Unite, one of the UK’s largest trade unions, has said the government’s Employment Rights Bill ‘stops short of making work pay’.
Unite said there were some positive steps forward in the Bill, such as new individual rights and the cancellation of “unjust” laws such as the Minimum Service Levels Act, but it claimed there was a failure by ministers to ban zero-hours contracts and fire and rehire.
Unite, which along with Unison, has one of the largest memberships of any union in the UK, said it was also concerned about watering down of rules allowing workers to have access to trade unions. The unions said it believed that the single best way to ensure that work paid more fairly was by expanding collective bargaining and that this would lead to a 2.8% rise in GDP by encouraging workers to spend more in their local communities.
Unison’s leader struck a noticeably more positive tone about the Bill than Unite’s Sharon Graham.
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The Unite general secretary welcomed the Bill but was quick to express some disappointment with it. She said: “This Bill is without doubt a significant step forward for workers but stops short of making work pay.
“The end to draconian laws like Minimum Service Levels and the introduction of new individual rights, for example on bereavement leave, will be beneficial. But the Bill still ties itself up in knots trying to avoid what was promised. Failure to end fire and rehire and zero-hours contracts once and for all will leave more holes than Swiss cheese that hostile employers will use.
“The Bill also fails to give workers the sort of meaningful rights to access a union for pay bargaining that would put more money in their pockets and, in turn, would aid growth.
“Unite will continue to make the workers’ voice heard as we push for improvements to the legislation as the Bill goes through parliament.”
General secretary of Unison, Christina McAnea said: “At last the lives of millions of employees across the UK look set to change for the better. The Bill lays the groundwork for a brighter future for everyone at work.
“There’ll be improved protection from the first day in a job and more family-friendly roles. Bad bosses won’t be able to exploit at whim using dodgy ‘fire and rehire’ tactics, and it’ll be easier for unions to offer support to all employees.
“The means to create a fair pay agreement to increase wages for care workers in England is game-changing. It’s an historic first step towards transforming a sector that’s been neglected and ignored for far too long. The result will make a world of difference to people who need care and to their families too.
The bill marks a sea-change in industrial relations after years of worsening workers’ rights and unnecessary hostility towards unions” – Christina McAnea, Unison
“The two-tier workforce will be no more, with penny-pinching employers no longer able to treat outsourced workers less favourably than everyone else.
“A new body to negotiate pay for school support staff will bring a much-needed boost for the low-paid, mostly female workforce and attract recruits into currently hard-to-fill roles.
“The bill marks a sea-change in industrial relations after years of worsening workers’ rights and unnecessary hostility towards unions. It’ll stop employees being penalised for going on strike and bring union ballots into the digital age.
She acknowledged that details would need to be fine-tuned: “There’s still much work to do. But the government has stuck to its pledge to overhaul working life, a huge achievement in less than100 days.”
It is interesting to read the compromises in the Bill and it is a particular surprise to see nine months as the suggested probationary period rather than six months” – Michael Powner, Charles Russel Speechlys
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak, while striking a more welcoming tone, also referred to the unfinished nature of the proposals: “While there is still detail to be worked through, this bill signals a seismic shift away from the Tories’ low-pay, low-rights, low-productivity economy.”
The Bill’s caution, as perceived by Sharon Graham, was also spotted by Michael Powner, employment partner at Charles Russell Speechlys. He said: “It is interesting to read the compromises in the Bill and it is a particular surprise to see nine months as the suggested probationary period rather than six months. Much of the detail remains subject to consultation but it is not as radical as many of the unions were looking for and even a caveat on the much publicised fire and rehire proposals which won’t apply if there is a danger of collapse.”
Further reforms, such as a right to switch off, single worker status and ethnicity pay gap reporting remain in the pipeline and will be published as part of other Bills or via separate guidance and codes of practice.
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