Manifesto for Labour Law: towards a comprehensive revision of workers’ rights
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Manifesto for collective bargaini 1
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A Ministry of Labour should be established, led by a Secretary of State with a seat at the Cabinet table, to represent the interests of the UK’s 31 million workers. Its primary responsibilities will be to promote collective bargaining on a multiemployer sectoral basis, promote employment, eliminate employment insecurity, oversee an improved framework of statutory rights and ensure that strategic planning in relation to skills and training is put into effect.
A National Economic Forum should be created involving representatives from government, employers, unions and independent academics. The Forum should put forward strategic plans, particularly for skills and training, scrutinise the impact of proposed labour law reforms, decide the direction of economic policy and ensure that workers’ voices are heard on economic issues.
Sectoral Employment Commissions should be established to negotiate Sectoral Collective Agreements and in cases where SCAs are not possible, impose Wages Councils. The Commissions should consist of equal numbers of trade union and employer representatives and, where necessary to break deadlock, representatives from the Ministry of Labour. The terms negotiated by the SEC would be legally enforceable and those seeking government contracts or supplying agency workers would be required to comply with the Sector terms.
Sectoral Collective Agreements and Wages Councils’ Orders would apply to all workers and all employers in the relevant sector and cover not merely wages, hours and holidays but all aspects of concern to employers and workers, including training, pensions and dispute resolution machinery. SCAs would act as a floor to be built on at workplace level. These Agreements would help to raise wages and conditions across the UK, encourage efficiency and productivity, diminish inequality and provide standards for the sector as a whole.
Workplace bargaining would complement and build on Sectoral Collective Agreements, with workers entitled to the most favourable terms and conditions negotiated. To promote enterprise bargaining, the statutory recognition procedure would be revised so a union would be entitled to recognition if it can show 10% membership and evidence of majority support.
Gail Cartmail, Assistant General Secretary, UNITE:
Frances O’Grady, General Secretary, TUC:
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The IER's Manifesto for Labour Law helps point the way forward. Policies such as promoting sectoral-level collective bargaining – which would allow trade unions to negotiate on minimum wages and conditions across entire industries – are put forth following careful examination of how similar systems have worked to create economic resilience and increased equality ... The proposals in the Manifesto are thoughtful and well-evidenced and should be widely read and discussed
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Dave Prentis, General Secretary, UNISON:
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Collective bargaining at the level proposed by the Institute’s impressive manifesto would mean that terms and conditions negotiated by UNISON would apply to UNISON members wherever there is public contracting. That is extremely important as we have a growing number of members working for private companies and in the community and voluntary sector on public contracts
Len McCluskey, General Secretary, UNITE:
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We are delighted to support the Institute of Employment Rights’ Manifesto for Labour Law, which provides us with the policy framework we need to move forward with a more progressive agenda
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Bringing to court the major construction contractors who covertly and systematically blacklisted workers is an important chapter in the campaign to eliminate this pernicious discrimination. Yet everyone in the industry knows blacklisting persists. Tougher law is crucial but so is industrial collective strength. This publication addresses both and I welcome the recommendations
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ng Kevin Courtney, General Secretary, NUT:
Ronnie Draper, General Secretary, BFAWU:
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It is time for unions to stand in solidarity against blatant attacks on our membership and propose a strong alternative to neoliberalism. We support the Institute’s Manifesto
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The CWU fully supports the IER’s plan to strengthen the UK’s economy by reducing inequality ... now is the time for those who believe in a fairer society ... get behind the IER’s progressive policies
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Teachers’ working conditions are our children’s learning conditions. The Institute’s Manifesto provides the legal framework required for a more progressive society and puts us in good stead to build a brighter future in 2020
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Dave Ward, General Secretary, CWU:
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A strengthened framework of statutory individual rights would underpin sectoral and enterprise level collective bargaining and would cover issues including pay, working time, equality and health and safety. A new ‘employment status’ would apply so that all workers – including agency workers, false-self-employed and others – would be brought under the protective umbrella of statutory rights. These rights would be universal in coverage (applying to all workers), available from day one and enforceable via collectively agreed procedures or in specialist labour courts.
Labour Courts and Labour Inspectors would be established with exclusive jurisdiction to deal with all employment and labour related matters. Labour Inspectors would have the power to initiate legal proceedings on behalf of workers, cancel dismissal notices, order reinstatements and require employers to cease and desist from taking action prejudicial to workers. Either side would be free to seek a review of the Inspector’s decision by an employment tribunal.
Employment Tribunals, (together with the CAC and Certification Officer) would form the first tier of the new, autonomous Labour Court System. Tribunals would return to a tri-partite model and be free at the point of access. Mandatory prehearing cases should cease to be compulsory and the cap on unfair dismissal compensation would be removed. Failure to comply with a tribunal award would be regarded as an aggravated breach of labour market regulation and attract criminal penalties (including imprisonment).
Freedom of Association and collective rights would be strengthened. It would not be lawful to dismiss a workplace representative without the prior approval of a labour inspector; recognised or representative trade unions would have the right to check off facilities on request and blacklisting would attract criminal charges. The Trade Union Act 2016 would be repealed in its entirety, immediately.
The Right to strike would be brought in line with international obligations, with the role of the State restricted to setting standards and principles rather than prescribing detailed regulations. The current legal presumption that a strike is unlawful and that strikers breach their contract should be reversed and workers should have the right to take action in defense of their social and economic interest and in solidarity with others involved in lawful action.
Why we need a Manifesto of workers’ rights Working time
Low Pay & poverty
Job security & satisfaction
l UK workers have the longest working hours of any country in Europe at 42.5 hours a week.
l 16.8 of the UK population lived in poverty in 2014, the 12th highest rate in the EU.
l Women in the UK work 3.2 hours per week more than men – the largest gap in Europe.
l 21% of employees (5.5 million people) were low paid in 2014, with 22% (5.7 million) earning less than the Living Wage and with 5% on the minimum wage.
l The UK has the 4th highest proportion of part-time workers, and the number wanting full time jobs increased from 8.5% in 2005 to 19% in 2014.
l In 2015 some 5.1 million employees worked on average 7.7 unpaid overtime hours per week. l Employers benefited to the tune of £35.1 billion in unpaid overtime. l Since 2010, those working more than 48 hours has risen by 15%. l Only workers in the UK, Ireland and Czech Republic retire at 68, compared to an average of 65.5 across the developed world.
l 6.7 million of the 13 million in poverty are in a family where someone works. l The ratio of CEO pay to average pay is 183:1 – the highest wage inequality in Europe.
l At least 3.7 million workers are reduced to zero-hour contracts. l In 9 of the last 11 quarterly surveys, Britain’s employees have been the least satisfied workers. l In 2014 it was reported that 15.2 million days were lost due to stress, depression and anxiety. l Around 1 in 3 UK workers say they are affected by workplace bullying.
What is the Manifesto?
The Manifesto aims to reverse the situation whereby British workers work more hours per week, more days per year, more years before they retire, and receive lower levels of pension than most of their European counterparts. It is not right that they get fewer paid holidays than almost all European comparators or that their pay is so low that a great
Matt Wrack, General Secretary, FBU:
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The FBU wholeheartedly supports the Institute’s plan to turn the economy and the British workplace, around: providing a strong voice to workers and offering the UK a real opportunity to reduce the inequality that has sadly become endemic in our society
proportion of them are in poverty, requiring the State to subsidise a greater proportion of low wage employers than almost anywhere else in Europe. The gender pay gap is at a wholly unacceptable level. Labour law has helped to mould this situation over the past 35 years. It can also be used to reverse it. The UK’s framework of law was born out of 19th century conditions and has failed to keep up with the modern world of work. It ignores today’s economic and workplace realities and is not fit for purpose in 21st century Britain. The Manifesto’s principle recommendation for reform is to shift the balance of regulation from legislation to collective bargaining. Its 25 comprehensive policy recommendations centre on building extensive sectoral collective bargaining structures underpinned by strong trade union rights and strengthend statutory employment rights. The IER Manifesto recommends a labour model closer to that of the UK’s major European competitors, the majority of which negotiate wages and working conditions at a sectoral level through the process of collective bargaining between trade unions and employers’ federations. Collective bargaining coverage averages at 62% in Europe and rises to 80% among the strongest
Tim Roache, General Secretary, GMB:
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By more clearly defining the term ‘worker’ in the law, as proposed by the IER in its Manifesto, we can prevent employers from claiming those who work under their umbrella are ‘self employed’ when in fact the employer has significant control over them
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The Manifesto for Labour Law was drafted by 15 leading labour lawyers and academics from some of the UK’s most prestigious universities in response to Jeremy Corbyn’s Workplace 2020 consultation. It has received backing from Jeremy Corbyn and his leadership team.
economies (Germany, Sweden, Norway and Denmark). It is estimated to have fallen below 20% in the UK, the second lowest in Europe. In the absence of collective bargaining, wages and conditions are set by the employer unilaterally. Much modern research has shown that high collective bargaining coverage diminishes inequality, boosts productivity and benefits the economy as a whole. It’s time for the UK to start respecting the rights of workers by moving towards an inclusive system of labour relations.
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Buy the full manifesto A Manifesto for Labour Law: towards a comprehensive revision of workers’ rights Edited by K D Ewing, John Hendy and Carolyn Jones
A Manifesto for Labour Law: towards a comprehensive revision of workers’ rights
The world of work has changed and with it the nature and role of the workforce. For the UK’s 31 million workers, many of the changes have had a devastating impact on their working lives and their living standards. The law needs to change. This Manifesto offers 25 major policy recommendations for consideration. It proposes changing the way in which working conditions are regulated by embedding the voice of workers at national, sectoral and enterprise levels. It moves responsibility for workplace regulation from legislation to collective bargaining. It calls for a Ministry of Labour and a National Economic Forum; sectoral collective bargaining; the repeal of the Trade Union Act 2016 and the introduction of fundamental and enforceable rights for workers.
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This is a timely, authoritative and extremely important contribution to the debate on the future of the world of work. It’s essential reading for trade union officials, lawyers, students and activists.
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