{"id":231192,"date":"2024-05-14T08:26:09","date_gmt":"2024-05-14T08:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dominiclevent.com\/blog\/?p=231192"},"modified":"2024-05-14T08:26:09","modified_gmt":"2024-05-14T08:26:09","slug":"ive-seen-how-firms-cheat-the-law-to-exploit-workers-and-heres-a-warning-those-days-are-ending-p","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dominiclevent.com\/blog\/ive-seen-how-firms-cheat-the-law-to-exploit-workers-and-heres-a-warning-those-days-are-ending-p\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019ve seen how firms cheat the law to exploit workers and here\u2019s a warning: those days are ending | P…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

H<\/span>ow did Labour<\/a> let its most life-transforming policy get more publicity for its suspected \u201cwatering down\u201d than it ever got for the policy itself? Today, Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner will meet the unions to assure them the new deal for working people is as radical as ever: an agreed, detailed policy document follows soon. The Trades Union Congress, broadly supportive, is watching carefully for any weakening of the deal, while this year\u2019s TUC president, the Fire Brigades Union\u2019s Matt Wrack, sends out warning shots against backsliding.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the shopworkers\u2019 union Usdaw last month, Starmer was adamant that he would not back down. And to business leaders recently he said<\/a> that \u201cto be crystal clear\u201d, Labour would \u201clevel up workers\u2019 rights in a way that has not been attempted for decades\u201d, though he recognised \u201cthat might not please everyone in the room or the wider business community\u201d. This is core to Labour\u2019s purpose and to igniting growth. Only Unite\u2019s Sharon Graham publicly claims \u201cbetrayal\u201d, as she often does. But in private today, all unions will want cast-iron reassurance.<\/p>\n

They do need to scrutinise every word to block loopholes. These rights best help the weak and voiceless \u2013 the one in nine workers<\/a> in insecure jobs who are prone to exploitation. I saw how employers cheat the law when researching my book Hard Work<\/a>. I took a job as a porter advertised in the job centre, not for some rogue outfit but for a hospital. As most public sector manual work has been outsourced, ever since Margaret Thatcher\u2019s orders, I was not working for the NHS, but for an agency supplying the main contractor, providing portering and cleaning.<\/p>\n

After queueing for hours in a jam-packed office behind a shabby shopfront, applicants were handed forms to sign. We couldn\u2019t take them away to study their minuscule fine-print, so I took notes. The casual worker agreement was an \u201cagreement to provide occasional services\u201d \u2013 otherwise known as a zero-hours contract. In a key clause, I opted out of the 48-hour maximum working week, a legal \u201cvoluntary\u201d waiver: \u201cThe temporary worker hereby agrees that the working week limit shall not apply.\u201d<\/p>\n

All flexibility around working too many or too few hours belonged to the agency. Other clauses read: \u201cas a casual worker you will not be subject to the company\u2019s grievance and disciplinary procedures\u201d and \u201cuniform costs will be deducted from the following week\u2019s pay\u201d. The legal four weeks\u2019 holiday would apply after 13 weeks of continuous service; agencies tend to fire and rehire after 12 weeks. Voluntary? No signature, no job.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the squalid, exploitative world Labour would abolish. But employment law is fiendishly complex because work covers multitudinous occupations and situations. Examine the working time regulations\u2019 exemptions<\/a> for sea fishing, civil protection, the armed forces, police and so on to see why some of the broad principles outlined in Labour\u2019s original green paper were bound to be refined. Done right, that\u2019s not necessarily \u201cwatering down\u201d. After much negotiation with the unions, these changes were agreed<\/a> (except by Unite, which abstained) at Labour\u2019s national policy forum this January. One difficulty: zero-hours contracts suit some workers, so Labour\u2019s new offer gives them day-one rights and after 12 weeks a contract for minimum hours actually worked.<\/p>\n

However, the law hardly matters if enforcement is reduced to rubble. Labour will merge and boost ineffective regulators, so every employee knows the number to call. The UN\u2019s International Labour Organization, to which the UK is a signatory, requires one inspector for 10,000 employees: the UK is 1,797 short<\/a>, and bad employers know it. Labour\u2019s fair pay agreements, drawn up with business and unions, would enforce pay and conditions across an entire industry, starting with social care. Winston Churchill in 1909 created wages councils for minimum pay across sectors from agricultural work to hat-making: Thatcher and John Major abolished them.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

The first ever law forcing all employers to admit union recruiters will be a gamechanger, letting union reps into every \u201cfulfilment centre\u201d, fast-food restaurant, care home and care agency, pizza delivery company and delivery depot. Trade union membership raises average pay<\/a> and prevents employer skulduggery. The fall in union membership helped cause the great 1980s decline in pay. But recruitment is now near-impossible in such places, relying on union reps leafletting outside workplaces at shift change, as people hurry home to children or to a second job.<\/p>\n

To organise freely without fear of employers picking on joiners, sacking them or denying them extra hours will send membership soaring: there were more than 12 million<\/a> union members in 1980, but only 6.25 million in 2022. Restoring union rights will remove recent anti-strike laws<\/a>: Labour has just added easier union recognition rules and electronic balloting. It will stop planned new employment tribunal fees<\/a>, which \u2013 along with tribunal backlogs a year long<\/a> \u2013 deter the low-paid from making claims.<\/p>\n

These rights get overwhelming support<\/a> from the public, and from most managers: a level playing field prevents undercutting by rogue companies. Chartered Management Institute polling<\/a> finds 80% of managers want workers\u2019 rights prioritised, and 83% think better working rights raise productivity.<\/p>\n

Making this policy work is key to Labour\u2019s growth plan, as the TUC rightly says<\/a>: \u201cThe UK\u2019s long experiment with a low-rights, low-wage economy is a complete failure.\u201d Where\u2019s the payoff for all these Tory years of deregulation, anti-union laws, public sector pay cuts in real terms and rising inequality? Productivity grew by just 0.4% a year in the 12 years after the financial crisis. That\u2019s half the rate<\/a> of the 25 richest OECD countries, says the Resolution Foundation. The Marmot review<\/a> shows bad working lives lead to worse physical and mental health, absence due to illness and worklessness raising disability costs.<\/p>\n

The Tories dithered on the \u201cwatering down\u201d story, from viewing it as another Labour flip-flop to labelling it as Labour obeying its union \u201cpaymasters\u201d and saying the plans would pile \u201c70 new burdens on employers<\/a>\u201d. Business has been mostly quiescent, asking for clarification to prevent \u201cunintended consequences\u201d. But that in itself raises suspicions among some Labour people too quick to believe any \u201cbacksliding\u201d story, ever since soaring inflation and borrowing costs forced a retreat<\/a> on the \u00a328bn green investment deal until later in parliament. Natalie Elphicke\u2019s bizarre arrival<\/a> in their ranks only confirmed those expecting nothing but disappointment, spying Peter Mandelson\u2019s hand everywhere. (My guess is he\u2019s actually miffed at being left out, hence his snidery about Starmer\u2019s weight<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Employment law is a thicket where every detail matters. Today\u2019s meeting, and the final policy paper shortly to come, need a resounding reaffirmation from Labour and the unions that well-designed rights, made law in the first 100 days of a Labour government, will mark a seismic shift in power from employer to employee, with rising union membership and rising wages.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

Source link <\/a>
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n