The Employment Rights Bill provides UK workers with much-needed protection. Regarding job protection, the UK lags much behind the OECD average.
UK labour laws are far less protective than those in most other wealthy countries, according to research from the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Business Research, and the difference has gotten worse since 2010.
Millions of British workers are forced to bear the humiliation of unstable employment, meagre or nonexistent sick pay, and severely restricted rights, all at great financial expense. It is therefore very encouraging that Labour has fulfilled its pledge in the campaign to introduce a comprehensive package of laws to strengthen worker rights within the first 100 days of office.
The plans increase employee rights in a number of significant areas. Employees will be protected from wrongful termination from their first day of employment, instead of after two years, though there will be a mandatory probationary period that will probably last no more than nine months. During this time, employers will be required to provide justification for termination and implement a fair procedure.
Instead of waiting until the fourth day, all employees would be eligible for statutory sick pay from the first day of their illness. Low-paid employees who are currently not covered by SSP would also be covered by this. Fathers will have the right to parental leave beginning on their first day of work.
Employees on zero- or low-hour contracts have the right to switch to a contract that tracks their hours worked, calculated using data from a reference period of 12 weeks. It will be illegal for businesses to fire employees and then rehire them under less favourable terms and circumstances. This practice is known as “fire-and-rehire.” Additionally, the law will lower the bar for employees to seek for union certification to 10% of the workforce, making it simpler for workers to organise to advance their collective rights.
This comprehensive package aims to align employee rights with global norms. There are still unanswered problems and gaps. For example, a maximum nine-month probationary period is still conservative when compared to many OECD countries, but it may be reviewed and shortened over time. The zero hours reform’s exact implementation is yet unknown; it will probably become clearer in the upcoming months. Furthermore, as this bill does not address phoney self-employment, the government will need to take action on suggestions to define the status of workers and self-employed in separate legislation in order to combat it.
Business bodies have responded to the plans differently; the CBI has welcomed them more than the Federation of Small Businesses. However, these suggestions are related to the economic structure we desire: do we want businesses to profit from precarious employment, or do we want to live in a society where people recognise that workers should have far higher minimum standards of protection than they currently have, and where companies must succeed if they treat their employees well?
Some on the right contend that achieving the latter would come at a great cost to consumers as well as stockholders. However, the data points to much smaller trade-offs than the antiquated Chicago school of economics would have us believe. These days, the OECD acknowledges the value of employment safeguards in raising the calibre of jobs available in the labour market. There is some evidence to suggest that higher productivity and higher employment rates are related to improved worker protections. Furthermore, studies indicate that increasing statutory sick pay is linked to improved public health outcomes, a healthier workforce, and increased productivity.
Of course, in order for employees to profit, their rights must be properly executed; the 2022 employment law violations by the ferry business P&O, which resulted in the abrupt termination of almost 800 people, serve as a helpful reminder of this. Adequate funding for both the courts, where employment tribunal proceedings are often delayed, and the proposed new Fair Work Agency will be equally crucial as the rights outlined in the bill. However, Labour’s package for workers’ rights may prove to be one of the most important steps this administration takes to actually make a difference in people’s lives.