Working people left out and let down again by Queen’s Speech

AS Prince Charles arrived at the House of Lords to deliver the Queen’s Speech last week, I allowed myself to be hopeful that the Government would make good on their promise and use the opportunity to introduce the long awaited employment bill. But they didn’t and they let working people down again.

In December 2019, the Government announced it would bring forward a new employment bill to “protect and enhance workers’ rights as the UK leaves the EU, making Britain the best place in the world to work.”

And since then, Business Minister Paul Scully and Secretary of State Kwasi Kwarteng have committed to the bill on at least 20 occasions. Yet last week it became clear it’s been shelved, confirming that employment rights are just not a priority for this government.

While this will have been music to the ears of bad bosses up and down the country, for working people it means vital rights that ministers had promised, risk being ditched for good.

It means no action on the scourge of insecure work and ending exploitative practices like zero-hours contracts and fire and rehire. It means no guarantee that workers will receive their tips in full, that parents will be able to take extended paid leave for neonatal care or that flexible working will be the default. All key rights promised within the employment bill.

And the Government’s commitment to make employers responsible for preventing sexual harassment risks falling by the wayside too, as the policy needs primary legislation to carry it forward.

After the P&O scandal, dragging our outdated labour laws into the 21st century has never been more urgent. Yet government’s decision to shelve the employment bill does the complete opposite. In fact, it sends a signal that they are happy for rogue employers to ride roughshod over workers’ rights.

And the alternatives they’ve offered just don’t cut it.

The seafarer minimum wage enforcement plan proposed in the wake of the P&O scandal is feeble and likely unworkable.

At first glance the plan to tackle P&O-style abuses by giving UK ports the power to refuse access to ferry companies that don’t pay the minimum wage sounds like a good one. But at present HMRC inspectors, who are responsible for making sure workers are paid the minimum wage, do not have the legal right to board vessels for inspections.

So unless enforcement powers are significantly beefed up, these plans will be unworkable in practice. Only stronger employment legislation that boosts worker protections and stops companies firing on the spot will prevent another P&O-type scandal.

Enough is enough. This is a government that just doesn’t get it, from the cost-of-living crisis and the need for an emergency budget now to the ever increasing insecure work epidemic.

People can’t wait for greater rights and security at work – they an employment bill now.