Labour’s employment manifesto betrayal was pointless

On the evening of 10 December, Conservatives and cross-bench peers voted to block Labour’s Employment Rights Bill in the Lords. Instead, the peers backed a Conservative proposal for a review of Labour’s plan to remove the compensation cap in cases of unfair dismissal.

The news comes just two weeks after Labour dropped the guarantee of day-one unfair dismissal protection from the bill. This was a clear breach of the party’s manifesto pledges, and a betrayal of workers to boot. Before that, Tory and Liberal Democrat peers had already watered the bill down three times.

Reportedly, the government, unions, and business lobby groups agreed upon the changes reluctantly in order to speed the bill through the House of Lords.

Clearly, however, these concessions and betrayals have gotten us nowhere fast.

Labour have abandoned workers

Labour added the proposal to remove the cap to the bill at a somewhat late stage. Indeed, the concession emerged from discussions between business leaders and unions just two weeks ago.

The Lords’ vote means that the bill will now head back to the Commons on 15 December. The ping-pong process between Lords and Commons will continue until both vote the bill thorough.

Regarding the Lords defeat, employment rights minister Kate Dearden stated that:

Tory peers and cross-party peers decided to vote against the government. And we’ve been really clear. This is a mandate that we were elected on.

We want to deliver for millions of people across this country who voted for us, so that we can extend statutory sick pay for people from April next year, day-one paternity leave, and give the Fair Work Agency the enforcement powers that it needs to get on with the job.

So we’re saying really clearly, when it goes back to the Commons on Monday and then back to the Lords, that they need to get behind this bill, so we can deliver for the millions of people who voted for us with this mandate and with a really clear message to make work pay again.

‘Cynical wrecking tactics’

Mike Clancy, the bill’s Trades Union Congress lead, expressed the unions’ collective displeasure at the defeat:

This deal was struck after painstaking negotiation to find a compromise that all sides could agree with. The amendment passed by the House of Lords undermines that compromise by reversing the decision to lift the cap on compensation for unfair dismissal.

The behaviour of the House of Lords can no longer be seen as constructive scrutiny and increasingly looks like cynical wrecking tactics that risk a constitutional crisis. Further delay is in nobody’s interests and only prolongs uncertainty: the bill must pass before Christmas, including lifting the caps on compensation.

So, to be clear on where we stand: both businesses, the Commons, and the unions are happy enough with the bill. It’s been watered down four times, including the manifesto-breaking removal of day-one protections. And yet the Lords are still choosing to vote against worker’s rights.

There is an obvious criticism to make, that the peers are a bunch of out-of-touch toffs. Naturally, they’d have no care for workers’ rights. That’s a given. But beyond that, this situation is also illustrative of the utter ineptitude of Labour’s political game-playing.

Just like their constant concessions to the far-right in the hopes of earning votes that never come their way, we were told that one little manifesto betrayal would finally get us something at least vaguely resembling the original Employment Rights Bill.

And yet look where we are now – back to the Commons for the Tories and Lib Dems to take another swing at it, and still playing ping-pong as we rapidly approach Christmas. A round of applause for Labour please folks: betraying everything they ever stood for, and going nowhere fast.

Featured image via the Canary