Category: Campaign For Trade Union Freedom News
Employment Rights Bill – Suggested Amendments: write to your union
The Employment Rights Bill is now being discussed in the House of Lords. The Bill as it currently stands offers the promise of much needed gains for working people. But, with a few tweaks, the Bill could offer so much more.
Lord John Hendy KC has been diligently drafting a limited number of amendments in an attempt to improve the Bill on issues of importance to the trade union movement. The debate in the Lords is due to continue on 3rd, 5th and 10th June – so time is short!
Below is a list of the topics covered by Lord Hendy’s amendments. Many unions work closely with parliamentary representatives in both the Commons and the Lords. It would be extremely helpful and much appreciated if union members and CTUF supporters could forward this list to your union or your amended version of the list – expressing your support.
Details of the amendments will of course be available to members of the Lords – they are extensive so circulating this with the amendment numbers and the subject matters would be helpful.
Please note the following amendments as follows:
- 143 to permit injunction to prevent breach of s.188 collective redundancy requirements;
- 152-173, 176-179 to convert school support staff negotiating body into proper collective bargaining;
- 181-187, 191, 193-4, 197-199 to convert adult social care negotiating body into proper collective bargaining;
- 203 to provide a mechanism to introduce sectoral collective bargaining into any sector of the economy;
- 214 to permit injunction to compel union access if ordered by CAC;
- 238 to provide a positive right to strike;
- 239 to make it lawful to strike over dismissal of unofficial strikers;
- 240 to permit secondary action;
- 241 to permit strikes to gain recognition;
- 242 to omit obligation to give notice of ballot to employers;
- 243 to omit the distinction between separate and aggregated ballots;
- 249 to omit obligation to provide postal notice of ballot result to members and employer;
- 251 to simplify notice of strike to bare minimum;
- 253 to return the right to strike to the POA;
- 257 to return the obligation to promote collective bargaining to ACAS;
- 260 SoS to formulate action plan to achieve 80% collective bargaining coverage, as in EU.
Employment Rights Bill Does Not Empower Workers – Unions Must Demand More Says John Hendy KC
The Employment Rights Bill falls short of redressing the imbalance of power between workers and employers and trade unions need to push Labour harder to improve it, Lord John Hendy KC told the GFTU union federation conference.
Lord Hendy said the law would improve current workplace rights, citing positives including improvements to sick pay and parental leave, as well as better union rights to access workplaces.
But “if you judge it against the standard of the Labour Party policy adopted in 2021, it falls far short,” he warned.
It would not empower workers collectively, because it does not restore sectoral collective bargaining and because it leaves untouched the bulk of anti-union legislation dating back to Thatcher, including, crucially, the right to take solidarity action.
Lord Hendy said he was unsure why adult social care and school support staff had been identified as areas where a negotiating body will be set up to determine pay and conditions, “instead of sectors where it’s even more needed, like agriculture or hospitality — some particular unions had leverage over that maybe.
“But it’s important to know that there is no mechanism in this Bill by which sectoral collective bargaining can be introduced by law in any sector — not in adult social care or for school support staff,” highlighting that the subjects for negotiation will be decided by the secretary of state, and the law says unspecified third parties, in addition to workers and employers, will be represented in the talks as well.
The Bill was not strong enough and unions should not be satisfied with it but put pressure on the government to deliver more, he insisted.
This article first appeared in the Morning Star May 20th.
International Unions To Campaign At ILO To Give Employment Rights To Platform Workers
By Tony Burke
The International Trade Union Confederation (the global network of national trade union’s representing 200 million workers) has launched a campaign to secure a legally binding International Labour Organisation Convention (ILO) which will employment protection for all workers in the platform economy.
The ILO is the tripartite international body that represents governments, employers, and workers and its primary role is to set and enforce standards agreed upon by the tripartite body through an adopted Convention.
The term ‘platform workers’ or ‘gig workers’ was coined over a decade ago to describe workers and companies providing services such as ride hailing (taxi’s) such as Uber as well as fast food and package delivery.
However the term now covers many more workers and companies who utilise online platforms on smart phones, tablets or computers to connect with clients and customers offering services or performing tasks in exchange for payment including care giving, building services, software development, graphic design – either ‘on location’ or ‘online’ where platform workers carry out tasks remotely.
Most platform workers have no employment status with platform business’s arguing that the workers providing these service are not employees but are ‘independent contractors’, ‘partners’ or ‘associates’, – effectively self employed who utilise online platforms, via websites or apps, to find and connect with clients seeking their services.
In the UK the TUC calculates that 14.7% of working people in England and Wales, (approximately 4.4 million people), undertakes platform work at least once a week.
Over the past few years unions such as the GMB at Uber have launched organising campaigns and legal action to win basic union.
In Scandinavia and the USA unions and legislators including local authorities or licensing organisations have used legal routes to ban platform working outright which have been hit by employers and business challenges. With platforms becoming global and more common across a growing number of sectors and faced with the rapid development of Artificial Intelligence for trade unions and workers wanting to form unions it has been an uphill battle.
Platform workers face low pay, exploitation, mistreatment, poor working conditions and exclusion from social protections including working time and healthy & safety protections.
Platform companies continue to argue that platform workers have no employment relationship with them and therefore should not be covered by labour laws.
The ILO’s International Labour Conference in June this year will decide on adopting a new Convention giving legal protection to platform workers. Unions and human rights organisations have expressed support for a Convention, but employers and some governments will push back hard, either to stop the process or if the ILC agrees to move to a legally binding Convention to try water down its effectiveness to a ‘recommendation’ or a toothless ILO Convention.
The ITUC who will be leading the debate at the conference says a new convention should include:
* Guaranteeing basic labour protections, including living wages, occupational safety and health, and access to social security.
* Ensuring fundamental rights, including freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining, for all platform workers.
* Regulating working hours and safeguarding the right to disconnect.
* Addressing algorithmic management by regulating its use in surveillance, decision-making, and worker evaluation, while ensuring transparency and human oversight.
* Combating worker misclassification and requiring clear terms and conditions in contracts.
* Protecting migrant workers, who are disproportionately represented in platform work, regardless of migration status.
“Platform workers are not commodities. They deserve dignity, fair pay, the right to freedom of association and effective collective bargaining” says ITUC General Secretary Luc Triangle. He explains: “A binding ILO Convention is essential to ensure global standards that protect all workers in all countries, regardless of how their work is organised or classified. Without decisive action, the exploitation inherent in the platform economy could spread to all sectors of work and the economy, undermining democracy and fair competition globally.”
Having gone through its initial stages of providing reports and questionnaires the fight is now on to secure a binding international treaty that recognises that like electricity platform working will not be uninvented and the consequences for the world of work are enourmous.
The International Labour Conference takes place between June 2nd – 13th in Geneva, Switzerland.