The Labour Party government’s Employment Rights Bill has a major flaw (among several flaws). Namely, there is a glaring hole in it which so far the government is not willing to plug.
Employment Rights Bill: littered with holes
As the Canary previously reported, the Employment Rights Bill is by no means perfect. For example, UK high street retailers have been employing young assistants through gig acts that lack basic employment rights. Labour’s employment rights bill doesn’t include a single status of worker, which would guarantee rights across the economy.
The Labour Party’s move to strengthen workers’ rights is only significant because the benchmark is so low. That’s partly because of anti-trade union legislation that the Tories introduced including in 2016. A report from academics for the Trade Union Congress (TUC) found that the UK presently lags behind other developed OECD countries when it comes to workers’ rights.
The bill is a step forward in a shoddy context.
Professor Deakin, director of the Centre for Business Research at Cambridge University, said:
The UK is an international outlier when it comes to worker protections. Our labour laws are significantly less protective of workers’ rights than the average in the developed countries which make up the OECD.
The gap is particularly marked with respect to laws on working time, employee representation, and the right to strike.
The report shows that UK labor laws have been less protective of workers’ rights than other developed countries since Margaret Thatcher.
So you would think that the government would want to drastically improve this. But a glaring hole in the Employment Rights Bill says otherwise.
A gaping hole in a bill that barely touches the sides
The Employment Rights Bill does not include a specific policy for ‘switching off’. As the Times reported:
Plans to give people the right to “switch off” outside of working hours will be dropped by the government this week in a move to reduce the impact of Labour’s new employment rights on businesses.
The policy had formed a central part of Sir Keir Starmer’s manifesto vow to establish a “new deal for working people”. While it did not appear in the employment rights bill going through parliament, the government had committed to implementing it in the future.
The right to switch off policy closely mirrors laws introduced in France in 2017, which were designed to end the “always on” culture by making it illegal for employers to expect their workers to be contactable outside designated work hours.
The focus now shifts to whether further amendments will be introduced to address this omission, and how that may impact the overall framework of employment law. However, give the overall thrust of the Employment Rights Bill, none if it will touch the sides.
Featured image via the Canary
