“Socialists must work to put maximum leverage on the Labour government to go further, repealing all the anti-union laws.”
In our Red Weekly column, Fraser McGuire writes on the shortcomings of the Employment Rights Bill and why it’s an opportunity that risks being squandered.
After years of anti-union laws, and the longest stagnation in wages since Napoleonic times, Labour’s Employment Rights Bill, which was introduced and passed its second reading in October 2024, should be a key opportunity to turn the tide. After years of anti-union laws, and the longest stagnation in wages since Napoleonic times, there is a great need to hand power back to workers and strip away the authoritarian restrictions on trade unions.
The stakes for handing power back to workers has never been higher. Reform and other far-right organisations thrive in the political vacuum left by the legacy of deindustrialisation, austerity, and privatisation that have ravaged communities in every part of the country and are able to set the agenda on many issues every time the Government fails to enact genuinely transformative policies.
While not a panacea, every victory against anti-union laws provides workers the breathing space to rebuild trade union membership, develop the strategies needed to strengthen the wider labour movement as we face an ongoing international onslaught by the billionaire class, and build the power needed to fight for socialist alternatives.
But, in the context of Rachel Reeves heading to Davos to assure the world’s richest the Government is on their side, there is a growing realisation across the labour movement that the Employment Rights Bill as it stands suffers from significant shortcomings on several fronts.
For example, as it is currently formulated, it doesn’t do enough to protect precarious workers and those in the gig economy. One of the most significant failings relates to the rights of workers to have guaranteed hours included in their contracts. Insecurity around working hours – and therefore pay – can massively contribute to the mental health crisis already facing many workers, especially younger people. Additionally, a lack of guaranteed hours can increase social and financial stresses, making it harder for workers to plan their lives in relation to regular payments such as rent, food shops, and travel.
The Government has said that the legislation will only end ‘exploitative’ zero-hours contracts, despite an original commitment by Labour earlier in 2024 to outlaw them entirely. This failure can be seen with provisions in the bill that allow workers to ‘opt-in’ to zero-hours contracts. The decision ignores the fundamental power imbalance which is present in precarious workplaces, which are also much less likely to have union recognition. Anyone with experience in insecure work or the gig economy will have experienced the imbalanced power relationship present between management and workers, which often also leads to workers not challenging illegal decisions.
Young workers in particular are overlooked by this shortcoming, being the most likely to be in low paid and precarious work, on zero-hours contracts, and least likely to be in workplaces with a recognised trade union. The decision not to ban all zero-hours contracts will open these workers to being pressured into accepting a contract without guaranteed hours or security. To go further, the Government must introduce legislation to give all workers a minimum number of guaranteed hours from day one.
It is also crucial that the bill brings in a full package of rights from day one for all workers – including sick pay, maternity and paternity pay, and protection against unfair dismissal – which will protect union activists in sectors like retail, delivery, and hospitality. All have a high turnover of staff, with many not reaching the two-year threshold required for protection under Tory legislation.
There must also be a major drive to scrap all anti-union legislation. Anti-trade union laws introduced since the 1980s – which include restrictions on the right to picket, measures to prevent workers from one union taking strike action in support of other unions, ballots and barriers for industrial action, and threats to fine or seize the assets of unions – have become part of the legislative furniture in the UK.
While many Labour MPs are happy to make negative references to Thatcher, fewer are willing to call for the overturning of the repressive legislation she introduced. As inequality skyrockets and ever more workers are forced into poverty, bold action is needed to put power back in the hands of workers through the repeal of all, and not only the most recent, restrictive anti-union laws.
Several MPs have brought amendments to strengthen the legislation, aiming to tackle oversights in key areas. For example, Richard Burgon is campaigning to reintroduce the Equality Act questionnaires the Tories abolished, which empowered workers to tackle workplace discrimination, and Apsana Begum has tabled an amendment to introduce statutory paid leave for survivors of domestic abuse, ensuring that survivors will have guaranteed safety and security at work.
Socialists must work to put maximum leverage on the Labour government to go further, repealing all the anti-union laws and expanding employment rights provisions, including ensuring that the Employment Rights Bill is not further watered down in Parliamentary committees.
The stakes for workers having the power to organise have never been higher. Reform and other far-right organisations thrive in the political vacuum left by the legacy of deindustrialisation, austerity, and privatisation that have ravaged communities in every part of the country. They are able to set the agenda on many issues every time the Government fails to enact genuinely transformative policies. Squandering the opportunity to offer a truly transformative agenda on workers’ rights – and reneging yet again on promises made before the General Election – would only play further into their hands.
Many young people are correctly identifying that the current employment system is rigged against them, and a failure by the Government to re-empower workers and repeal anti-union laws will risk seeing ever higher numbers of workers turn to the scapegoat arguments of the far-right. Providing better workers’ rights, well paid, secure jobs for young workers, alongside ending exploitative employment practices as seen in the gig economy, will act as an antidote to Reform and the steady growth of far-right radicalisation in youth spaces.
For our movement, the Employment Rights Bill cannot be seen as an end in itself -and certainly not in its current form. We must make the case for real workers’ rights as part of a wider programme for fundamentally changing the balance of wealth and power in our society, restructuring our economy so that it puts people and planet, not profits, first.
- The Red Weekly Column will appear each Monday on Labour Outlook from one of our regular socialist contributors.
- Fraser McGuire is the Chair of East Midlands Unite Hospitality, Young Labour’s East Midlands representative and an organiser for Arise: A Festival Of Left Ideas. You can follow him on Twitter/X and Instagram.
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