Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner has stated that the cabinet is fully behind the Employment Rights Bill after fears that businesses and some senior Labour politicians have been trying to dilute it.
Recent promises to remove regulations and boost growth stemming from chancellor Rachel Reeves have appeared to be odds with measures such as creating a Fair Work Agency.
However, Rayner has confirmed that plans to bolster workers’ rights will be protected from any plans to remove regulations deemed as obstructive to economic growth, adding that business leaders who were sceptical about the proposals ought to “get on board” because the measures would actually support economic growth.
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She told the Guardian newspaper that the bill would spread the benefits of growth to more people: “Absolutely the cabinet is united on it, because they understand this is pro-worker and pro-business as well.
“The prime minister was really clear on this in his speech earlier this year, that people have to feel the growth. You can’t have growth that is over there somewhere, and ordinary working people can’t see it.
“There’s no point in us as a Labour government in the next general election, saying, look at these wonderful [growth] figures. We’ve done all this investment, and then people can’t see that in their communities, but with nothing to show for it.”
However, according to the Financial Times, some senior Labour figures are seeking to soften the reforms in an effort to bolster business confidence – in the face of TUC and union opposition.
Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, for example, told an event on growth on Thursday: “I said that we would never introduce changes that would make it harder for firms to hire with confidence. And this is precisely why my department is consulting on many of the key aspects of our Make Work Pay reforms.”
With consultations now largely over it is thought likely that ministers will announce amendments to the Bill late next month. The government maintains that the aim of the tweaks will be to clarify rather than dilute the plans.
Rayner said strengthening workers’ rights would boost productivity, and reduce sickness levels. She was attending an event hosted by Julian Richer, founder of the Richer Sounds hi-fi chain, to mark the fifth anniversary of his Good Business Charter accreditation scheme. More than 1,000 firms – including Aviva, Legal & General and TSB – are signed up to the scheme, which includes committing to pay the real living wage and offering fair hours and contracts.
Richer said: “Please remind me which religion or moral code endorses paying workers below a real living wage, or accepts the uncertainty or misery zero-hours contracts cause when imposed on workers against their will? Over half of FTSE 100s now pay it. So clearly I’m not some maverick soft-touch benevolent philanthropist.”
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