{"id":150760,"date":"2024-10-09T19:35:04","date_gmt":"2024-10-09T19:35:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/09\/labours-new-deal-for-workers-a-fight-postponed\/"},"modified":"2024-10-09T19:35:04","modified_gmt":"2024-10-09T19:35:04","slug":"labours-new-deal-for-workers-a-fight-postponed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/09\/labours-new-deal-for-workers-a-fight-postponed\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour’s new deal for workers: A fight postponed?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Labour’s<\/div>


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\"GettyGetty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
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After a torrid few weeks, Labour now has the opportunity to get on the front foot, and deliver on a major election pledge.<\/p>\n

The government will fulfil their promise to bring forward legislation on workers\u2019 rights within 100 days.<\/p>\n

But in some cases employees will have to wait nearer to 1,000 days to enjoy new rights.<\/p>\n

The new Employment Bill, to be published on Thursday, apparently will run to 150 pages.<\/p>\n

But despite the length, much of the devilish detail is yet to be decided.<\/p>\n

Keir Starmer\u2019s “changed” Labour Party has promised to be both pro-worker and pro business.<\/p>\n

Trying to strike that balance means there will be further consultation on some of the bill\u2019s key components.<\/p>\n

Behind the scenes there has been a series of “roundtables” involving ministers, union officials \u2013 and sometimes their leaders \u2013 and business groups.<\/p>\n

But one participant told the BBC that while there had been engagement with a broad range of groups, there had been little genuine consultation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The legislation \u2013 as Labour has promised \u2013 will represent the biggest uplift in workers\u2019 rights in a generation.<\/p>\n

To be fair, this claim could be honoured just by abolishing Conservative legislation requiring minimum turnouts in strike ballots and minimum service levels during industrial action.<\/p>\n

But many new measures won\u2019t be introduced swiftly.<\/p>\n

The bill itself is not expected to pass into law until June or July next year.<\/p>\n

Consultations will continue on some issues beyond this – with changes implemented subsequently in secondary legislation.<\/p>\n

And new rights to challenge unfair dismissal will not come in to effect until autumn 2026.<\/p>\n

One business group has told the BBC they will continue to push their case during the consultation periods \u2013 “there will still be a fight, but the fight has been postponed”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Probation period<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Unions have asked for \u2013 and will be given \u2013 new rights for workers from day one of their employment.<\/p>\n

This includes rights to sick pay, parental leave and to claim unfair dismissal.<\/p>\n

The Federation of Small Businesses has pointed out that their members \u2013 rather than bigger companies \u2013 are likely to find this new regime the most difficult to cope with.<\/p>\n

They don\u2019t have big HR departments, and they can struggle to cover staff absences.<\/p>\n

The small business group will continue to argue that anything that makes it more risky to employ new workers will be bad for growth.<\/p>\n

Politically, that will make it more difficult for Labour to claim they are now the party of business and not just the unions.<\/p>\n

So while there will be a right from the first day in work to claim unfair dismissal, the compromise the government has hatched is a “statutory probation period,” during which time it will be easier for employers to dismiss someone “fairly” than it would be after the probation period expires.<\/p>\n

There would be a “lower bar” for employers, as one source close to the discussions put it.<\/p>\n

The length of the probation period would be between six and 12 months \u2013 with the precise length to be battled over during a period of consultation.<\/p>\n

Businesses are pressing for longer – and at least one union is calling for no probation period at all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Demonstrators outside Parliament protesting the employment practices of P&O ferries<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Zero-hours contracts<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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There are other areas where attempts to be both pro-business and pro-worker will come under strain.<\/p>\n

There will be an ongoing debate over the proposal to ban “exploitative” zero-hours contracts.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s plan is that once an employee establishes a pattern of regular working over a 12 week period, an employer would be obliged to offer a regular contract of employment.<\/p>\n

Workers who prefer zero hours would be able to refuse – there will be no obligation to accept.<\/p>\n

Some business groups would prefer this to be “a right to request” rather than an obligation.<\/p>\n

The Unite union is not pleased as it thinks that the word “exploitative\u2019 will be used as loophole by some companies.<\/p>\n

And Unite is also concerned that the practice of “fire and rehire” – getting rid of workers and re-employing them on lower pay and\/or terms and conditions \u2013 will still be allowed in exceptional circumstances.<\/p>\n

The union is describing this as a “bad bosses\u2019 charter”.<\/p>\n

But for some companies, they will claim that new restrictions could make them unviable – and that poorer pay is better than no job for workers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Too difficult?<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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A whole range of measures flagged in Labour\u2019s pre-election “Making Work Pay” document<\/a> \u2013 the supposed blueprint for the legislation – have been put in the “too difficult” box for the time being.<\/p>\n

This includes measures to make it easier to ensure equal pay between in-house and “contracted out” staff who do similar jobs in public services.<\/p>\n

There was also a commitment to create a “single status of worker” \u2013 in part to protect people who are technically self-employed but in fact largely work for one employer but with fewer entitlements than employees.<\/p>\n

This is seen as legally complex and will be dealt with separately from Thursday\u2019s legislation.<\/p>\n

And the “right to switch off” phones, emails and texts at the end of the working day won\u2019t necessarily be a “right” after all.<\/p>\n

Instead, it\u2019s likely the government will ask employers to come forward with “a code of conduct”. The measure won\u2019t be in the bill.<\/p>\n

When the bill is unveiled, Labour will hope that discordant voices – from Unite on the one hand to the Federation of Small Businesses on the other \u2013 are muffled by the sound of approval from most unions.<\/p>\n

Many will hail a rebalancing of the relationship between employer and employee.<\/p>\n

But when the applause dies down, behind closed doors many arguments will continue over many months.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s unclear who will triumph when long periods of consultation close.<\/p>\n

But for now, Labour will hope that the mere existence of new legislation will indicate the party does intend to honour its promise of “change”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Getty Images After a torrid few weeks, Labour now has the opportunity to get on the front foot, and deliver on a major election pledge. The government will fulfil their promise to bring forward legislation on workers\u2019 rights within 100 days. But in some cases employees will have to wait nearer to 1,000 days to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[2294,4822,1980,15259,2252],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150760"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150760"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":150762,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150760\/revisions\/150762"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}