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British law fails workers
The Institute of Employment Rights was established in 1989 by those concerned about the alarming erosion of trade union rights in Thatcher’s Britain.
Since then governments have come and gone but what remains stubbornly in place is a framework of law that fails to protect workers from exploitation and abuse at work.
Now we face another general election and we need to raise our voice and tell politicians what we expect from an incoming government. To that end the IER has brought together a high-profile platform of policy-makers, trade union leaders and lawyers to set out the basics of a progressive agenda on labour law.
So, what do we want?
There is much common ground, with attention focusing on some of the worst problems experienced by workers in our deregulated, fragmented, profit-over-people, labour market workplaces.
Suggestions include strengthening individual rights. Improving access to justice. Removing the benefit conditions that force people into exploitative jobs in profitable companies.
And it’s not just individual rights.
Thatcher attacked trade unions because she knew the power of numbers and the strength of a collective voice.
Without that collective voice the balance of power swings massively in favour of the employer. The result? The growth in inequality, exploitation and bad employment practices that haunt Britain today.
We know that bad practice trickles down far faster than wealth. Last month Britain was criticised for failing to protect workers against unpaid overtime, unpaid holidays, inadequate rest periods, failure to secure a decent standard of living, failure to compensate workers exposed to occupational health risks and much more.
These are problems that should be dealt with by collective bargaining, setting standards at a national level across all sectors of the economy. That’s why one of our key demands is for a Ministry of Labour at the heart of government, tasked with giving a voice to the UK’s 29 million workers, both in the corridors of power and in the boardrooms of Britain.
Labour law: What we want
Professor Keith Ewing & John Hendy QC
The minimum demand of the trade union movement to any government elected in May 2015 should be the following essential reforms. These are the least steps necessary to begin to secure social justice, democracy in the workplace, the reduction of inequality and to increase real wages and so stimulate the economy.
- The right to a decent wage and to a decent income for those not in employment
- The effective regulation of zero-hours contracts
- The right of every worker to be protected by a collective agreement
- The re-establishment of sectoral collective bargaining and Wages Councils
- The re-establishment of a Ministry of Labour
- The right to strike in accordance with international law
- The removal of a qualifying period for unfair dismissal
- The restoration of redundancy consultation rights
- The right to legal protection for everyone who works, regardless of their legal status (‘employee’, ‘self-employed’, ‘agency worker’ etc)
- The right of all workers to access to justice, including the abolition of tribunal fees
Stronger unions are our only hope
TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady
If David Cameron really wants workers to get a pay rise, then he’s got a funny way of going about it. Over the last five years we have seen a sustained attack on workers’ rights and protection at work, including trade unions.
Unions are the last line of defence for workers, so little wonder that that the Conservative Party’s belief in freedom doesn’t extend to us. Far from stamping out workplace abuses like zero-hours contracts and pregnancy discrimination, the government has made it easier for bosses to sack workers and act with impunity.
Employees now have to wait two years before getting protection from unfair dismissal. New charges as high as £1,200 make it impossible for many to take a case to an employment tribunal, even if they would get their boss bang to rights at a hearing.
And now the Conservative Party has promised even more punitive rules for strike ballots, in a naked bid to wipe out democratic dissent and weaken workers’ bargaining power.
This government is fond of telling us that any job is better than no job, no matter how insecure and low-paid, and has handed employers the kind of absolute power that Victorian mill owners once wielded. Workers deserve better.
For a start we need to scrap tribunal fees that price workers out of justice. And we need to get rid of the qualifying period for unfair dismissal — this should be a day-one right.
Second, we need tougher enforcement of workers’ rights. Since 2010 the budgets of enforcement agencies, including the Health and Safety Executive and Gangmasters Licensing Authority, have been slashed.
And we must reverse the trend of casualisation that loads the dice in favour of bad bosses. This means paying agency workers the same rate as permanent staff, clamping down on exploitative zero-hours contracts and calling time on bogus self-employment.
Spare a thought for those self-employed City Link workers who found out on Christmas Eve that they were losing their jobs. Many had worked at the company for years but will hardly get a penny in compensation. Meanwhile, the private equity chiefs behind the collapsed parcel carrier expect to walk away with £20 million.
This is why we need stronger unions and collective bargaining in workplaces across Britain.
Only a strong union voice, up to and including the boardroom, will build a more equal and sustainable post-crash economy that benefits the 99 per cent who, after all, create the wealth in the first place.
The economy is broken – Labour must embrace change
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey
This government will leave behind an economy working for a few at the top while offering no hope to millions. Not by mistake, but by design.
More than half of people in poverty in this country are in work. Getting a job no longer means earning a good living; instead zero-hours, under-employment and phantom self-employment mean hard-working people can’t even expect a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.
All this while the corporate elites and our best-known brands refuse to pay their fair share in tax.
People across our nations deserve better. Decent work with a living wage, a secure and affordable home, well-funded public services, an NHS taken out of the grip of private healthcare and a democratic system that gives people a voice in their workplace — not just a vote at election time.
Trade unions are a force for good in today’s society. Now more than ever we need a radical shift in employment legislation that has for decades given a free rein to bosses while workers have seen their rights diminished and trade unions shackled.
The ideologically skewed approach to employment relations of successive governments is at the heart of our broken economy, when in reality there are plenty of examples of where trade unions work positively with industry for mutual benefit — look no further than Unite and the car industry.
Inequality is widely regarded as the most pressing issue facing Western economies — Bank of England governor Mark Carney and US President Barack Obama are only the latest to point out the spiraling economic injustices that are a by-product of the neoliberal experiment.
The proportion of GDP going to pay workers’ wages has dropped dramatically from over 60 per cent 30 years ago to just over 50 per cent today.
And Thomas Piketty has shown that the yawning gap between rich and poor will only get worse without government intervention in the market. The economic crisis of today is not the budget deficit. The budget deficit is, like poverty wages and falling tax intake, a symptom of something far worse.
This government attacks working people and workplace justice; Labour’s answer to the economic crisis must be to empower working people and make work pay. This can only be done with stronger trade unions giving a voice to working people.
The late Tony Benn, a proud Unite member, said that “the crisis we inherit when we come to power must be the occasion for fundamental change — and not the excuse for postponing it.”
I can only echo that call.
Deregulation is the coalition’s plan
NUT general secretary Christine Blower
This government presided over the dismantling of hard-earned employment rights when it passed the Enterprise & Regulatory Reform Act.
The fact is that the government’s aim was to “deregulate” the labour market.
This is shorthand for more zero-hours contracts, falling wages, part-time working and insecurity in the workplace and a collapse of collective bargaining.
It is truly a scandal that so many working people are forced to use foodbanks and many find it hard to make ends meet. Even many with secure employment but poverty pay are only one bill away from disaster.
It is no accident that the shrinking of wages as a percentage of GDP has gone hand in hand with government policies that have attacked the ability of trade unions to defend their members, seen very clearly in the attacks on facility time for public-sector workers and the withdrawal of check off in many government departments.
Given the fragmented nature of the labour market that we have today where workers are employed on fixed-term contracts, part-time hours and through third parties such as employment agencies or as consultants there is no longer any justification for a two-tier labour market. Employment rights should be extended to cover all groups of workers.
For far too long the employment status of workers has determined whether they can enjoy the full range of employment protection even though all workers are economically dependent on their employers and provide the same level of service and apply the same level of skills to do their work.
For teachers the scandal of supply teachers as agency workers with no access to the pension scheme and ever eroding pay levels is a particular campaign for the NUT.
The Conservative Party is proposing to limit the ability of public-sector workers to go on strike by requiring a 40 per cent turnout and at least a 50 per cent majority for strike action to be lawful.
How many Tory MPs and councillors have a majority of at least 50 per cent?
Given how employment legislation is weighted heavily in favour of the employer such a proposal significantly weakens the position of workers who sometimes only have the option of strike action to defend their rights.
It is always under the most undemocratic regimes that the first civil society groups to be attacked are trade unions.
We want to see the end of tribunal fees which have resulted in workers being excluded from the justice system. The number of claims has dropped significantly.
Nobody seriously believes that in the space of just one year female workers are no longer discriminated against or sexually harassed and that the low-paid are no longer being exploited.
There is very great deal to win back before we even begin to advance again towards a legislative framework which affords workers the rights we deserve.
Trade unionism itself is now at stake
FBU general secretary Matt Wrack
The Tories’ announcement of a new raft of anti-union laws if they win the election in May means that trade unionism is at stake in the period ahead.
The Tories want to atomise the labour movement, because they know we are the most powerful force opposing their plans for more austerity, more privatisation and more attacks on workers’ living standards.
That’s what is behind their plans to introduce stiff ballot thresholds, slash facility time and scrap check off.
Britain has the most restrictive anti-union laws in Europe.
We cannot accept a situation in which our ability to fight back is prevented in this way. The labour movement must unambiguously call for the repeal of the anti-union laws and advocate a positive charter of rights for workers.
The FBU has been on the sharp end of anti-union activity in the last few years. We have so far taken around 50 periods of strike action over pensions, ranging from one-hour strikes to a four-day strike — amounting to over 11 full days of strikes in total.
In the summer of 2013, firefighters voted four to one (78 per cent) in favour of strike action on pensions, on a 61 per cent turnout. This was almost half of all members eligible to vote and well above the Tories’ new threshold plans.
FBU members have been magnificent throughout, with solid strikes and lively picket lines. Our members have been locked out in Buckinghamshire and executive council member Ricky Matthews has been sacked for union activities.
Members in Surrey and Essex have also faced lockouts. But our dispute continues — we will not go quietly.
The FBU has also had some high-profile local disputes. In London in 2010, our members took strike action over imposed shift changes. There were numerous attempts to use the law to coerce the union.
Again, our members were outstanding. Many were docked hundreds of pounds for going on strike — we’ve recently won the money back.
Just last month our members in Essex were out on strike for three days in a dispute about cuts — a fifth of front-line firefighter jobs are under threat from forthcoming cuts.
The FBU has a proud record of high Yes votes and high turnouts. We have achieved this because of strong workplace organisation — every fire station is an FBU branch and the watch system adds to the strength and collectivism of the workforce.
We have also been willing to take long periods of strike action. But we are not complacent. We are under attack — resistance is the only response.
Labour will make work pay again
For most of the 20th century there was a vital link between the wealth of the country and family finances.
As the country got better off, so did working people. But the link between the wealth of the country and the family budget has been broken.
Labour will build an inclusive economy where everyone’s hard work is rewarded and we create real and enduring prosperity for the whole country.
We will raise the national minimum wage to £8 an hour before the end of the next parliament. Local authorities will be given a role enforcing the minimum wage with fines up to £50,000 for employers who pay below the legal level.
We will support the campaign for a living wage by requiring listed companies to report on whether or not they pay the living wage, and using government procurement to promote it. Our Make Work Pay contracts will give tax rebates for businesses who sign up to paying their workforce a living wage.
We will ban exploitative zero-hours contracts. We will reform the employment tribunal system to ensure workplace justice is affordable. And we will abolish the loophole that allows firms to pay agency workers less than permanent staff.
We need to make best use of the talents of all of our young people. We will introduce a Compulsory Jobs Guarantee, paid for by a bank bonus tax, to provide a paid starter job for every young person unemployed for over a year.
We will set up a high-quality system of vocational education tailored for local need, with all young people undertaking some vocational learning from the age of 14 years, and we will ensure that all young people study English and maths to 18. We will introduce new Technical Degrees delivered by universities and employers.
The system will be founded on a new gold-standard Technical Baccalaureate at age 18. We’ll transform good FE colleges into new specialist Institutes of Technical Education.
And we will work in partnership with business and local government. Every firm getting a major government contract will be required to offer apprenticeships. Large employers hiring skilled workers from outside the EU will have to offer apprenticeships, and we will create thousands more apprenticeships in the public sector.
An inclusive economy guided by a shared responsibility needs good corporate governance that involves its workforce.
Labour is clear about the positive role the trade union movement plays in delivering fairness, safe working conditions and supporting productivity in the workforce.
We will give workforces a voice by introducing employees on renumeration boards, and we will also launch a full inquiry into the disgraceful practice of blacklisting in the construction industry.
Bring back standards for good quality employment
Unison general secretary Dave Prentis
There is a great deal of common ground about a new settlement of union and worker rights to reverse the decline in living standards of the last 30 years.
Unison supports the Institute of Employment Rights collective bargaining manifesto and from a public service point of view there are three areas that stand out in 2015: zero-hours, care workers, and the public-sector leadership role.
We need some firm and worked out proposals on zero-hours contracts that heavily restrict their usage and prevent easy loopholes like one-hour contracts.
The best proposals we have seen so far are in the private member’s Bill by Ian Mearns MP.
This gives a right to regular hours at three months, employee employment status, payments for standby time and short-notice cancellations and restrictions on employers moving weekly hours up and down.
Of course we need action too on agency workers, tribunal fees and bogus self-employment, otherwise gains on zero-hours contracts will easily be negated.
Unison members working in social care are on the front line facing austerity and casualisation pressures, with 15-minute visiting slots, zero-hours, unpaid standby time and unpaid travel time to the fore.
Report after report shows the quality of care is affected for the elderly and disabled, yet even with a multitude of regulators there has been little impact on standards, with only 15 formal care sector complaints to the government Pay and Rights helpline last year.
What we need — apart from the obvious case for strong trade unions — is the various public-sector bodies responsible for care commissioning to set both employment and care quality standards (such as Unison’s Ethical Care Charter) as adopted by several councils already.
There is a wider public-sector role on pay and conditions, for in-house staff and contractors, and what we would like to see is a return of the “fair wages” clauses in procurement, which were abolished in 1983.
This would see not just a living wage but a range of standards for sick pay, holidays and pensions set by national agreements like the NJC in local government being carried through the procurement process to stop the current race to the bottom.
There would be massive benefits for millions of women workers too as it would be an easy way to transmit proper equality-proofed pay agreements to the wider economy and rebuild our country.
We have to fight victimisation of our workplace reps
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka
Everyone knows the generational decline in the trade union movement — membership numbers halved and the proportion of workers covered by collective bargaining agreements down from over four-fifths to less than a quarter.
To paraphrase Karl Marx, we can all analyse the problem — the point however is to change it.
We have, as Tony Blair once said in opposition and maintained in government, “the most restrictive union laws in the Western world.” Since his departure a new government has gone further by introducing fees for employment tribunals and weakening legislation around TUPE, health and safety, and equality.
These laws and those that restricted unions under Thatcher and Major have driven down workers’ wages and made it more difficult for unions to organise in workplaces. Repealing those laws would help end the exploitation of workers that is now so prevalent in the labour market.
But we cannot merely be reactive. We need to clamp down on the victimisation of reps — an issue again in our current dispute with the National Gallery over privatisation. We need to legislate against harassment of reps using a similar definition as in the Equality Act.
We should be demanding new workplace rights to give trade union reps the right to facility time and members the right to time off and space for workplace union meetings. These would be important to increase member participation and involvement in the union.
If re-elected the Tories want to introduce thresholds for strike ballots. We all want to increase turnout, but they refuse to consider allowing workplace balloting.
We should be demanding this because the workplace is where that decision should be made — it is a ballot of workers after all.
But repealing and improving the law would not be enough, even if there was the prospect of an incoming government doing so.
Our unions have to become more effective, and there is no substitute for strong workplace density with good reps and an active membership.
The government is currently trying to union-bust us by at short notice withdrawing check off — a system of collecting members’ subs direct from their pay packet that has endured for decades.
Our strength in PCS means we will weather an attack that could have broken a less organised and cohesive union.
Solidarity from our fellow unions will be important too — and this is a truth we already know: when unions act together they are stronger. We have to be more effective at doing this in the future, whether that’s industrially, politically or in campaigning together for a fairer legal framework.
If you work full-time you should earn enough to build a decent life
Green Party leader Natalie Bennett
We are repeatedly told that the economy is “recovering.” That inflation is rising more slowly than wages, and that employment levels are increasing.
But all over Britain, people are struggling. Attempting to make ends meet in the face of rising prices, and wages which are too low either because their job offers them too few hours, or they are simply paid too little for the work they do.
This is the reality of modern Britain, and whatever happens on May 7 it must change.
The government’s responsibility is to ensure its people’s welfare, and it is time our political leaders took that obligation seriously.
And it’s not just a matter of moral imperative. It’s common sense to recognise working people are central to the welfare and success of our society. It’s vital that their rights, their needs, and their ability to live decent lives, are recognised and acted on.
At present, the system has created a “workplace lottery.” Many new jobs are precarious, wages are low and contracts prioritise employers over employees.
Young people are particularly affected: a third of our young people, fresh from school, college or university, are on low pay. But they are not alone.
The coalition tells us it “cannot interfere in the affairs of the private sector” (though of course it can, it simply chooses not to) but at the same time, it is privatising jobs, removing them from the public sector.
Its stance is like handing the TV remote control to a toddler and then claiming there is no alternative to watching Teletubbies all day.
But of course, there is an alternative. There must be an end to austerity. And with that, we in the Green Party will grow and revitalise the public sector, creating more, and better, jobs.
We will ensure people are paid fairly for the work they do. If you work full-time, you deserve enough money to live on. That’s why we will increase the national minimum wage to a living wage, of £10 per hour by 2020.
And turning to what a full-time job should be, we will ban zero-hours contracts and unpaid internships. If a job is worth doing, it is worth being paid for. We stand for a 35-hour working week, and we will restore employed status and its associated rights to those forced by employers into “self-employment.”
We will pursue and prosecute illegal blacklisting in the construction industry and we will slash the fees — labelled “excessive” by the CBI and FSA — introduced by the coalition for employment tribunals, which have priced workers out of justice.
It must be the inalienable right of all workers to act collectively: they must have a part to play in guiding the way their companies are run, and the way they are treated while at work.
With this in mind, we will abolish the unnecessary, preventative 40 per cent threshold for recognition and eliminate non-independent unions.
All of us in Britain need and will benefit from employment laws that respect the individual and collective rights of workers. They help build the nation, and the least they deserve in return is the ability to build a life.
Bring back cross-sectoral bargaining
CWU general secretary Billy Hayes
Ed Miliband has established a commission on “the future of work and prosperity.” It is a panel made up of Alison Downie, Douglas McCormick and John Monks.
Trade unions should see this commission as an opportunity to influence the work of an incoming Labour government. We need to highlight the legislative action necessary to ensure workers’ needs are met.
I want to focus on just two issues — low pay and cross-sectoral bargaining for minimum standards. Compared to other developed countries, Britain has a relatively large number of people who are in low-pay and low-skill jobs.
According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, in April 2012 4.9 million workers were paid less than the living wage. That figure covers 25 per cent of all women in work, and 15 per cent of all men.
The Labour Party is committed to the living wage but envisages its introduction as a voluntary process. Rachel Reeves MP, Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary, in her recent Bloomberg speech spoke strongly for the living wage. She explained that Labour would give firms that signs up to the living wage a 12-month tax break of up to £1,000 for every low-paid worker receiving a raise. But what happens after 12 months when the firm pleads an inability to pay?
A different approach is needed. Employers should be put on notice. Labour needs to oversee the move from a minimum wage economy to a living wage economy.
The commitment should be for the living wage to form the statutory lowest wage by the end of the next parliament.
The issue of cross-sectoral bargaining and protection is a key route to raising living standards. All the evidence is that workers represented by unions, and covered by collective agreements, have higher wages and better conditions than unorganised workers.
By combining union organising and statutory minimum standards, it is possible to address the issues of low pay, overwork, stress and contract insecurity in the workplace.
Recently, serious competition has been introduced into the letter delivery services. The competition to Royal Mail comes from a firm called Whistl.
According to figures provided to the BIS parliamentary select committee, Whistl has 48 per cent of its staff on zero-hours contracts. It pays a delivery worker in inner London £7.37 an hour. Royal Mail workers performing comparable work are on permanent contracts and receive £12.35 an hour.
Clearly this is competition based on driving down terms and conditions — the opposite of what Britain needs.
If cross-sectoral bargaining and minimum standards were introduced then no firm would be able to enter the market by offering a wage rate below the living wage, or using zero-hours contracts. Living standards need to be lifted, not slashed.
The industry regulator, Ofcom, is allowing this to proceed, regardless of the impact upon Royal Mail’s ability to fund the universal service. Clearly Labour needs to act to protect the industry, and workers within the post and courier sector.
These are only two of the many items which need to be raised with the “work and prosperity” commission.
Workers’ rights: key to the recovery
For millions of people, talk of economic recovery is a bad joke. Zero-hours contracts, squeezed living standards and a Tory-led government committed to hacking away workers’ rights is a toxic combination.
The next Labour government must enact pro-worker legislation which strengthens workers’ rights against bad employers.
This government has been a disaster for workers’ rights. The introduction of tribunal fees has severely undermined access to justice for thousands of workers — with fees of up to £1,200 it’s no surprise that ordinary people are being priced out.
Tribunal fees must be scrapped, the two-year qualifying period for unfair dismissal must go and the three-month period during which an employee must lodge a claim should be extended to six months.
Under this government zero-hours contracts have skyrocketed.
We propose that all zero-hours contracts should become proper contracts of employment and employers should set out in the contract hours of work, including any requirement for time spent on-call.
The right to strike is enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights, but Britain is failing to respect it.International supervisory bodies have even condemned Britain’s industrial action laws for being overly restrictive.
Some Tory ministers have talked about requiring 50 per cent of all union members to vote for a strike to be passed.
I don’t remember this government kicking up a fuss when it formed with far less than this level of electoral support.
A true commitment to democracy would involve making electronic voting available to trade unions.
It would also involve releasing the burden of unnecessary bureaucracy imposed on unions by the universally unpopular Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014.
Thompsons Solicitors has helped develop with others a pledge to help kick-start the rebalancing of the unequal workplace relationship between employer and worker.
The pledge would be handed to every worker from the day they start a job and would help ensure that rights at work are fair, clear, understood and enforced.
A pledge would set out not just the worker’s rate of pay, but the rates of pay for other employees in the same organisation and also the rates for the national minimum wage and the living wage.
The pledge would detail what the worker is legally expected to do and the minimum and maximum hours they should work. It would oblige employers to treat workers with respect, by explaining entitlements to holiday, maternity, paternity and sickness leave, and protection against dismissal, discrimination and unfair treatment.
For all the Prime Minister’s claims that the country is undergoing an economic renaissance, the reality for millions of workers is the opposite.
They are struggling to pay the bills and are being treated as a disposable commodity by too many employers. Thanks to this government the justice system is failing the workers it should be protecting. The next Labour government must put in place the necessary reforms to start an economic recovery for all.
Victoria Phillips is head of employment rights at Thompsons Solicitors
Our priorities for labour law reform
The priority for labour law reform should be to address growing inequality and precariousness in the labour market. This requires a co-ordinated strategy spanning collective bargaining, employment law and social security law.
One of the factors driving the growth in precarious forms of work such as zero-hours contracts is the tax-benefit system.
The introduction of workfare under the coalition government and increasing “conditionality” in the administration of unemployment-related benefits (jobseeker’s allowance) mean that there is now no effective floor under wages and conditions.
The unemployed are being required to accept low-paid and casualised work, including zero-hours contracts, or face benefit sanctions which can lead to the loss of all income for prolonged periods.
The problem of low pay is exacerbated by the way the tax credit system works.
The assumption is that employers can’t or won’t pay a living wage and that the state must make up the difference in tax credits. This is a huge subsidy to employers and is effectively externalising the costs of low pay on to the taxpayer.
Universal credit, were it be fully implemented, would actually make things worse.
Universal credit intends to tighten conditionality rules still further and to apply them not just to the unemployed but to those in work and receiving tax credits, where they are working part-time or on a short-term basis.
This would induce yet further casualisation.
Reversing these trends is critical for the health of the public finances as well as for enabling millions to access decent work. What is needed?
A first step is to reinstate an insurance-based unemployment compensation system. Abolishing workfare and revising the rules on benefit sanctions are critical if the trend towards casualisation is to be reversed.
It also means instituting an effective floor to wages through sector-level collective bargaining in conjunction with a modernised version of the wages council system.
Only a sustained real increase in the wages of the low paid can reduce the cost to the public purse of tax credit schemes.
The minimum wage is insufficient as it is set too low.
At the same time, there are disadvantages to making the living wage mandatory: much of its success depends on peer pressure and citizen action which would be lost if the state took it over.
However, living wage campaigns can coexist with sectoral collective bargaining, which the law can encourage in various ways. A first step would be to set up sectoral bargaining councils with a brief to review the link between wages, training and productivity trends.
Reform should also take advantage of different techniques for encouraging compliance with labour standards.
Above the level of a legally binding minimum wage, accreditation, naming and shaming, comply or explain, and fiscal subsidies for firms certified as compliant all have a role to play alongside harder sanctions in a “pyramid of enforcement.”
Simon Deakin is professor of law at the University of Cambridge
The struggle must start now
The Centre for Labour and Social Studies (Class) is delighted to be sponsoring the conference Employment law after the election: what kind of laws do we want?
Pay inequality and falling living standards will be defining challenges for the next government.
With a record five million workers on low pay, the decline in collective bargaining coverage and new threats to hard-won employment rights, the trade union movement must lead the debate around improving working rights in Britain.
The regulation of working conditions and pay has an enormous influence upon the economy. High labour standards raise wages, increase demand and decrease unemployment — improving overall economic performance.
Collective bargaining is an essential tool to ensure trade union voices are at the heart of Britain’s economic reconstruction, ensuring our future economy is a sustainable one. But it’s not just working conditions and the economy that trade unions can improve.
According to research written by Professors Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett and published by Class, strong trade unions can also have positive social effects like the reduction of inequality and improvement public services, as they reinforce the voice of the left in politics.
Trade unions are therefore also essential for improving the NHS, resolving the housing crisis, reducing tax avoidance and protecting the welfare state.
In light of this, Class is producing six election guides on key policy areas before the election. The policies we are focusing on are trade unions, work and pay, housing, austerity, the NHS, the welfare state and tax.
The guides put forward the trade union perspective on the present situation for these policy areas, what is needed to improve them, and where political parties stand.
Our movement’s ability to connect with workers and communities, our emphasis on the values of justice, equality, dignity and solidarity make us the most important progressive voice in the lead up to the general election.
Trade unions must be in the best position possible to call for progressive policies, like those Class promotes, and improve society for the benefit of us all.
Ellie O’Hagan is Class communications officer
