Minister calls for House of Lords ‘again invoice’ to tug Britain into twenty first century
Business Secretary Peter Kyle urged the House of Lords to stop holding up the Employment Rights Bill, which is currently going through ‘ping-pong’ in Parliament
Peers should now get behind Labour’s massive overhaul of workers’ rights that drags Britain into the 21st century, Peter Kyle has demanded.
The Business Secretary urged the House of Lords to stop holding up the Employment Rights Bill, which is currently going through ‘ping-pong’ in Parliament. Today the landmark legislation promised in Labour’s election winning manifesto will return to the Commons to consider peer’s amendments.
It comes after the government infuriated many of its own MPs after watering down its commitment to provide day one protections from unfair dismissal in an attempt to end the gridlock at Westminster. Ministers were worried that if the legislation failed to make it onto the statute books before Christmas then new rights promised for April would be delayed.
READ MORE: Angela Rayner leads push to speed up workers’ rights bill after Government U-turnREAD MORE: Minister defends watering down Angela Rayner’s flagship Bill amid backlash
Speaking to The Mirror, Mr Kyle said: “This will be a landmark law which drags Britain’s outdated workplace rights into the 21st Century and gives every worker the protections they deserve. It brings sick pay and paternity leave from the first day you start a job, guarantees bereavement leave, bans NDAs used to silence people, and ends fire-and-rehire and exploitative zero-hours contracts.
“We believe that everyone deserves dignity and respect at work but Nigel Farage and Reform have said they would repeal this law and allow workers to be exploited. I refuse to let that happen. That’s why I’m calling on the House of Lords to back this bill and give workers the security they’re owed.”
Ministers had feared a rebellion, led by Angela Rayner, who originally spearheaded the legislation as Deputy PM. The ex-Cabinet minister was planning to lay an amendment so the new qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims comes into force next year – rather than in 2027. But the plan was pulled last week after she reached a compromise with Mr Kyle.
Ms Rayner has been working with former Employment Minister Justin Madders and other MPs to shore up the bill amid anger over stalling by Tory and Lib Dem peers. Mr Madders said: “I think we would all rather be in a place where we are sticking to the letter of what’s in the manifesto, but I understand why we have not been able to do that.
“We’ve got to be clear that we can’t keep coming back and picking holes in the manifesto every time the Lords or some other lobby group decides they don’t like bits of it”.
Labour MP for York Central Rachael Maskell warned further changes risked damaging trust in politics. She said: “The biggest issue we’re facing at the moment is trust in politics. We made a serious commitment to workers that their employment would not be able to unfairly dismiss them. It felt like from that negotiation, one point left in the bill, the unions came away with nothing.
“The government didn’t try to reach in and find a remedy to retain that trust with workers, and there is where I find it an extraordinary negotiation, if it was a negotiation at all. Ultimately it is about the terms and conditions for workers, and workers don’t believe that this is good enough, and that’s why the empty hand outcome is a massive disappointment.”
Other MPs aimed their fury at the peers who had delayed the bill with “shenanigans”. Labour Nadia Whittome MP said: “I’m furious that the Lords, who are not elected, have forced the watering down of day-one rights against unfair dismissal that formed part of our manifesto. Instead of rolling over, the government should be vigorously pushing back.”
