Analysis
By s1jobs
Brazen and shameless, last month’s admission in Parliament by P&O boss Peter Hebblethwaite that his company knowingly broke the law by sacking 800 workers without notice should have immediately injected urgency into the push to create a legal framework fit for the modern employment market. That a coalition of 1,000 businesses responded by banding together to call for a “Better Business Act” to avoid such scandals in the future says all about the scale of contempt on display by P&O executives.
Instead, however, reports are that the UK Government is postponing plans to give workers more predictable employment, the right to flexible terms, better protection for pregnant employees, and a single agency to enforce workers’ rights. Originally promised in the Conservative party election manifesto of 2019, the long-awaited Employment Bill is not expected to feature in next month’s Queen’s Speech.
Questioned by the Financial Times, an unnamed government official said there wasn’t enough time in the coming season to put together a new Employment Bill – “we can’t do everything we want to do immediately”. The actions of Mr Hebblethwaite & Co have seemingly not been enough to move the reform of employment law up the agenda, yet surely the changes wrought by the pandemic should on their own provide sufficient impetus?
Anita North, head of employment law at Simpson Millar, is among those who argue that the Employment Bill isn’t a “nice to have”, but rather an essential piece of legislation.
“Further delays to its introduction is totally at odds with the needs of workers post-pandemic, many of whom have been asked by their employers to work flexibly over the last two years to keep businesses afloat, yet without the same legal rights in return,” she said.
READ MORE: Employers must plan for recruiting refugees
“Whilst there is no doubt that most businesses do place great importance on the needs of their staff, there are many that do not. For those workers, of which there are thousands, these reports will come as a bitter blow.”
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has also reacted with predictable fury, describing the decision to drop the bill as a betrayal of workers which sends the message that the Government is “happy for rogue employers to treat staff like dirt”.
The second reading of the Employment Bill is scheduled on May 6, so there could yet be hopes for its revival. Without it, employees’ rights will remain seriously adrift of modern-day working practices.
Search the latest jobs in Scotland at s1jobs.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here