Find out more VOTE 2019
‘AN EXTRAORDINARY TIME’ If you want a return to better workers’ rights the ballot box choice is clear
BY ALAN JONES
The outcome of the general election will leave workers at a historic crossroads – either heading for a cliff, or the path to a raft of new rights to boost their pay, pensions, job security and hours.
Labour has pledged to put power back into the hands of workers, while a post-Brexit Conservative government would finish the job Margaret Thatcher started.
That is the view of Unite assistant general secretary Howard Beckett, who describes the impact of the election result as “seismic.”
“If the Tories win, we are entering a free trade Brexit at best, and a no deal at worst, which would mean the end of effective trade union rights in the workplace,” he told uniteWORKS.
Unite is fully behind Labour’s plans, described by leader Jeremy Corbyn as aimed at making sure every job is a good job, with sectoral collective bargaining to set industry-wide minimum standards, giving workers security, dignity, fair pay, and rights.
A recent leaked document revealing the government’s plans to dilute workers'
rights after the UK leaves the EU, shows the stark contrast in employment policies. The list set out by shadow minister for Labour Laura Pidcock at the TUC Congress in September won widespread praise, following years of campaigning for big changes in the current imbalance of workers’ rights.
A single status of ‘worker’ would be introduced for everyone apart from those genuinely self-employed, to tackle the abuses which have been allowed to grow in the UK’s burgeoning gig economy.
Labour would also introduce a statutory real living wage of £10 an hour by 2020 for all workers aged 16 or over, and ban unpaid internships and zero hours contracts.
Added to other pledges, such as cutting the working week to 32 hours, reversing the trend of outsourcing public sector contracts, increased maternity pay, and giving equal rights from day one in a job, Unite believes the commitments will genuinely transform the lives of millions of people.
Howard Beckett also highlights the plan to hold an inquiry into the blacklisting of
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construction workers, a scandal which has blighted the industry for a decade.
He added, “I am not sure we will see an election as important as this in the next 20 or 30 years. It is an extraordinary time in our history.”
Time for a stronger employment rights
• All workers equal rights from day one
• Repeal the trade union act 2016
• Roll out sectoral collective bargaining – including return of AWB in England
• Review rules on trade union recognition
• Plans for a ministry of employment rights and a new workers’ protection enforcement agency
• Guarantee trade unions a right to access workplaces
• Give workforce of all UK’s major businesses right to elect a third of seats on the board
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