A new bill promises to be “the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation” – but how will it affect workers and business in Manchester?
The Employment Rights Bill, first tabled last October by Business Secretary and Stalybridge and Hyde MP Jonathan Reynolds, covers an array of reforms from exploitative zero-hour contracts and statutory sick pay to public sector outsourcing and trade union rights.
It forms part of the new government’s bid to strengthen the economy.
Deputy PM Angela Rayner said: “We are turning the tide – with the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation, boosting living standards and bringing with it an upgrade to our growth prospects and the reforms our economy so desperately needs.”
Brett Mendell, 42, managing director of Manchester-based textile company Thomas Kneale, said: “This bill takes away a lot of employment practises that haven’t been in favour of the workers. It’s important that there is always the right balance.”
What will the bill change?
Agency workers on zero hour contracts will now be required to be given reasonable notice for shifts, shift cancellation and curtailment, and compensated appropriately when this cannot be met.
The bill will also strengthen statutory sick pay, making it a legal right for the first time.
An estimated 1.3 million low wage workers will be able to receive either 80 percent of their average weekly earnings or the current rate of statutory sick pay – whichever is lower – if they become sick.
Mr Mendell, whose company operates a sick pay policy that goes further than this updated legislation, said: “What we’ve had historically is a system with sick pay that hasn’t helped individuals. No one chooses to be unwell. It’s not really helping people, it’s people being penalised or punished for something out of their control.
“It is the lowest paid and the most vulnerable who suffer the most.”
Statutory sick pay will also come into effect on the first day of illness, currently it comes in on the third day.
The government hopes that this will reduce the spread of infectious diseases and boost productivity.
There are also changes to trade union legislation – workers will be required to give their employers 10 days’ notice of strike action, lowered from 14 days as it currently stands.
Additionally, unions currently need 10 percent of workers to be unionise in a given workplace to be fully recognised – but it is expected the bill will change that. The bill doesn’t specify a new figure but gives the power to change it to the business secretary.
Workers employed by umbrella companies – companies that are used by recruitment agencies to pay temporary workers – will now be able to access comparable rights and protections as those employed directly by the recruitment agencies.
According to a parliamentary briefing the North West has a high proportion of in-work poverty, second only to the West Midlands after housing costs in the 2020-22 period. Mr Mendell said this bill would help to allivate the pressures that families face in the region.
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said that these reforms were “long overdue and necessary”.
He said: “Driving up employment standards in Britain will stop good employers from being undercut by the bad and will mean more workers benefit from a union voice.”
But approval isn’t unanimous. Alex Hall-Chen, a member of the Institute of Directors and representative at the Parliamentary Committee, said: “For the first time since October 2020 our data is now showing that more business leaders expect to reduce their headcount in the coming year than increase it. The Bill is a key reason for that change.”
The institute polled 700 business leaders on the bill and 57% said the reforms would make them less likely to hire.
The bill has just cleared the committee stage, but before it becomes law it will need to pass through the report stage and the House of Lords, a process that could take several months.
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