Why We Need An Employment Rights Bill 2
Speech by Adrian Weir (CTUF Assistant Secretary) to PPPS (Morning Star) AGM
4th June 2026, NEU, Hamilton House, London
Comrades, in moving this motion I want to talk about trade union power.
The Employment Rights Act as its stands is OK; it would be churlish to decry the attempts to deal with zero hour’s contracts and fire and rehire.
Plus the implementation of statutory sick pay from the first day of absence, the reduction in qualifying time before being able to pursue a claim for unfair dismissal and, the extension of family friendly rights.
What the Act does do is increase individual workers’ rights at work mainly enforced through the Employment Tribunal.
What it does not do for trade unions is what was promised in Labour’s Green Paper New Deal for Working People.
Yes, we welcome the repeal on the Minimum Service Levels laws brought in by the Tories in 2023 and also the repeal of most of the Trade Union Act 2016 that introduced super majorities in industrial action ballots in important public services.
We may note that the 50% turnout threshold is still in force for everyone, important public service or not.
But the limitations of trade union power were mainly introduced in the series of anti-union laws brought in in the 1980s and ‘90s under Thatcher and Major.
Laws that limited trade union power but were introduced under the mantra of giving unions back to their members.
It was these laws that introduced the complex ballot arrangements for industrial action, that outlawed solidarity action and generally trapped unions in a legal web that breaches of the law invited employers to run off to the High Court to get an injunction to get the whole thing called off.
The complexity of these laws was one reason why the UK was on multiple occasions found to be in beach of international standards, ILO Conventions, which the UK Government had actually signed up to.
New Deal for Working People promised firstly, to repeal anti-union laws and, secondly, ensure British labour law complied with international labour standards. The Employment Rights Act falls woefully short on this count.
Why does any of this matter?
Because in the decade before the advent of Thatcherism and neo-liberalism the difference between the incomes of those at the top and bottom in society were at their narrowest.
Union led collective bargaining had ensured that there was an equalising effect in the economy – over 80% of the workforce, in a union or not, had their wages, terms and conditions determined by collective bargaining.
Now, only about 20% of workers are covered by collective bargaining and the gap between rich and poor is ever widening.
The point of the Thatcher labour law reforms were not to give unions back to their members but to neuter union power.
To restore to the 1% that which had been taken from them in the years since the Second World War.
So, we need a second Employment Rights Bill to provide statutory support for sector wide collective bargaining.
We need a second Employment Rights Bill to restore a right to strike.
Because comrades, without a right to strike collective bargaining is reduced to collective begging.
Text of the Motion:
The Employment Rights Act passed in December 2025. As predicted by CTUF, IER and Strike Map, the Act falls far short of delivering the proman Employment Rights Aised New Deal for Working People. A campaign for a second Employment Rights Bill has therefore been launched. We congratulate the Morning Star for continuing to promote that campaign, which has now attracted the support of 19 national organisations.
An Employment Rights #2 Bill would demand the following:
- An Immediate repeal of all anti-union laws.
- A full ban on ‘fire and rehire’, enforceable by injunction.
- An end to all zero-hours contracts.
- A £15 per hour minimum wage with no age exemptions.
- A statutory right to collective bargaining for all workers and a legal mechanism for creating sector-wide collective bargaining.
- Amending our labour laws to comply with international standards.
- Universal employment rights, including for workers on working visas, through a single worker status.
- All workers to be entitled to all employment rights from day one.
- A full trade union right to access workers on employers’ premises, enforceable by injunction.
- End restrictions on industrial action and introduce a positive right to strike, including the right to take solidarity action.
Statement by CTUF On Private Eye Article : Companies Still Lobbying Ministers On Employment Rights Act
Private Eye magazine has published an article which provides a clear illustration of what has been going on behind the scenes between the Government and employers to water down the Employment Rights Act even further.
Private Eye reports on a ‘private dinner’ attended by Labour Minister Kate Dearden at the Department for Business and Trade with Aussie lobbying firm Anacta in January this year.
Along with a number of Australian companies, including airline Qantas (recently fined AUD 90 million for illegally firing 1,880 workers) UK companies present at the private dinner included Amazon, Sainsbury’s and Capita.
Following Labour’s dreadful local election results in may 2026 which have resulted in a challenge to the prime minister the Labour Party’s affiliated trade unions (TULO) issued a statement which was clear: “Labour must also deliver the rebalancing of power in the workplace promised in the New Deal for Working People, in full, without any carve-outs or loopholes”
Unions have been concerned that lobbying companies influenced the government to water down the New Deal For Working People when the Employment Rights Act was being drafted and during its passage through Parliament. They are concerned that the lobbyists are continuing to press the government to weaken the Act even further via the regulations being drafted under it.
It is time for the candidates challenging the prime minister to be clear and say there will be no more changes to the ERA; and that cosy dinners and meetings with companies to discuss the ERA, or its implementation, or the regulations under it are not acceptable and will cease. They should commit to a second Employment Rights Bill designed to go further than the current Act and fully implement the New Deal For Working People.
It is interesting to see the minister holding a flyer to “Make Work Pay” (a tag line to the ‘New Deal For Workers’) .
The one area that could raise the pay for millions of workers is statutory support for sectoral collective bargaining, which was deliberately excluded from the Employment Rights Act. Improving individual employment rights will not lead to higher pay!
Private Eye article in full:
Under the guise of a dinner, employment minister Kate Dearden met various corporate figures to discuss “employment rights” at an event organised by a lobbying firm that is cosy with Labour.
The register of ministers’ gifts and hospitality describes the event simply as a “dinner” organised by Australian lobbyists Anacta. But background documents released to the Eye under freedom of information rules show it was in fact a meeting with what Dearden’s office called “heads of public affairs and C-suite leaders” drawn from Anacta’s clients.
Anacta greatly expanded its UK business after Keir Starmer came to power by hiring Labour insiders, including Matt Faulding, who was in charge of the party’s candidate selection for the 2024 election. The firm also had a commanding presence at Labour’s party conference in Liverpool, where it erected an imposing two-storey magenta temporary HQ that dominated the entrance to the event.
Organising for the January dinner began with an email to a Dearden aide saying: “It was lovely to see you at Labour Party conference.” Dearden said she was “delighted” to accept the invitation. The dinner was held in the library at the Old Queen Street Café, which, despite its name, is a private function room in a smart Westminster brasserie.
Anacta sent Dearden a briefing – redacted by the Department for Business and Trade – which “focuses on employment rights” and an outline of the discussion format. As it was dressed up as a “dinner”, the government did not list the companies Dearden met, but the Eye understands Anacta brought along nine companies, including gig-economy employer Uber; Bacta, the trade body for amusement arcades; and the airline Qantas, recently fined £43m in Australia for illegally firing 1,800 staff. All are Anacta clients.
Bosses were also present from Sainsbury’s, outsourcer Capita and Amazon, the latter known for its anti-union stance. Anacta told us these three are not paying clients, but would not explain why it brought them to meet the minister. Most likely it wanted to impress them by showing its access to government.
Forward To An Employment Rights #2 Bill
By Carolyn Jones and Adrian Weir
A recent rally organised by the Campaign for Trade Union Freedom, in partnership with Strike Map, heard from union leaders, labour law experts and politicians arguing for a second Employment Rights Bill during this Parliament.
While welcoming the passage of the Employment Rights Act towards the end of 2025 and the many benefits it will bring individual workers, speakers made the case that the Act is overwhelmingly focused on just that, rights for individual workers, with little legal reset for trade union rights that have been so severely curtailed since the 1980s.
Although promoted as the biggest uplift in workers’ rights in a generation, the Act is in reality a long way short of what was promised in Labour’s Green Paper A New Deal for Working People, carried by Labour’s Conference in 2021. The Green Paper had been filleted to make the Act more acceptable to business interests, perhaps a victory for the McSweeney team that was all-pervasive in setting policy under the nominal Starmer leadership.
The Green Paper acquired additional phrasing when Making Work Pay was added to the title. Eventually however, the Government’s website quietly dumped A New Deal for Working People, listing only Make Work Pay as the title. And, as a concession to corporate interests, many of the terms of the Act were made subject to consultation, also known as opportunities for business to further intervene, to water down the provisions.
What’s in and what’s out?
Looking at some of these measures in turn, much is made of giving trade unions a right of access to an employers’ premises to organise and recruit workers to the union and for other matters. In practice, unions have been given the right to negotiate an access agreement with an employer and if no deal is reached, the employer may have to pay a financial penalty to the state but not to the benefit of the union. No enforcement order is available to compel access.
As labour law expert Prof Keith Ewing pointed out at the rally: “You have a right but no remedy – a right of access provided the employer agrees, which is the position already.”
Further, the Act is said to target some of the newer forms of labour abuse, such as zero hours contracts and redefining workers as self-employed contactors, as per Uber ‘taxis’ and Deliveroo meal and grocery deliveries, otherwise known as the uberisation of work.
However, we have to question how serious the Government is about taking on the tech bros, which also includes Amazon fulfilment centres, who are the leaders in this form of abuse. At the rally, James Farrar, speaking on behalf of the App Drivers’ & Couriers’ Union, said: “How is it that Elon Musk can call for violence on the streets of Britain from a big screen on a Saturday [at the far right rally in September 2025] and on the Monday Tesla is running autonomous road taxi trials in Swindon in [Transport Secretary] Heidi Alexanders’ own constituency?”
The promise of introducing a single status of “worker” is entirely absent from the Act. A single status is essential to ensure that all of those who go out to work, other than those genuinely running a business, should have equality under the law; all rights should accrue to all workers, traditionally employed or so-called self-employed contactor alike.
According to the Government’s Make Work Pay website, there is no open consultation on single status. As this is not in the 2025 Act it would seem that it will need primary legalisation to take this forward. Does this open the door for a second Bill?
Litigation not negotiation
Because the Act focuses on individual rights, we are in a situation described by trade union barrister, Lord John Hendy KC, as one of “litigation not negotiation.” To enforce their new rights, individual workers, represented by a union or not, have to take their grievance to the Employment Tribunal rather than seek resolution in the workplace.
Coming from Doughty Street Chambers, well known for securing access to justice for those facing state injustice, it could be expected that Keir Starmer would know that expecting workers to take their grievance to the Employment Tribunal would be a fool’s errand. The whole justice system is creaking to the point of breaking, hence David Lammy’s grossly misplaced prescription of ending the majority of jury trials.
The strain also extends to the Employment Tribunal. The average wait for an Employment Tribunal hearing currently is around 335 days from the claim being lodged, longer for complex cases. Research carried out in 2013 has shown that 51% of successful applicants were never paid their compensation by employers. Further research in 2025 showed that 75% of (successful) applicants using the Government’s Employment Tribunal Penalty and Naming Scheme have not received their awards.
For example, it is inconceivable that workers denied a guaranteed hours contract under the new legislation would have the desire or inclination to wait a year or more for the ET to rule on the case. As Hendy noted at the rally, colleagues in his chambers are reporting cases being listed for 2029.
If the Government had been serious about Make Work Pay it would have done more to restore sector-wide collective bargaining. There is a great body of research that shows that when collective bargaining coverage falls, inequality rises and that these two facts are not just correlated but the latter is causally linked to the former.
A New Deal for Working People set out: “Labour believes strong collective bargaining rights and institutions at all levels are key to tackling the problems of insecurity, inequality, discrimination, enforcement, low pay and other issues identified in this Green Paper… Labour will empower workers to act collectively via the roll out of Fair Pay Agreements… [which] will be negotiated through sectoral collective bargaining.”
Unfortunately, the only sign of Fair Pay Agreements in the Act is the bastardised version for School Support Staff and Adult Social Care workers. There is no provision to roll out sectoral collective bargaining across the whole economy and where the Government has moved on these two examples they are outside the internationally accepted legal definition of collective bargaining because of the Government’s power to dictate what they discuss, who sits on the panels and, ultimately to overrule them.
The Government could easily have moved on genuine sectoral collective bargaining with its own employees, the Civil Service. As a result of countless ill-thought-out plans to reduce the size of the state there are myriad bargaining arrangements across the sector. PCS leader, Fran Heathcote noted at the rally that the Government could have led by example by introducing a single bargaining forum covering the entire Civil Service where currently there are 200 sets of negotiations.
The right to strike
The corollary to proper collective bargaining is a right to strike. When the Act became law last year, the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 was repealed and most of the Trade Union Act 2016 was repealed in February this year. However, the fundamental restrictions on the right to strike are contained in the laws passed during the Thatcher and Major years of the 1980s and 1990s.
There has been no repeal of these and most of their provisions, particularly the ban on solidarity action and the requirement to give notice to an employer of intention to ballot for industrial action that have been ruled as unacceptable by those international organisations that have as part of their remit the setting of labour standards, the International Labour Organisation and the European Social Charter (unconnected with the EU).
Labour gives every appearance of breaking trust with working class voters, a second Employment Rights Bill would give it the chance to rebuild that trust. We need and demand a labour rights framework that’s worth defending and that workers will value as having something in it for them.
Strong unions mean a more equal society.Teachers’ union leader Matt Wrack warned the rally against the rising right-wing threat using increasing inequality as its standard: “Around the world the weakening of organised labour has led to a significant growth in inequality. It’s led to the growth of some appallingly powerful oligarchs and you can see their political influence in the United States and over here.”
John McDonnell MP argued in favour of a new Bill: “This Government needs to indicate to working people that it’s on their side. What better way to indicate that than to deliver employment rights that defend people’s wages, jobs and basic security.”
The rally ended with a closing statement presented by the RMT’s Alex Gordon, outlining the need for an Employment Rights #2 Bill and identifying five basic rights that such a Bill should cover. The statement, put together by CTUF and Strike Map, called on trade unions and their members to support the CTUF campaign for a new Bill.
You can support the campaign by downloading our Action Pack, signing the statement, using our campaign materials in your workplace and community and passing our model motion at your union branch, trade union council and union conference.
Carolyn Jones and Adrian Weir are Joint Assistant Secretaries of the Campaign for Trade Union Freedom. Follow the Campaign on Twitter/X @ctufevents and on Blue Sky @unionfreedom.bsky.social
This article was originally published on Labour Hub.
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