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Labour’s Employment Rights Bill is set to fundamentally improve work for the millions of workers stuck on exploitative short and zero-hours contracts.
But it’s not a done deal — key hurdles still need to be overcome to deliver what we promised at the last election. Not least the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats who have been working together in the House of Lords to try to weaken the bill.
Labour went into the last election promising change, and a key part of that change was the Employment Rights Bill. Through protection from unfair dismissal, ending exploitative zero-hours contracts, strengthening redundancy rights and sick pay, and making a raft of rights apply from day one, this change will deliver stability and security for working people.
But in the commons these measures faced opposition from the Conservatives and Reform, and in the Lords this opposition continued, with an alliance of Conservative and Lib Dem peers weakening the crucial measures around guaranteed hours.
Currently, flexibility in our labour market is far too one-sided, overwhelmingly favouring employers. Workers on zero and short hours contracts are left vulnerable to sudden changes in income and are expected to be available for work at very short notice, without any guarantee that any work will actually be available.
The proliferation of one-sided flexibility has had a profound impact on workers’ lives and is undoubtedly one of the most damaging labour market developments of the past 14 years.
A survey from my trade union Usdaw heard from staff who regularly worked far beyond their contracted hours, being turned down for a full-time contract. Members spoke of living with the anxiety of not knowing how much money they will have at the end of every week, struggling to arrange childcare and being forced to disrupt their children’s education, being turned down for mortgages because their contract doesn’t reflect the hours they work, and having to rely on foodbanks to get bridge the gaps where they don’t have work – despite having two zero-hours contract jobs.
And we need to be clear, not everyone on a zero-hours contracts is casually picking up a bit of extra cash here and there. The latest Labour Force Survey showed that over a million people in the UK are on a zero-hours contract, with further analysis from the TUC finding that nearly half those had been in their current job for over two years.
It’s about time this exploitative practice was brought to an end – and that’s what Labour’s Employment Rights Bill sets out to do.
The bill will make sure that everyone has the right to have a guaranteed hours contract – a contract that reflects the hours you actually work.
This means that if you want to remain on a zero-hours contract, if that works better for you, then you can. But if you want the security of those guaranteed hours, hours that you are already working and the consistent income that comes from them, then they’re yours.
These new protections could transform the lives of millions of workers, providing them with a stable foundation on which to build their lives around. But there are two big hurdles still to overcome.
First, when the Employment Rights Bill returns to the commons from the Lords today, we need to make sure the Conservative and Liberal Democrat amendments are voted down.
In a move that will dismay working people, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have got the old coalition band back together, amending the bill in the House of Lords so that those on zero and short hours contracts now just have a “right to request” guaranteed hours.
This is not a minor change. It leaves the door open for unscrupulous employers to use pressure or coercion to deter requests, and for many, will completely undermine the new right. It will also put this crucial measure out of reach of those who simply aren’t aware of their rights.
Secondly, with so much of the detail yet to be decided in secondary legislation, we need to make sure we get this right. We cannot allow any loopholes and must ensure everyone is entitled to a contract that reflects the hours they regularly work.
This evening, workers across the country are counting on MPs to do the right thing and protect the new right to a guaranteed hours contract.
This was a major manifesto pledge for Labour. Delivering job and financial security must be a key aim of this government. There’s still work to do to make sure we get this right, but if we can end exploitative short and zero-hours contracts, the impact on the economy and the lives of workers up and down the country will be transformative.
This debate is not business versus workers as the Conservatives would have us believe, and it’s not about empty rhetoric and false promises that are all Reform have contributed to the debate. It’s about an economy that delivers for everyone through productivity and security.
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The post Michael Wheeler: ‘We must not let a Tory-Lib Dem alliance weaken the workers’ rights bill’ appeared first on Politics.co.uk.
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