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Opinion

The Employment Rights Bill will balance the scales

Christina McAnea explains how the forthcoming employment rights bill will change the balance of power.

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The Employment Rights Bill will balance the scales
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The new Employment Rights Bill is on the way and it can’t come soon enough. It will contain a raft of measures delivering improved rights for individual workers, establishing new collective approaches in long-ignored sectors, and stripping away a decade of hostile restrictions on trade union activity.

Over the last decade, the balance of power at work has been tipped firmly away from workers. Change to laws, regulations and policies has allowed bad bosses to withhold contractual security from people who need varied hours; exploit loopholes and outsourcing to reduce rights and cut pay; and bar trade unions from organising workers and challenging bad practices.

The measures set out in the bill won’t appear out of nowhere. Every provision is the result of years of campaigning and lobbying and – over the last year – lots of close work with allies in the Labour Party, the TUC and the wider labour movement.

This includes the learning and expertise gathered from the individual cases UNISON has taken on and won on your behalf, the collective negotiations we’ve conducted and the representations we’ve made to employers across the UK. These enabled us to secure pre-election policy pledges on priority issues, which were firmed into commitments in the King’s Speech in July and will be embedded in the bill this October.

What we expect from the bill

The scope and timetable of the bill are hugely ambitious.

It will introduce new employment rights in England, Scotland and Wales (Northern Ireland applies different employment laws) including on flexible and family-friendly working to prevent people making the tough choice to leave secure jobs to get the hours they need.

Changes will be proposed to stamp out the use of exploitative zero-hours and fire and rehire practices to bar workers from rights and security. A ‘two-tier’ code will be introduced so outsourcers can’t profit from worsening the pay and terms of workers. New routes for quick resolution of common breaches will be proposed, meaning workers won’t have to initiate long tribunal battles to get employers to do the right thing. A more powerful enforcement body will be tasked with tackling bad practices.

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We expect that the bill will allow more people to benefit from consistent improvements to pay and terms that UNISON negotiates. Outsourced workers, school support staff and adult social care workers should be specifically referenced, taking the much-campaigned-for first step towards establishing a national care service in England.

For further details on what the bill includes, see our legal briefing.

How UNISON will engage

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Of course, as always, the devil will be in the detail. We are preparing for our parliamentary, legal and technical experts to get involved in every step of the bill’s journey, engaging with the small print of each of the provisions, and undertaking the vast array of meetings, conversations, events and submissions needed to see the bill onto statute books (including adapting to fit or work with devolved powers) and adopted in employment policies and contracts.

However, what will bring this bill to life is your stories about the difference the changes could make for you. We’ll make sure your voice is heard, so look out for updates and details of how to get involved as this work unfolds. We will be working directly with some key groups, like care workers and school staff on the details as the legislation goes through.

The bill’s introduction will be only the start of the parliamentary process. As it makes its way through the difference stages to become law, many measures will attract tough opposition. UNISON will need to work with our allies to make sure what’s published is not neutralised or struck out by those with vested interests trying to push back on workers rights.

Trade union rights

We know that trade union rights will be a key battleground. We want to see progressive change here, including the removal of legal restrictions that prevent trade unions from offering membership to workers.

We also want to see the government lift the legal barriers to organising strike action, which will enable unions to use modern methods to make decisions, like running e-ballots for key votes.

I have no doubt these measures will be cheaply characterised and derided by our opponents, but they could hold the key to re-balancing industrial relations that have been all one-way for far too long.

When employers know strikes are possible, they work harder to avoid them – talking to workers, listening to unions and creating the kind of engaged workplaces needed to boost morale and success across the whole economy.

I’ve spent the last 15 years speaking out against Westminster-sanctioned worker exploitation, trade union restrictions and employer penny-pinching, calling out the damage caused to our vital public services.

UNISON will not miss this opportunity to speak up for a progressive agenda and show that what’s good for workers is also good for the services they deliver.

Expectations are high and we will be working with our trade union allies to make them a reality.

Christina McAnea is general secretary at UNISON

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