The government has been warned that the forthcoming Employment Rights Bill may undermine key worker protections on International Workers’ Day today.
The legislation, which is currently at committee stage in the House of Lords, promises to considerably strengthen workers’ rights.
But the Institute of Employment Rights (IER) think tank has conducted an analysis highlighting major shortcomings in the draft legislation.
Labour has said the Bill will “end” fire and rehire. But the IER argues that it will still allow employers to dismiss and re-engage staff under vaguely defined “likely financial difficulties,” without any requirement for independent verification of those claims.
Similar promises were made to stop exploitative zero-hours contracts, but the IER says that loopholes could still allow insecure work to continue through bogus self-employment and short-term contracts.
Economists and legal experts recently issued a letter rejecting the business lobby claims that the Bill would harm economic growth.
One of the signatories, Professor Ozlem Onaran, said:
“Britain was a pioneer in labour legislation and history shows that stronger employment rights contribute to economic stability rather than hinder it. The notion that protecting workers harms growth is not supported by serious economic research.”
The IER warned that without improvements to the Bill, Britain risks falling short of its obligations under International Labour Organization (ILO) and Council of Europe standards.
IER director James Harrison said:
“International Workers’ Day serves to remind us of the need for greater power distributed to working people, which happens through a trade union movement that is free to organise in workplaces and bargain collectively on behalf of workers.
The Employment Rights Bill unfortunately doesn’t appear to deliver on the significant promises originally made by the Labour Party’s Plan to Make Work Pay.
Unless the legislation is tightened or significantly built upon, it’s future generations of workers who will pay the price.
Improving workers’ rights in a meaningful way, and making the UK compliant with international labour standards already ratified by Parliament, should not be contentious issues for the UK government.”
The Indian Workers Association (GB) also supported calls to strengthen workers’ rights, emphasising the particular vulnerabilities faced by migrant labourers.
Among its demands is for the establishment of an independent body to investigate and prevent exploitation and abuse of migrant workers, including visa scams, especially in precarious sectors like hospitality and care work.
A government spokesperson said:
“Through our Plan for Change, we are delivering the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation, which will put an end to unscrupulous fire-and-rehire practices and end exploitative zero-hours contracts.
Our measures already have strong support among the public and, as bosses know, they should never deny people their employment rights by claiming someone is self-employed when they are not.”
This article was first published by the Morning Star. We thank them for their kind permission to reproduce it here.
