UNISON’s written evidence to the parliamentary committee charged with examining the detail of the Employment Rights Bill has been published today.
The bill represents the government’s flagship initiative to radically improve working lives, which the union has hailed as ‘game changing’.
MPs on the House of Commons public bill committee are reviewing expert evidence, ahead of the bill’s report stage in early 2025.
In November, Maggi Ferncombe, UNISON’s director of political strategy and transformation, gave powerful verbal evidence to the committee.
And in December, UNISON’s policy and legal staff submitted the union’s written evidence.
UNISON identifies the bill as “a long overdue set of proposals that will bring much-needed relief to working people in Great Britain”, while acknowledging that the Northern Ireland government is consulting on its own set of labour market reforms.
The union welcomes the raft of proposals that will upgrade workers’ rights, from the introduction of day one rights, to protection from sexual harassment, strengthened rights for pregnant workers, tackling exploitative zero-hours contracts and fire and rehire, and much more.
But it insists that, “for individual rights to become a reality, collective bargaining, effective enforcement, a trade union voice in the workplace and a well-resourced employment tribunal system are all key.”
That’s why the union also welcomes the provisions in the bill to create a new Fair Work Agency (a single, centralised body enforcing employment rights), measures to introduce sectoral pay bargaining, starting with adult social care, and the reinstatement of the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB) in England, providing professional recognition for a group of staff which has been long overlooked.
“These proposals demonstrate that the Employment Rights Bill isn’t just tackling worker’s rights – it holds the key to tackling longstanding public policy failures that have been ignored because they affect workers and service users whose voices are too often neglected by decision makers,” the union writes.
“Tackling this neglect and allowing trade unions to engage in constructive social partnership and better represent their members is long overdue.”
Specific areas of the bill covered by UNISON’s evidence include:
- Social care
- The SSSNB
- Outsourced workers
- Sexual harassment, gender pay gaps, menopause and maternity
- Statutory sick pay
- Zero-hours contracts
- Fire and rehire
- Unfair dismissal
- Flexible working.
The union also welcomes the government’s plans to repeal damaging anti-trade union legislation and modernise the industrial relations framework, such as electronic balloting.
It states: “UNISON believes that the Employment Rights Bill sets a vision for a fairer economy where exploitation doesn’t pay and working people are empowered to have a better life at work. It also contains key proposals to modernise trade union rights, enabling UNISON to support both workers and employers in realising this ambition.”
