Labour has duty to deliver reforms to workers’ rights, Rayner tells Commons

Angela Rayner has said it is the Government’s duty to deliver its proposed reforms to workers’ rights.

The former deputy prime minister said the Employment Rights Bill, which aims to tackle exploitative zero-hours contracts, is “good for workers and it is good for business”.

MPs considered changes to the legislation put forward by peers, including a bid to introduce a qualifying period of six months before unfair dismissal protections come in for workers.

The Bill is in the midst of so-called “ping pong”, where legislation is batted between the two Houses until a final draft is agreed.

The Government rejected the Lords’ proposal, with business minister Kate Dearden saying it is “committed to delivering unfair dismissal protections from day one”.

She added: “Day one protection from unfair dismissal will not remove the right of businesses to dismiss people who cannot do their job or pass a probation, but it will tackle cases of unfair dismissal, where hard-working employees are sacked without a good reason.

“A six-month qualifying period threshold still leaves employees exposed to dismissal without good reason in the early months of a new job.”

Speaking from the backbench, Ms Rayner said: “I cannot believe the party opposite thinks in this day and age we should dismiss people unfairly. I don’t understand it.”

“On this side of the House, we believe workers deserve fairness, dignity and respect at work, and they deserve it from day one on the job,” she added.

Ms Rayner, who previously had ministerial responsibility for communities, continued: “This Bill was a promise we made to the British public. It is our duty to deliver it.

“And I say to my colleagues on the frontbench that I will be with you every step of the way as we do just that.

“Make no mistakes. The Bill is good for workers and it is good for business. This isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s the foundation for the high-growth, high-skill economy that the UK needs.”

MPs voted 308 to 153, a majority of 155, to reject the bid by peers to remove day one protections from unfair dismissal from the Bill. 

A proposal to change the Bill’s provisions over guaranteed hours was also refused by the Government.

Under the Lords’ amendment, employers would have to notify workers of their right to guaranteed hours and make an offer of guaranteed hours, unless the workers decline or opt out.

Ms Dearden said this would “undermine the Bill’s core aim of ending exploitative contracts and providing security for the workers who need it most”.

“The Government is committed to ending one-sided flexibility, so that workers are not left guessing about their hours or pay,” she added.

During the debate, shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith was accused of “despising ordinary working people”.

Mr Griffith branded the Bill a “clunking fist of regulation dictating and providing perverse incentives, maybe unintended consequences, that mean employers simply won’t take a chance on those young people at all”.

The Tory frontbencher claimed it will hurt British businesses and make it harder for “vulnerable” workers such as young people, disabled people, those over 50, and former prisoners to get a job.

Noting the word “union” appears 478 times in the Bill, and the number of Labour MPs who receive donations from unions, Mr Griffith urged the Commons to “follow the money”.

Intervening, Labour MP Ian Lavery (Blyth and Ashington) said: “The shadow minister has shown how much he absolutely despises the trade union movement and ordinary working people.”

Mr Griffith asked him to withdraw the comment, saying it was “not worthy of him”, and insisted: “I don’t despite trade unions, not a single word I have ever said at the despatch box indicates anything of the sort.”

A Lords bid to keep the 50% turnout threshold for industrial action ballots was also rejected by the Government on Wednesday.

Ms Dearden said scrapping the threshold “removes an unnecessary bureaucratic hurdle and aligns union democracy with other democratic processes, such as parliamentary votes and local elections, which do not typically require turnout thresholds, but are still accepted as legitimate”.

She added that bureaucratic hurdles “only make it harder for unions to engage in the bargaining and negotiation that settles disputes”.

The Government reiterated its commitment to reinstate the pre-2016 arrangement of union members automatically paying into political funds, unless they opt out.

Ms Dearden said the post-2016 opt-in system “added bureaucracy without improving transparency or strengthening members’ choice”.