Worker protections to be toughened in UK employment bill

The ministers will advance the rights of unions and workers in the main fields such as the non -fair separation, zero hour and satisfactory wage contracts, although they pledge to take over the concerns of companies.
More than 200 new amendments to the pioneering draft law of the government’s pioneering employment law are scheduled to be published on Tuesday, which raises the details of some of these policies designed to tilt the balance of power from the presidents to workers.
Employers are concerned that the overwhelming package-including reducing the tape to strike procedures and repression on practices such as zero watches contracts, “fire and rehabilitation”-will increase costs in addition to increases in taxes and minimal wages that they already face from April.
the government Last month, business leaders “pay an open door” in their attempts to soften some elements of the legislation.
Jonathan Reynolds, Minister of Business, said that the draft law was “an essential part of our mission to develop the economy” by dealing with decreased wages, poor working conditions and poor job security, and that the government “is committed to working with all stakeholders on the best way to implement these measures.”
However, his statement did not refer to any fundamental change in the measures contained in the draft law that employers feel anxious, including the introduction of the so -called protection from the first day against the non -fair separation, and almost the use of the “Fire and Rehire” tactics, and a sweeping upgrade of the Federation’s rights.
Instead, many changes in the draft law will enhance workers’ rights.
A set of modifications will make the “Federation’s deception” tactics that adult employees use to avoid quotes to win the rights of collective negotiation.
This will include a ban on “dumping” employers in an attempt to alleviate the membership of the union before the union recognition poll – such as bringing large numbers of workers to temporary contracts in advance.
The separate adjustments will shorten the notification period that unions need to be submitted before organizing the strike, and to double the period when strikes can continue in order to need to renew their mandate through a new poll, from the current limit for a period of six months to a year.
Paul Novak, Secretary -General of Congress of the Trading Union, the Syndicate of Union, said that “proper logic reforms” will prevent employers from using “terrible tactics” from stopping workers who have a voice.
But Jin Graton, Deputy Director of Public Policy in the British Chambers of Commerce, said that the changes were “a source of business anxiety”, adding that it is not interested in having “a position in which he is easier and ultimately faster the strike.”
Tina McKenzi, head of the Federation of Small Companies Union, said that the ministers “missed an opportunity to intervene and help companies overcome.”
She added that the main concerns of small companies still “threatening to move to the court as soon as they risk employing someone, the ability to bear the costs of proposals on pathological wages, and the inability to work in other parts of this mass of complex new rules.”
A patient’s wage for less salary workers will be determined at a higher rate than expected, by 80 percent of regular profits, and there will be clearer rights on the bereavement leave for parents who suffer from miscarriage.
The modifications will also increase the sanctions of companies that violate the rules on collective repetition consultations, to a maximum of 180 days of workers’ salaries, up from 90 days at the present time. However, the government has stopped making the sanctions unlimited – the option to consult it.
Companies also won changes on the provisions that could leave major companies in continuous consultation when they were planning to repeat through a number of sites. The government said that its amendments mean that it will need consultation when laying off more than 20 workers in one location or when making a certain percentage of the repeated total workforce.
Graton said it was also comfortable that the government had confirmed that employers would be able to employ people under surveillance for a period of nine months without mistake in new rules regarding the unfair separation. The government confirmed the commitment and said that the ministers will consult on how this process works.
The government also left a room for more consultation on how to apply a zero -hour pre -prohibition to the agency’s workers. The ministers believe it is necessary to include them, to avoid employers avoid their commitment by employing temperatures. But business groups are concerned that change will undermine their ability to summon a flexible workforce.
Reynolds said the adjustments will allow flexibility about whether the final agencies or users are responsible for providing guaranteed hours to workers, and accurately how to compensate them for the transformations that were canceled in a short notice.
People who work through the so-called umbrella companies will be dealt with in the same way as dealing with those taken directly by a direct recruitment agency-which are the recruitment agencies that they were seeking, to avoid undermining.
Another amendment will give greater powers to a fair work agency, or FWA, to cancel bad practices, with powers to conduct investigations and bring civilian cases against adaptive employers in employment courts, as well as to issue civil penalties-including fines-employers who penetrate the rights related to payment.
These changes are likely to be welcomed by business groups, which want to enhance enforcement to ensure a playground at the level, and they say that civil procedures can be faster and less expensive than long issues.
https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/https%3A%2F%2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net%2Fproduction%2F29be96ba-9dbc-4649-889c-f5682b46b6b9.jpg?source=next-article&fit=scale-down&quality=highest&width=700&dpr=1
2025-03-04 15:50:00