorities, which holds up the sustainable use of natural resources practices by hundreds of communities across several African countries.

The other, which has become increasingly popular in western nations and urban areas where people no longer have a direct link to the natural environment, holds animal rights and welfare as paramount, even to the detriment of the rights and welfare of the people responsible for the conservation of that wildlife.

While the legislative attempts in the UK, US and possibly now Europe as well, aimed at curbing so-called trophy hunting in Africa might reflect current Western notions of animal rights, they are way out of touch with current African thinking, international conservation bodies and treaties.

This broader view takes cognisance of the key role that indigenous people and local communities play in conserving their environment, and how ignoring their rights and customs has contributed to our current environmental crisis.

Rights that have been won the hard way are not easily relinquished. Current African governments that have successfully overturned colonial laws in favour of their citizens can therefore be expected to strongly resist all attempts to undermine these policies.

In the field of conservation, these policies include recognising the rights of rural African communities to use their wildlife sustainably. Sustainable use includes developing wildlife-based industries – including hunting and photographic tourism – that links these communities with global, high-value markets for African wildlife.

Colonialism decimated traditional systems, which existed for centuries, in which African communities lived with wildlife and used it in sustainable ways. These people suddenly became poachers of animals that overnight were no longer their property to use freely anymore.

Restoring the rights of rural communities to their natural resources is by no means straightforward. Many communities have been displaced from their former territories and in some cases need to rebuild their social and cultural norms and learn to work within modern policy frameworks.

Traditional relationships with nature have been disrupted as a consequence of historical upheavals and modern urbanisation trends. Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) is therefore a journey that communities and southern African governments have embarked upon in post-colonial era, towards the future of African conservation. Given the complexities of modern-day Africa, this journey will not be short or easy.

These devolution of rights efforts were given a recent boost from the African Union’s human rights agency, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, in the form of Resolution 489, which calls on African states and non-state actors to both recognise and support the rights of local communities to manage and use their resources sustainably.

This resolution was taken within the context of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights that affirms the rights of all peoples to “freely dispose of their wealth and natural resources” (Article 21) and their right to “economic, social and cultural development with due regard to their freedom and identity” (Article 22).

This hand of support comes at a time when this concept is being threatened on many fronts. The Namibian CBNRM programme, as the most advanced of its kind on the continent, has become a special target for those who seem to prefer the former colonial methods of animal protection that were imposed on Africans.

Similarly, the proposed anti-hunting legislation in the UK and the US focused on animal protection, while ignoring the rights of local communities to practice their approach to conservation.

The over-emphasis on hunting caused by this ideological battle detracts from the real issues that need to be urgently addressed if conservation in Africa is to succeed. As expressed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the global authority on the status of the natural world and measures needed to safeguard it, world authority and the African Commission, local communities are in desperate need of support from all stakeholders, especially in the wake of COVID-19.

Rather than poking holes in community conservation efforts or trying to impose romanticised ideas about animals on people living with wildlife, time and money would be far better spent on finding solutions to the many challenges faced by rural people.

Ultimately, the future of African wildlife will be determined by African people – especially those living in rural areas. These communities have faced human rights abuses and marginalisation for decades, so it behoves all state and non-state actors to provide the kind of support they need to fully exercise their rights.

Further, none of these supporting stakeholders should dictate how these rights should be exercised, but rather create an enabling environment that allows for democratic, informed decision-making at the lowest possible levels of governance.

Rather than opposing African nations that have active hunting industries, global North could become true partners in African conservation by supporting community conservation efforts. While African states must heed the call of Resolution 489 by enacting and implementing their own community conservation policies, this would be easier if the UK, the US and other governments supported them in these endeavours.

Given the current environmental crisis and the history of colonialism in Africa, creating barriers to community-based conservation is both counter-productive and unjust. Despite its many detractors, African community conservation is here to stay.

The only question that external stakeholders must answer is: Are you willing to put aside ideology in order to support African communities conserve their wildlife for the good of us all?

Leslé Jansen is CEO of Resource Africa Southern Africa, an NGO that supports rural African community efforts to secure their rights to access and sustainably use their natural resources in order to sustain their livelihoods.

IPS UN Bureau

UK

Unions furious as government intends to ditch promised new workers’ rights laws again


Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Kwasi Kwarteng


MORNINGSTAR 
MONDAY, APRIL 4, 2022

UNIONS reacted with fury yesterday to reports that the government intends to ditch promised new workers’ rights laws.

Ministers are reportedly planning to drop the long-awaited employment Bill from next month’s Queen’s Speech.

Downing Street is understood to have overruled the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which had been pushing for the legislation.

If the Bill is not announced it will be the second year in succession that ministers would have shelved their promise to introduce legislation to enhance workplace protections.

And it comes in the wake of the scandal over 800 workers being sacked without notice by P&O Ferries via Zoom call.

In a letter to Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng today TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady will warn the government that if it ditches the promised Bill “it will be sending a green light to rogue employers to treat staff like disposable labour.”

Ms O’Grady said: “After the scandalous events at P&O, which have exposed gaping holes in UK employment law, the need for new legislation has never been clearer or more urgent.

“There is no excuse for delay. If the government breaks its promise to enhance workers’ rights working people will have been conned and betrayed.

“It’s vital ministers come clean about their plans. In the wake of P&O the government can stand on the side of workers and legislate new protections. Or it can side with bad bosses and abandon its long overdue employment Bill.

“But let’s be crystal clear – without new laws to protect people at work there is nothing stopping P&O type scandals from happening again in the future.

“And the use of exploitative practices like fire and rehire and zero-hours contracts will continue to soar.

“Tinkering around the edges with feeble statutory codes is not going to rein in unscrupulous employers. We need proper legislation for that.”

Outlawing fire and rehire is a key target for trade unions. Last week transport unions RMT and Nautilus, whose members were brutally sacked by P&O, launched a Fair Ferries campaign which calls on the government to ban fire and rehire to stop “employers getting away with the most appalling employment practices.”

GMB union general secretary Gary Smith said: “To drop the Employment Bill after the disgraceful P&O sackings and widespread use of revolting fire and rehire tactics says everything about this government’s attitude to working people.

“In the face of spiralling energy bills, rampant inflation and a cost of living crisis, working people should be able to stand up for their rights at work and organise for better pay.”

Transport union TSSA general secretary Manuel Cortes said: “A leopard never changes its spots. Never trust the Tories to deliver for working people.”

Labour MP Andy McDonald, who introduced a ground-breaking Status of Workers Bill to the Commons in January, said: “Ministers wringing their hands when bullying companies threaten fire and rehire and berating P&O when they sack 800 workers illegally is utterly meaningless if they won’t legislate.”

Institute of Employment Rights director Ben Sellers told the Star: “We need a complete reassessment of how workers, especially those in precarious employment, are treated under the law.

“Any further delay in the employment Bill is a sure sign that the government is not serious.”

Business Minister Paul Scully has repeatedly given a commitment to an employment Bill.

He said: “Workers’ rights should be enhanced and protected, so we are absolutely committed to bringing forward an employment Bill that will help us to build back better and to protect vulnerable workers.”

A government spokesman said it is “committed to ensuring workers’ rights are robustly protected while also fostering a dynamic and flexible labour market.