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.
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