Extra protection for workers? No, just another cynical Brexit stunt
Jo Stevens, Labour MP for Cardiff Central, contrasts Labour’s approach to workers’ rights with that of the Tories – and attacks Theresa May’s ‘woeful’ track record on the issue
FEW PEOPLE are surprised any longer by the increasingly desperate actions of the Prime Minister and her outriders, as they scrabble to shore up support for her disastrous Brexit deal. From low politics to high farce and everything in between, Theresa May’s Brexit negotiations – in Europe and Westminster – have had it all. No barrel has been left unscraped, no sleight of hand not tried.
But yesterday’s announcement of extra protections for workers, briefed out of nowhere by Number 10 into the news cycle, is something different altogether. It represents a nadir of the whole sorry Brexit mess, and exposes a dangerous new flank in Mrs May’s approach. This is worse than the snake oil of her backstop promises, more pernicious than her selling out of the million UK citizens living across the EU who would be hit by a no deal; this shows that the protections of millions of workers in the UK are now viewed as fair game, as chips to be bargained with.
And how do we know this to be the case? Because we need only look at her track record to see what Mrs May really thinks of workers’ rights – and those who fight to protect and improve them.
Time and time again, whenever Mrs May has had the opportunity to support and protect working people, she does the opposite. She was a vocal supporter of the Trade Union Act, a piece of legislation whose sole purpose was to systematically and fundamentally weaken the rights of workers and their trades unions who exist to protect them in the workplace.
This legislation, introduced by her Government in the teeth of fierce opposition from Labour, saw the UK Government hauled before the UN’s committee on labour standards. It was the first time since the Thatcher era that the committee, charged with investigating the worst breaches of workers rights globally, had summoned the UK. That year saw Bangladesh, Belarus, Cambodia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Kazakhstan, Qatar, Swaziland and Zimbabwe also summoned.
It is among these countries, with their woeful record on the most basic of protections for workers, that Mrs May has placed the UK. And it did not happen accidentally, but through her repeatedly whipping her MPs to support the Trade Union Bill – and to oppose for purely ideological reasons Labour’s attempts to maintain all current rights and protections.
On this, perhaps more than any other Brexit issue, the gulf between Tory government spin and the Labour alternative is massive. While Mrs May has chiselled away at hardwon rights and protections, Labour have a bold, deliverable set of policies to protect workers. Labour’s Fair Deal at Work, and a new Ministry of Work, will treat rights at work with the respect they demand, with proper enforcement to tackle exploitation. Employment rights from day one of work will introduce rights for all workers, regardless of their contract/status, while an end to the public sector pay cap that has been used to punish working people will transform the reality of work for millions.
Meanwhile, here in Wales, we can already see the reality of Labour policies that respect workers’ rights, nurture relationships with Trade Unions, and value the immense contributions they both make. It has repealed parts of the Trade Union Act to protect Welsh public sector workers, introduced a groundbreaking ethical code for public contracts in Wales that clamps down on zero hours contracts and promoted the real Living Wage and fair conditions, and tackled head on the blacklisting that has blighted the construction industry, promoting safer conditions for workers.
And throughout, Labour in Wales has worked in partnership with trade unions to prevent conflict in our services, with no junior doctors or rail strikes in Wales. In 2017, Wales had the lowest number of working days lost to strike action of any nation or region of the UK because of that social partnership.
This is what a commitment to working people looks like, on Labour benches in Westminster and in Government in Cardiff Bay. And it strikes a telling contrast to the desperate, demeaning charade of Mrs May’s scrabble to save her Brexit deal – and her own skin.
And it is for these reasons – the self-evident mendacity of the Prime Minister’s offer compared with Labour’s proven commitment to this agenda – that I am confident that Labour MPs, and many from across the House of Commons, will recognise this offer for the sham that it is.
And for any who remain unconvinced, or who see the value in the offer put forward, I would say one thing – you cannot divorce the message from the messenger.
The fact remains that the only way to protect employment rights and protections is to remain in the Single Market; Mrs May knows this, but ploughs on regardless. That the Prime Minister cannot even bring herself to make this amendment legally binding, retaining the right to strip away these protections on a whim, shows how gossamer thin they are.
Hers is no Damascene conversion, but a debasing last throw of the dice to try to rescue a deal which is already scuttled. It should be treated with the contempt it deserves.