What Labour’s manifesto said about day one protection from unfair dismissal<\/p>\n
This is what Labour\u2019s manifesto said about the employment rights bill, and day one protection from unfair dismissal.<\/p>\n
Labour will stop the chaos and turn the page to create a partnership between business and trade unions, by implementing \u2018Labour\u2019s Plan to Make Work Pay: Delivering a New Deal for Working People\u2019 in full \u2013 introducing legislation within 100 days. We will consult fully with businesses, workers, and civil society on how to put our plans into practice before legislation is passed. This will include banning exploitative zero hours contracts; ending fire and rehire; and introducing basic rights from day one to parental leave, sick pay, and protection from unfair dismissal.<\/p>\n
The Labour Plan to Make Work Pay<\/a> said: \u201cOur New Deal will include basic individual rights from day one for all workers, ending the current arbitrary system that leaves workers waiting up to two years to access basic rights of protection against unfair dismissal, parental leave and sick pay.\u201d<\/p>\n Any normal person reading the Labour manifesto would conclude that the party was making a firm promise to introduce day one protection from unfair dismissal. Peter Kyle\u2019s argument that it does not say this (see 8.51am<\/a>) is based on the claim that the commitment to consultating somehow over-rides the more specific unfair dismissal point. This is quite a tenuous claim. But it does highlight the fact that whoever drafted the manifesto used language that created some potential ambiguity about what was being promised \u2013 perhaps mindful that compromises would have to be made at some point in the future.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Badenoch says ‘humiliating U-turn’ on workers’ rights bill shows Labour causing too much ‘uncertainty’ for business<\/p>\n Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, has issued an \u2018I told you so\u2019 comment about what she calls Labour\u2019s \u201chumiliating U-turn\u201d on the employment rights bill. She said:<\/p>\n On Monday, I told a conference of Britain\u2019s biggest businesses that Labour\u2019s day one employment rights policy would destroy jobs and drag our country backwards. Four days later, and in the aftermath of their disastrous budget, Starmer and Reeves have finally woken up to just how bad these policies actually are.<\/p>\n This is yet another humiliating u-turn. Labour talk about stability but govern in chaos. No company can plan, invest or hire with this level of uncertainty hanging over them.<\/p>\n Referring to the plan for day one protection from unfair dismissal, Badenoch told the CBI on Monday.<\/p>\n Under this bill, a new hire can turn up at nine in the morning and lodge a claim with an employment tribunal, before they\u2019ve even worked out where the toilets are!<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Business secretary Peter Kyle claims workers’ rights bill U-turn doesn’t breach Labour’s manifesto<\/p>\n Good morning. Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves spent yesterday denying that Labour<\/a> broke a manifesto promise with its tax-raising budget. Given that Reeves had been expected to freeze income tax thresholds for weeks, it was a rather stale argument that did not go anywhere new. Then, late yesterday afternoon, the government opened up another broken manifesto argument with a surprise announcement about a U-turn on the employment rights bill.<\/p>\n Here is our overnight story by Jessica Elgot and Richard Partington.<\/p>\n It is not hard to see why ministers agreed to the concession. Day one protection from unfair dismissal was very unpopular with employers, who said it would deter firms from hiring new workers. With unemployment rising<\/a>, and the hospitality sector in particular alarmed about the implication of some of the measures in the budget<\/a>, this is a concession that will significantly ease business concerns about the legislation. And most unions seem willing to accept the climbdown as the price for getting the bill into law quickly.<\/p>\n But it still came as a surprise. On Monday No 10 was telling journalists \u201cwe will overturn all attempts to scupper [the employment rights bill plans] including watering down day one protection from unfair dismissal\u201d. Governments regularly make concessions when legislation is going through the House of Lords, but this bill is at the \u201cping-pong\u2019\u201d stage and MPs have already overturned the Lords amendments blocking day one protection from unfair dismissal twice. This is a Labour manifesto commitment; by convention, the Lords was obliged to back down. But there is evidence it is becoming increasingly belligerent (on other bills too), and ministers decided a compromise and swift passage to royal assent would be better than a prolonged battle.<\/p>\n The news has already provoked a Labour backlash. But we may have to wait for the most significant Labour reaction \u2013 which will come from Angela Rayner, the former deputy PM. Rayner was overseeing the bill until she resigned and, in a speech earlier this month, she strongly defended day one protection from unfair dismissal. She said<\/a>:<\/p>\n The last Conservative government shamefully doubled the qualification period against unfair dismissal to two years and stripped workers of protections at the stroke of a pen, and now they are at it again. Government members believe that workers deserve fairness, dignity and respect at work, and they deserve it from day one on the job. Opposition members say that these rights against unfair dismissal will slow down hiring, so let me be clear that employers can absolutely still have probation periods for their new staff; they just will not be able to fire them unfairly at will, for no good reason.<\/p>\n Rayner is still seen as a strong candidate to replace Starmer before the next election, and she will have to decide if she wants to use this issue to further her potential leadership ambitions. As our story says, she is planning to take soundings from MPs before speaking in public about her reaction to the U-turn.<\/p>\n Here are some of the key develepments in this story this morning.<\/p>\n We also promised in the manifesto that we would bring people together, that this would not be legislation that pits one side against another \u2026<\/p>\n The manifesto committed to day one rights. We are committing to day one rights. The manifesto committed us to finding compromise \u2026 and we are delivering on that.<\/p>\n Sharon Graham, leader of Unite, one of the two biggest unions in Britain and a major donor to Labour, has denounced the U-turn. She said:<\/p>\n The employment rights bill is a shell of its former self.<\/p>\n With fire and rehire and zero hours contracts not being banned, the Bill is already unrecognisable.<\/p>\n These constant row backs will only damage workers\u2019 confidence that the protections promised will be worth the wait. Labour needs to keep its promises.<\/p>\n She has been hinting for months that her union could disaffiliate from Labour (which would also lead to it withdrawing financial support), and this U-turn must make that a bit more likely.<\/p>\n Some Labour MPs have condemned the U-turn, with one calling it a \u201csellout\u201d. This is from <\/a>Andy McDonald, a former shadow cabinet minister.<\/p>\n We can all read the manifesto ourselves and, and it says that we\u2019ll deliver day one rights and that includes unfair dismissal.<\/p>\n We\u2019re no longer doing it, so we\u2019re doing something completely inconsistent what was in the manifesto.<\/p>\n And this is from <\/a>Justin Madders, who was employment rights minister until he was sacked in the mini-reshuffle following Rayner\u2019s resignation.<\/p>\n It might be a compromise<\/p>\n It might even be necessary to get the Bill passed asap<\/p>\n But it most definitely is a manifesto breach<\/p>\n And this is from<\/a> John McDonnell, shadow chancellor when Jeremy Corbyn was Labour leader.<\/p>\n Is this a sellout? Yes it certainly is. If it\u2019s unfair to sack someone, it\u2019s unfair whenever it occurs whether it\u2019s day one or after 6 months. The principle is fairness.<\/p>\n Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, has rejected claims this is a U-turn. She has been doing the interview round this morning, and, in an interview with BBC Breakfast, when it was put to her that this was a U-turn, she replied:<\/p>\n I don\u2019t accept that characterisation, I\u2019m afraid. The employment rights bill represents the biggest upgrade to workers\u2019 rights in a generation.<\/p>\n We will have a lot more on this as the day goes on.<\/p>\n There is not a lot on the agenda, but we are getting a No 10 lobby briefing at 11.30am.<\/p>\n If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm at the moment), or message me on social media. 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