British Labor had promised to appear in Parliament “within a hundred days” after his victory in the legislative elections last July “the most far-reaching reform of workers’ rights in a generation.” The timetable remained the same: formed on July 5, Keir Starmer’s government presented in the House of Commons, on Thursday, October 10, a very ambitious bill called the “Working Rights Bill”, aimed at restoring the employee rights and stability after twenty-five years of job insecurity in the UK.
The famous “zero hours” contracts should almost be abandoned, as should abusive “fire and rehire”allowing bosses to fire and then rehire on less advantageous terms. However, the bill lacks details at this stage; these will not be clarified or adopted before 2026, after a long period of consultation with employers and unions.
“Our mission is to end abuses in the world of work and we want to put our promises into law so that no employer can abuse the system to deprive their workers of the fundamental rights and dignity they deserve”said Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner. Coming to politics through unionism, it is this 44-year-old woman with a brave career (coming from a dysfunctional family, she left school at 16) who brought the reform and will have to continue defending it in the coming months.
Loopholes in the law
The bill therefore proposes that employees on “zero hours” contracts can contractually obtain a fixed number of hours after a certain time. These “zero hours” contracts have existed for decades, but they multiplied in the early 2000s. They give maximum flexibility to employers and keep employees in a state of great vulnerability, all at wage levels too low to live decently. the practices of “hire and rehire” It will be limited to extreme cases, when the company is threatened with bankruptcy and has no other option to survive than to offer lower salary conditions to its employees.
Transport Minister Louise Haigh also promised that the “national scandal” from P&O Ferries “it won’t happen again”closing loopholes in British legislation. In 2022, the British ferry company announced without prior notice the dismissal of eight hundred sailors and immediately rehired temporary workers, who were paid less than the legal hourly wage, taking advantage of the fact that its ships flew a foreign flag and that its employees They worked part-time outside the UK. territorial waters to avoid fines or criminal proceedings.
You have 51.5% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
