Angela Rayner has pledged to work with trade unions to bring forward an Employment Rights Bill within 100 days of entering office in a ‘cast-iron commitment’ to delegates at the TUC Congress.
The new shadow deputy prime minister and strategic lead for Labour’s new deal for working people said: “With a cycle of insecure work, poor pay and grave conditions, recent scandals like P&O ferries show how bad bosses can undercut the market.
“This government hasn’t just turned their backs on vulnerable workers but our entire economy. Be in no doubt, Tory ministers are the only workers that can get fired and rehired on better terms and conditions.”
She promised to repeal trade union legislation introduced by the Conservative government and update balloting laws to bring them into the 21st century.
“For far too long, unions have had barriers put in the way of your work, damaging industrial relations and worsening disputes. The Tories pushed through the 2016 Trade Union Act, preventing fair bargaining and holding back living standards.
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“And this year they gave us the minimum service levels bill, a spiteful and bitter attack that threatens nurses with the sack. We know going on strike is always a last resort, but it’s a fundamental freedom that must be respected.”
She said that a new Labour government will ask Parliament to repeal these anti-trade union laws within its first 100 days so that unions would be better placed to negotiate for their members.
“I make no apologies that we will work hand-in-hand with trade unions, as we will work with business, to deliver a real partnership based on mutual respect, cooperation and negotiation,” added Rayner.
Rayner explained that Labour’s new deal for working people wasn’t created in an ivory tower by politicians, but developed in collaboration with the trade union movement.
Union reforms promised by Labour include outlawing the use of predictive technologies for blacklisting, closing the loophole that allows third parties to do employers’ “dirty work” for them, and giving employment tribunals the power to order the destruction of blacklists.
Labour would also give trade unions a new legal, reasonable right to access a workplace, as they can in Australia, New Zealand and the Nordic states.
“This will be underpinned,” said Rayner, “by a regulated legal framework. There will be clear responsibilities and rules for all sides to follow, allowing you to meet, represent, recruit and organise members so that you can get on with your jobs to build stronger, happier and more productive workplaces, without threat or menace from rogue employers.
“As we’ve seen with Amazon, a small minority of employers are taking advantage of the lack of regulations to frustrate the process. This is neither fair to workers nor productive to our wider economy and it only frustrates disputes, making it harder to come to a resolution. Good employers know the value of a trade union.”
Labour would simplify trade union recognition to ensure that gig economy and remote workers can meaningfully organise through trade unions and it would modernise regulations to allow unions to use electronic balloting when engaging their members, including for workplace ballots.
“We’ll boost collective bargaining, both at a firm level and sectorally, starting with a Fair Pay Agreement in adult social care,” pledged Rayner. “We will empower workers, the trade unions that represent them and employers in this sector to negotiate fair pay, terms and conditions – like training, in-staff benefits and more.”
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “The country clearly would be better off with a Labour government. There is no doubt.”
“That said, as the general secretary of Unite, my job is to fight for workers and ensure Labour commits to making the lives of working people better. As with all things the devil will be in the detail and the words on the page. There can be no backtracking on the agreed workers’ rights. Britain is hurting and Labour needs to be bold.”
Unison general secretary Christina McAnea said: “Creating fairer workplaces with better job security for all will make the world of difference. As will an environment where unions are no longer demonised by the government.
“Bringing strike ballots into the digital age is long overdue. As are fair pay agreements to boost the wages of the lowest paid, starting with social care.”
Other Labour policy included: day-one basic rights, a ban on zero-hours contracts, an end to fire and rehire, “family friendly working”, and better sick pay for all workers including the lowest earners from day one.
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