As the leaders of the unions that are part of the Labour Party, we represent around 4 million workers in every sector and part of the country.
After years of austerity and falling living standards, last year the country voted decisively for change. This must be a turning point. Labour was elected because working people desperately need their living standards to improve.
To do that, the Government must stand firm on workers’ rights. The New Deal for Working People – Labour’s plan to Make Work Pay – will make work better and more secure, and raise wages and improve working conditions. The Government knows this is the right thing to do for workers and for the economy.
Now is the time to face down the naysayers, see these essential commitments through, and ensure that the measures in the Employment Rights Bill will work in practice to deliver the change so urgently needed.
(
PA)
Every Government talks about growing the economy. The change this Government must bring is ensuring the economy grows and operates in the best interests of working people.
That is why ministers’ commitments to raise living standards in every part of the country is so critical. After the most severe squeeze on incomes in living memory, we must leave behind the low pay and precarious jobs that have defined the last few decades.
Raising living standards starts with investment: in the public services that ensure our workforces are skilled, healthy and thriving, and in the infrastructure that connects and fuels our economy. It takes an industrial strategy that brings good, secure and unionised jobs across the whole country.
And it requires the rebalancing of rights at work – because that is how we make working people’s lives more secure, putting money directly into their pockets. Money that will be spent in local high streets and small businesses, kickstarting a virtuous circle that grows the economy.
The push back against the Employment Rights Bill, the crucial first step in delivering the Make Work Pay, is as predictable as it is tired. We’ve been here before, when the doom-mongers, including in the Conservative Party, said that the national minimum wage would cause business closures, job losses and the sky to fall in.
We saw how wrong they were. A million workers, overwhelmingly women, were lifted out of poverty pay overnight. This is not some kind of business vs workers show-down. That is a false narrative peddled by those with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.
Better employment standards, improved worker well-being and a secure labour market is good for employees, good for employers and good for the economy. Good employers know there is nothing to fear in the Bill – 83% of managers agree that improving workers’ rights can positively impact workplace productivity.
Raising the bar on employment standards simply prevents bad employers who drive down pay and conditions from undercutting those who do the right thing. These measures are not a block on growth – they are how the UK gets the growth it needs.
Even modest improvements as a result of the Bill would net the economy more than £13bn a year. This is why the measures to ensure unions can increase collective bargaining coverage are so important, because it’s by getting workers and employers round the table working together that we increase productivity, raise wages and boost growth.
Last summer, the people of this country voted for change they can see and feel – and put their trust in Labour to make it happen. The stakes are high, and voters’ expectations are higher still.
No Government is perfect, and this one hasn’t got everything right, but now is the time to double down on delivering the change people voted for – fair economic growth built on good, secure jobs and decent wages. Let’s stand firm and fully deliver Labour’s New Deal for Working People.
Signed:
Mick Whelan ASLEF
Roy Rickhuss Community
Dave Ward CWU
Steve Wright FBU
Gary Smith GMB
Naomi Pohl Musicians’ Union
Chris Kitchen NUM
Maryam Eslamdoust TSSA
Christina McAnea UNISON
Sharon Graham UNITE
Paddy Lillis USDAW