Andrew Griffith: Labour’s Employment Rights Bill will not increase employment and isn’t right

Andrew Griffith is the Shadow Secretary of State for Business & Trade

Welcome to Labour’s ‘disco of discontent’.  We have all the old hits line up to you, whether you’re trade unionist, a work-shy lefty, or a full-time socialist: DJ’s Rayner, Reeves and Reynolds (aka ‘The Job Killers’) will be rocking your favourite 1970s hits.

That, with some creative license taken, is the fearful reality that businesses face in a few months’ time.  A summer of the Chancellor trash talking the economy, then a budget of broken promises which have predictably delivered a per-capita recession.

But if this was the initial assault, next week marks the beginning of the ground invasion as Labour seek to upend decades of settled employment law that could see Britain remade as one of the worst places to employ people. That is the promise of the misleadingly named Employment Rights Bill.

This trade union inspired tome runs to almost 200 pages and over 130 individual clauses.  If that sounds like a lot to cover in one ConHome article, consider how much work it will be for the millions of small businesses across the UK.

Instead, here are the five worst tracks on the album that will take us straight back to the 70s filled with Scargill, strikes, and stagnation.

Short notice strikes

For decades all major parties recognised the collateral damage done by industrial action.  Train drivers or railway workers going on strike doesn’t just affect those they negotiate with.  These strikes ripple across the entire economy with businesses and individuals scrambling to adjust to disputes they have no influence over.

Now labour plan to cut notice to just 10 days.  Why? So strikes will hurt more! The result could be billions more lost in the economy.  Even public services will struggle.  A railway strike could mean hospitals struggling to staff wards at the last minute and patients suffering as a result.

The Banter Ban

As if pubs have not suffered enough following a rise in employer NI (and a cut in the threshold it begins to be paid at), rising business rates, and the family business tax, landlords are now being conscripted into Labour’s banter police.

While nobody would argue against preventing sexual harassment (a separate provision of the bill), Labour have gone further and now want businesses including pub landlords, sports venues, and universities to prevent their employees from even overhearing third party conversations they might find offensive.

The reality will be a crackdown across the country with pubs required to serve up pints of woke lest the most fragile of snowflakes take offence.

The end of flexible and seasonal hours

In an attempt to end ‘zero hour’ contracts, the Government have thrown the baby out with the bathwater, opting to ban any kind of flexibility in contracts.  Even when it’s the employee wanting the flexibility.

The result in retail and hospitality is catastrophic.  Being forced to offer set ‘guaranteed hours’ means that even where a hard-working student working part time wants to pick up extra hours over his holidays, businesses who need the manpower won’t offer them.  The result is poorly staffed shops at peak times and poorer workers.

A return to picket punch ups and workplace intimidation

Where the bill piles on the red tape for businesses, it is conspicuously doing quite the opposite for trade unions.  Requirements to have properly trained picket supervisors and to bear responsibility for what goes on at their own pickets are dropped, along with the Code of Practice that governs picketing.  Sadly, the consequence could be a wholesale return to the tactics of the 70s that saw flash mobs, intimidation of families at their homes and even violence become commonplace again.

Similarly, the introduction of digital ‘swipe to strike’ ballots remove protections designed to stop trade union reps from bullying workers into voting to strike at the workplace.  It makes as much sense as having the Government look over your shoulder as you fill in your ballot at the election.

Who funds you? Follow the money.

Where is the upside in all of this?  Why are Labour so keen on a Bill that will kill growth at a time the economy is struggling and the Prime Minister talks of being on a ‘war footing’. Look no further than the Bill’s provisions on the ‘political fund’.  This is money unions collect, and which members normally opt-in to.  It ends up making up the tens of millions Labour received from unions in the last Parliament.  It also funds countless other far-left causes.

The Bill changes the political fund to an opt-out subscription trap.  It’s the same sort of trap that the Government themselves opposed when it’s used to sell beauty products or phone contracts.  The result will undoubtedly be a herculean boost to Labour’s coffers and perhaps explains why so many on the Government benches are so excited about this “once in a generation deal”.

So, if after reading all that you’re starting to hear the sounds of the 70s ringing in your ears, you’re probably not alone.  This bill would do immense damage to the economy – much of it long lasting.  There is a reason why Tony Blair and Gordon Brown chose not to undo decades of careful trade union reforms: even they recognised how dangerous it would be.

Unfortunately, Keir Starmer has repeatedly shown himself to sit far to the left of Blair and has no such compunctions.

The Conservatives will be opposing this bill next week when it returns to the chamber.  We are putting forward amendments to stop the horrors listed above and much more.

Nonetheless, we can’t do it on our own.  The best thing that could happen to this bill for now would be for Labour to recognise the danger coming down the track and to, at the very least, press pause.  So, if you’re the ‘writing-to-your-MP-type’, now may be a good time to do so.