Category: UK Employment Rights
Tory anti-strike legislation is leaving Britain’s reputation ‘in tatters’
By Peter Lazenby, Morning Star, March 22nd
Britain’s reputation for fair treatment of workers was left “in tatters” yesterday after the United Nations accused the government of breaking international conventions with its anti-strike laws.
The Geneva-based International Labour Organisation (ILO) is the UN’s workers’ rights arm, monitoring labour legislation imposed by governments.
It has expressed “serious concerns” over the Tories’ Minimum Service Levels legislation, which forces striking workers to cross their own picket lines or face the sack with no recourse to labour protection laws.
Unions that fail to enforce strike-breaking instructions set by government ministers can face sequestration of their funds by courts.
The UN-ILO’s condemnation came after the Trade Union Congress reported the government over the legislation.
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “The UK’s global reputation as a country that respects workers’ rights is in tatters.
“This hugely embarrassing verdict on the Conservative government’s flagship anti-strike legislation comes just months after the UN workers’ rights watchdog reprimanded the UK over its anti-union drive.”
He accused the government of “spinning mistruths” in saying the ILO supported the legislation.
“The ILO joins a range of respected organisations who have been queuing up to criticise this legislation – from rights groups to lawyers to politicians,” Mr Nowak said.
“These new laws are undemocratic, unworkable and are likely illegal. And they will do nothing to resolve industrial disputes.
“We will fight these draconian laws all the way. And we won’t rest until these laws are off the statute book.”
Attempts by rail operators to negotiate minimum service levels for striking train drivers were defied by their union Aslef, which increased the drivers’ level of strike action.
Bosses at operators LNER and Northern caved in despite government pressure to force the issue.
NHS Providers, representing NHS trusts, said the legislation could worsen industrial relations, harm patient care and lead to more disruption.
Mayors and council leaders – including Andy Burnham in Manchester, Sadiq Khan in London, Steve Rotherham in Merseyside and Tracy Brabin in West Yorkshire – alongside the Scottish and Welsh governments have warned the new laws could lead to longer and more frequent strikes and will do everything in their power not to use them.
Government has “done nothing” to stop another P&O Ferries from happening, say unions.
The TUC, Nautilus and RMT have issued a joint statement on the 2 year anniversary of the mass sacking – warning about the prospect of another P&O Ferries scandal as a result of government failures on workers’ rights.
In the joint statement, the TUC, Nautilus and RMT warn another P&O Ferries scandal is on the cards as a result of government inaction: “Two years have since passed – but the government has done nothing to stop another P&O Ferries scandal. Despite admitting to acting illegally, P&O Ferries have faced no sanctions and have seemingly been let off the hook.”
Unions say ministers have failed to act: “Having feigned outrage at P&O Ferries’ actions, ministers have reneged on their promise to clamp down on bad bosses, failed to deliver an Employment Bill and failed to close the legal loopholes exploited by P&O Ferries. And the paltry reforms that they have pushed forward fall far short of what’s needed. P&O Ferries priced-in the illegal mass sacking of hundreds of seafarers. Their bosses at DP World sanctioned the breaking of UK law and could afford to do so. The government’s feeble code of practice on fire and rehire only makes breaking the law a bit more expensive, which will do nothing to deter deep-pocketed rogue employers. Their much-trumpeted seafarers’ welfare charter isn’t mandatory – so bad employers can just ignore it, safe in the knowledge they will face zero consequences.”
Unions are calling for a mandatory seafarers’ charter as well as stronger workers’ rights across the board: “This is why we need an Employment Act, such as a New Deal for Working People – like Labour is proposing – to ensure that everybody is treated with dignity and respect in a safe workplace. It is welcome that Labour have already responded to the P&O Ferries’ sackings by committing to a mandatory seafarers’ charter to protect seafarer’s employment and conditions. That charter, including provisions for a fair pay agreement as envisaged in the New Deal, would be a game changer. To prevent another P&O Ferries we need that commitment introduced as soon as possible. It would help to level the playing field for good employers while supporting quality seafarer employment. For too long parts of our labour market have been like the wild west – with many seafarers particularly exposed to hyper-exploitation and a lack of enforceable rights and unsafe employment conditions. It’s time to drag our outdated employment laws into the 21st century. Without this, another P&O Ferries scandal is on the cards.”
TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak said: “The Conservative Party are the P&O party. What happened at P&O Ferries two years ago was a national scandal. It should have marked a new chapter in workers’ rights. But Tory ministers sat on their hands. And the reforms they are bringing in – like the code of practice on fire and rehire – aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. It’s time for a new deal on workers’ rights – like Labour is proposing – to make our labour laws fit for the 21st century and give all workers the protection they need. And we need to boost pay and conditions in the ferries sector for good, with the introduction of a mandatory seafarers’ charter. That’s how you make sure another P&O Ferries scandal never happens again.”
Mick Lynch, RMT General Secretary, said: “In the two years since P&O Ferries’ shocking attack on 786 seafarers’ jobs, the Conservative Government has completely failed to punish the perpetrators or even close the legal loopholes that were exploited and priced up by P&O’s wealthy owners in Dubai. We need a mandatory Seafarers Charter as part of a new deal for workers, with fair pay agreements at the heart of a revival of Ratings jobs and skills in the UK maritime industry, including on international ferries and in the offshore energy supply chain, both of which are critical elements of our future economic security. RMT will continue to fight tooth and nail for stronger seafarer rights through employment law reform, sorting out the impotent Insolvency Service, an end to all forms of discrimination against seafarers, safer working practices, excluding DP World from taxpayer support and scrapping all anti-trade union laws.”
Mark Dickinson, General Secretary of Nautilus, said: “In the aftermath of the unlawful actions of P&O Ferries, the government set themselves a specific test – to ensure this can never happen again. By that single measure, they have failed. We need a mandatory seafarers charter alongside bilateral arrangements to enforce decent pay and conditions reflective of local standards, not international minimums. We need an employment bill to close the legal loopholes and once and for all outlaw fire and rehire. Our nation’s maritime professionals, the backbone of our economy, deserve better.”
Developments Around Fire & Re-hire
By Cathy Cross, Treasurer, Campaign For Trade Union Freedom
Two years on from the mass-sacking of 786 directly employed UK seafarers by P&O ferries on 17th March 2022 the Government has failed to introduce the reforms required to to protect or enhance worker’s rights.
The response to the scandalous behaviour of P&O included a mobilisation by the trade union and broader labour movement and at the time, the government, under pressure, committed to introducing a “code” to give legal force to ensure employers should behave “fairly and reasonably when seeking to change employee’s terms and conditions”. To this end the government published a draft code of dismissal and re-engagement (January 2023) and intends to publish the final version of that code imminently.
The contributions to a debate in the House of Lords at the second reading of the Employment and Trade Union Rights (Dismissal and Re-engagement ) Bill ( the bill) on March 1st 2024 highlight how widespread “fire and re-hire” is, not just in the private sector but in the public sector as well and exposes the shortcomings and inadequacy of the proposed government code, which will not even be legally binding.
The bill, a private member’s bill, introduced by the labour peer, Lord Tony Woodley, Employment and Trade Union Rights (Dismissal and Re-engagement) Bill [HL] (parliament.uk) and written by Lord John Hendy (KC) aims to tighten the rules around the use of fire and rehire practices by employers, including by providing affected workers with additional protections. It consists of four clauses and its main measures would be achieved by amending the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 and the Employment Rights Act 1996.
For anyone thinking the title of the bill sounds familiar, that is because an identical bill had been previously introduced in the 2022-23 session of parliament, by Lord Woodley and a similar bill had been introduced in the House of Commons in the 2021-22 session by Barry Gardiner MP. Employment and Trade Union Rights (Dismissal and Re-engagement) Bill – Parliamentary Bills – UK Parliament
In his opening comments on March 1st , Lord Tony Woodley stated:
“The Government accept that fire and rehire is a problem but say that legislation is not needed because they have a new code of practice. While I welcome the Government’s efforts, the code as written is completely toothless. There is no requirement for employers to open the books to prove that the pay cuts or other changes are absolutely necessary to stop a firm going bust.”
He went on to say
“The code creates no new legal obligations on employers at all. In fact, paragraph 12 is clear that breaching it does not make a company liable to any proceedings. The worst that can happen is that they might—I emphasise “might”—have to pay an extra 25% on any compensation awarded by an employment tribunal, no matter how small. With respect, this is woefully inadequate punishment for such abusive behaviour.
Of course, we all know that employment tribunals are notoriously hard for workers to win. As I have said many times, what is needed to end these fire and rehire abuses is legislation. I offer my Employment and Trade Union Rights (Dismissal and Re-engagement) Bill to your Lordships for consideration.
I am grateful to my noble friend Lord Hendy for drafting the Bill alongside Professor Keith Ewing. I am grateful to Barry Gardiner for bringing the Bill to the other place and raising public awareness. I am very grateful to the TUC and its numerous member unions who support the Bill, and particularly to my union, Unite. I am very grateful to my party, the Labour Party, for backing the Bill enthusiastically, and for committing to end fire and rehire abuses within the first 100 days of government.”
Following that introduction Lord John Hendy (KC) outlined that :
“Fire and rehire is widespread, as my noble friends Lady O’Grady and Lord Woodley and the noble Lord, Lord Balfe, have demonstrated. It places workers in an awful dilemma: they must accept a cut to their standard of living or face unemployment. The anguish of that horrible choice needs little elaboration at a time when real wages have been stagnant since 2007.
and set out how fire and rehire is
“used predominantly against the lower paid, and disproportionally represented among the lower paid are, naturally, women, ethnic minorities and those with a disability”.
Baroness Frances O’Grady then highlighted the inadequacy of the government’s proposed code of practice and urged the government to support the bill
“…..let us recognise that fire and rehire is often just a fancy name for casualisation: long-standing hotel staff on full-time contracts being rehired on short-hours arrangements; university lecturers facing similar, not least at SOAS, where worse conditions for staff mean a worse education service for students; and seafaring crews on collectively agreed terms and conditions being replaced by agency staff paid a pittance. As TUC analysis shows, it is no accident that black and ethnic-minority workers are twice as likely to find themselves on the sharp end of fire and rehire.
Paying lip service in the form of a code is not good enough. The Bill offers the Government a second chance to get this right, to make good on their P&O promises and to stop the slide towards insecure employment in Britain. I urge the Government to support the Bill so that the decent employer is not undercut by the bad, and so that everyone at work gets the respect and dignity that they have earned”.
Lord Prem Sikka urged fellow peers to back the bill stating:
“We cannot build a sustainable economy by increasing worker insecurity. That has not been done anywhere, yet it is what the Government are trying to do here. Workers’ economic security is undermined wherever employers wield the capacity to demand, deny or discontinue work completely at will and with impunity. The Work Foundation estimates that in 2023, around 6.8 million workers—around 21% of them—were in severely insecure work, with wholesale and retail, agriculture, professional and scientific, and hospitality workers particularly badly affected. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has reported that, since the pandemic, nearly one in 10 workers have been told to reapply for their jobs on worse terms and conditions or face the sack.”
Despite powerful speeches and cross-party support in the House of Lords, the government minister responding to the Lords comments did not accept the arguments made and this of course was not unexpected.
The bill will now go to committee stage in the House of Lords.
A House of Lords library briefing can be found here together with the Hansard transcript for the second reading of the bill found here Employment and Trade Union Rights (Dismissal and Re-en – Hansard – UK Parliament which sets out key arguments in favour of the bill.