Worker protection Bill goes AWOL

摘要

The government failed to include in the Queen's Speech on 10 May its oft-promised Employment Bill to improve workers' rights, meaning that it has not met commitments in its 2019 election manifesto and in the 2019 Queen's Speech, despite ministers repeatedly insisting that they would introduce the measures in an Employment Bill. The TUC, for example, references 20 occasions between 3 March 2020 and 22 March 2022 on which just two ministers at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) committed to, or promised to bring forward, the Bill. In the background briefing notes to the Queen's Speech that followed the 2019 election, the section on "supporting workers and families" allocated two pages to an Employment Bill that would: 1. "protect and enhance workers' rights as the UK leaves the EU, making Britain the best place in the world to work"; 2. "promote fairness in the workplace, striking the right balance between the flexibility that the economy needs and the security that workers deserve"; 3. "make flexible working the default unless employers have good reason not to". This was subject to consultation, which ended on 1 December 2021, with BEIS currently analysing the responses (HSB 509 p.8); 4. "strengthen workers' ability to get redress for poor treatment by creating a new, single enforcement body". Although the government confirmed on 8 June 2021 that it would introduce such a body, there has been no progress since (HSB 509 p.15); and 5. "build on existing employment law with measures that protect those in low-paid work and the gig economy." This would include "introducing a new right for all workers to request a more predictable contract".