Union bosses have warned the government against “watering down” workers’ rights after the cabinet reshuffle sparked by the departure of deputy PM Angela Rayner.
They fear policies such as “fire and rehire” and zero-hour contracts could be allowed to continue, despite manifesto promises, with the Labour leadership under pressure from business leaders and two of the key architects of the legislation losing their jobs in the shake-up.
The reshuffle saw Peter Kyle appointed new secretary of state for business and trade.
He takes over from Jonathan Reynolds, who has been made chief whip in Keir Starmer’s reshuffle.
With the TUC conference taking place in Brighton, union leaders are ratcheting up pressure on the PM not to make changes to its controversial Employment Rights Bill, which is in its final parliamentary stages.
The bill was championed by the former deputy PM Rayner and former employment rights minister Justin Madders, who also lost his role in the reshuffle.
The move comes with business trade bodies, including UKHospitality, having warned ministers of the impact of the legislation. They had already welcomed some rowbacks on the timing of its introduction.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4‘s Today programme, Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “We’ve been told that there is no watering down, but in truth fire and rehire is still allowed to happen. They are already watering things down.”
Graham said beefing up workers rights was a good thing for the economy, in checking the power of big business.
A recent union survey of 1,700 companies has shown profit margins have risen by an average of 30% since the pandemic.
“You have a situation where since before the pandemic you have seen profit margins go up on in average by 30% and a cost of living crisis where you’ve got food going up by 38%, whilst Tesco has profits of £3.1bn,” she added.
”We’ve got a huge cost of living crisis and Tesco is making £3.1bn profits, that’s obscene.”
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