By Andy McDonald MP for Middleborough
It seems there are some voices from the past who are determined in some small way, be that an email, a phone call or in a Sunday Times article, to undermine Labour’s New Deal for Working People, in some vain attempt to gain attention and be relevant.
I’m not sure it’s worth devoting any time to understanding or debating their motivation. They are simply going to have to come to terms with the fact that the policy has been repeatedly endorsed since Labour Conference 2021 by the National Policy Forum, the leader, the deputy leader and the shadow chancellor.
But perhaps even such figures from the past can reflect on the courage of the last Labour government in which they served, very much up against considerable opposition, to bring in the National Minimum Wage. They were told the economy would crash and burn, yet nothing of the sort happened, and it was a major tool in the armoury against in-work poverty in a growing economy. But we need to do more, and hence the need for the New Deal.
The reality is that the National Minimum Wage alone is not enough to defeat the scourge of in-work poverty. The world has moved on since 1997, and capitalism has evolved in ever more ingenious ways to protect capital and exploit labour. Of itself, that neoliberal obsession is ultimately self-defeating, because in failing to ensure working people enjoy secure well-paid employment, the entire basis of our economy is undermined.
We want to build a Britain where people in every part of our country, regardless of their background, can get good quality jobs that are a source of pride, provide security, treat workers fairly, and pay a proper wage to live a good life.
But we have some demons to slay if we are to achieve that.
Millions of workers have to survive on intolerable levels of insecurity in totally fragile work, be that on zero-hour contracts or bogus self-employment. This means they are unable to plan for the future, and certainly, thoughts of a decent retirement are a complete fantasy for many.
That’s why the New Deal will create a single status of worker. That will prevent unscrupulous employers from denying their staff the basic rights they are owed as employees. It will put a stop to the bad employers undercutting the good. And for those who are genuinely self-employed, their protections will be enhanced.
Back in 2022, the TUC carried out research that there were 3-6 million people in various forms of insecure work, and it remains stubbornly high. It is very much to their detriment, but the analysis shows that the Treasury takes in around £10 billion less a year from those in low-paid, bogus self-employment and on zero-hours contracts than if they had been employees.
Labour will end the one-sided flexibility of zero-hours contracts, and ensure that all contracts have a guaranteed minimum number of hours. Anyone working regular hours for 12 weeks or more will gain the right to a regular contract to reflect the hours normally worked.
And the abominable practice of fire and rehire will be tackled head-on once and for all, as will the disgraceful tactic of fire and replace. If anything exemplifies the need for reform it is the vision of Peter Hebblethwaite, the boss of P&O Ferries, before the business and trade select committee upon which I serve in 2022.
In that evidence session, he had the audacity to tell us that he deliberately broke the law, and simply priced it into the cost of doing business, when he illegally sacked 800 workers by Zoom and replaced them with slave-wage workers from overseas with absolutely no consequence for him personally or his company.
That can never be allowed to happen again and the New Deal will put an end to that.
But none of this will mean anything unless we firstly have trade unions free to do their jobs and bargain for their members, and secondly, we have an effective regime for the enforcement of employment laws.
Again, the New Deal will achieve exactly that by lifting the burdens from trade unions to represent their members fully, and by the creation of a properly funded single enforcement body.
Now think back to how Boris Johnson clapped our key workers during the pandemic outside Number 10. Meaningless guff.
Starting with care workers, Labour will deliver them the security of a Fair Pay Agreement. That will provide a national floor of terms and conditions upon which trade unions can then collectively bargain. It will put an end to those responsible and good companies being undercut.
With the ever-increasing social care demands and the vacancies in the sector, it’s an absolutely necessary step to take and those workers are deserving of respect and dignity at work which includes a proper rate for the job.
I was honoured to have been asked as shadow secretary of state to lead Labour’s employment rights task force, working with our 12 affiliate unions and many others, which resulted in the production of the New Deal for Working People.
I am convinced that its full implementation will be the singular most transformative policy of the incoming Labour government. That has to be our focus.
Andy McDonald is MP for Middlesbrough — follow him on X @AndyMcDonaldMP. First published in the Morning Star on April 6th.