I welcome Carol Hayton’s comments in her letter in this week’s paper (‘ Senior MP’s approach on Employment Rights Bill does him no credit’) where she challenges Andrew Griffith’s outdated views. I do feel that as both an employee and trade unionist I would like to reiterate my support for this bill and take the opportunity to remind your readers that this bill in many instances simply reverses the decades-long attack on employees and their rights within the workplace by successive Conservative Governments.
This bill will ensure that workers have protection from unfair dismissal from day one, replacing the Conservative’s two-year qualifying period. It is designed to empower employees within the workplace and enhance cooperation between employers and employees as they work together to ensure their mutual success.
The bill will also end the option for an employer to ‘fire and rehire’ staff on reduced pay and conditions, similarly ‘exploitative’ zero-hour contracts will be banned, and staff will have the right to a contract for the hours worked. There will be new rights for unions making it easier for them to recruit and to represent their members.
Furthermore, the bill will introduce greater flexibility within the workplace, making it easier to recruit part-time staff while making work more family-friendly allowing employees to balance work with home, community, and family life.
Finally, there will be changes to maternity and paternity leave and statutory sick pay will be available from day one, removing the three-day qualifying period. As someone who works in the agricultural sector, I am acutely aware of the hardship this three-day waiting period has on so many workers who are often already on low incomes and are faced with the choice of going to work sick or going hungry.
There is a lot more to do to redress the balance in the workplace, but these first steps should be celebrated by all who are interested in making work pay as this government begins to address the decades-long decline in workers' pay, terms, and conditions.
David Hide
Unite the Union Branch Chair