Keir Starmer given warning after Labour ‘U-turn’ on staff’ rights coverage
Labour MPs and a key union boss have issued Sir Keir Starmer with a warning after Labour partly rowed again its dedication to staff’ rights and safety of gig financial system staff.
The warnings got here after it emerged {that a} 2021 pledge to create a single standing of “worker” for all however the genuinely self-employed might be delayed for session ought to Labour enter No.10 in 2024.
The dedication, well-liked amongst left-wing Labour MPs, was launched to guard staff at corporations like Uber and Deliveroo and supply them with fundamental rights.
Angela Rayner, the celebration’s deputy chief, whose portfolio covers staff’ rights, stated on Friday morning that Labour nonetheless supposed to ban zero-hour contracts, deal with bogus self-employment and finish qualifying intervals for rights what she described because the “biggest levelling-up of workers’ rights in decades”.
But when it emerged that Labour’s nationwide coverage discussion board (NPF) final month agreed that the plan wouldn’t be launched instantly if the celebration wins the subsequent election and would as a substitute kind a part of a session on genuinely self-employed staff, the celebration’s prime brass got here below hearth for what has been seen as one other U-turn on coverage pledges.
Ms Rayner insisted the coverage was not being “watered down,” including: “we will now set out in detail how we will implement it and tackle the Tories’ scaremongering.”
The modifications embody altering its plan to present staff “day one” rights together with sick pay and parental go away.
The NPF stated this could not forestall “probationary periods with fair and transparent rules and processes”.
While the general coverage on staff’ rights was backed by all Labour’s affiliated unions, Unite abstained on it on the NPF.
And left-wing Labour MPs have additionally insisted that gig financial system staff’ rights shouldn’t be delayed within the occasion of a Labour authorities.
Former shadow enterprise secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey informed iNews: “Our plans to increase protection for so-called gig economy workers and other forms of insecure employment are massively popular with voters.
“These are low paid staff enduring a few of the most tenuous employment situations conceivable, with the fixed risk of shedding their livelihoods.
“There’s an expectation among the electorate that Labour will deliver on its plans to strengthen workers rights during the early stages of being in government.”
A Unite spokesman was stronger of their rebuttal, saying: “Unite simply won’t support policies without all the detail and understanding of the impact it will have on our members and workers more widely.
“These are negotiations that we’ll be totally concerned with.
“As the general election draws nearer, Keir Starmer has to prove Labour will deliver for workers and we need to see clear plans for this.”
The Financial Times, which first reported the transfer, stated Labour additionally confirmed within the NPF that probation for brand new recruits would proceed. The paper reported this was a part of a transfer to attempt to win over enterprise leaders forward of the approaching election.
Stephen Morgan, a shadow schooling minister, stated he couldn’t touch upon the coverage course of earlier than the celebration’s manifesto however made clear it could be “pro-worker and pro-business”.
He added: “We have got a really good relationship with business now, we can be trusted to run our economy and to run our country, and we have got a set of policies which are pro-worker too.”
Sharing the transfer on X, previously Twitter, Ms Rayner stated the celebration would ban zero-hours contracts, finish the follow of “fire and rehire” and finish “qualifying periods” for fundamental rights.
She stated: “We’ll make work more family friendly by making flexible working a day one right, except where it isn’t reasonably feasible, strengthening protections for pregnant women and by urgently reviewing parental leave.”