Employment Rights Bill gets green light from MPs

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner introduced the second reading of the bill as “a lifelong, proud trade union member.”
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The Government’s Employment Rights Bill has secured a majority vote at its second reading among MPs in the House of Commons.

Some of the key provisions of the bill include the right to sick pay from the first day an employee is ill, parental and bereavement leave from day one, and flexible working as default.

The Bill could also mean better protection from unfair dismissal and scrapping exploitative zero-hours contracts, as well as lifting restrictions on trade unions.

In the days leading up to the vote, more than 13,000 UNISON members emailed their MPs, asking them to back the Bill at second reading.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner introduced the second reading of the bill as “a lifelong, proud trade union member.”

In the debate that followed, MPs with links to the union spoke about the impact that new rights would have on the public service workers.

Labour MP Mark Ferguson, formerly the head of UNISON’s Labour Link, said: “The care workers and teaching assistants I was proud to represent while working for UNISON deserve pay and conditions that match the task of looking after us when we grow up and grow old.”

Labour MP Jayne Kirkham agreed that the bill would be a “game changer” for low-paid women.

“It will mean that pay, terms and conditions for care workers and school support staff are negotiated nationally, and that a minimum is set across the country,” she said.

Labour MP Laurence Turner hailed privately contracted public service workers as “the invisible workforce who keep our hospitals running and our nation secure”.

He also welcomed the return of the principle that “outsourced workers should not be placed at detriment” through the reintroduction of the two-tier code.

Labour MP Becky Gittins added that the Bill would “modernise employment laws, with much of the Trade Union Act 2016 dismantled and, quite rightly, thrown in the bin.”

Zarah Choudhary

Zarah Choudhary is a Reporter for Workplace Journal and The Intermediary

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