{"id":27556,"date":"2021-01-28T14:13:28","date_gmt":"2021-01-28T14:13:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=27556"},"modified":"2021-01-29T16:02:36","modified_gmt":"2021-01-29T16:02:36","slug":"government-ditches-workers-rights-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=27556","title":{"rendered":"Government ditches workers’ rights review"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Following pressure from Labour and trade unions, the government has taken yet another screeching U-turn after axing a review of EU-derived workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this month, the Financial Times<\/a><\/em> reported reported that a \u00e2\u20ac\u015bpackage of deregulatory measures\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 on employment rights<\/a> was in the works by the business department with the approval of the prime minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While new business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng initially dismissed the Financial Times<\/em> reports, he confirmed days later that the review of employment rights in the wake of the end of the Brexit transition period was indeed underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But last night, Kwarteng said in an interview with ITV\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Peston that the review would now be scrapped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSo the review is no longer happening within the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). I made it very, very clear to officials in the department that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not interested in watering down workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have been more clear about this on a number of occasions. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve said repeatedly that Brexit gives us the opportunity to have higher standards and a higher growth economy and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what officials in the department are 100% focused on.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Guardian<\/em> reported<\/a> that the review of employment rights was initially signed off by Alok Sharma, Kwarteng\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s predecessor, who left his post as business secretary recently to head up preparations for the Cop26 climate conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the changes to workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights reportedly considered in the now-axed review included scrapping the working time directive, which mandates a maximum average 48-hour work week, \u00e2\u20ac\u0098tweaking\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 regulations on rest breaks, excluding overtime pay in holiday pay entitlement calculations, and scrapping the requirement for employers to log working hours daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the review of employment rights was first confirmed by Kwarteng, Labour forced a vote on the issue <\/a>in an Opposition Day debate on Monday (January 25), demanding that the government rule out the changes to workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The motion was approved by 263 votes after Tory MPs were instructed to abstain. This is the third time that Opposition Day motions were ignored by Tory MPs as part of a new directive from prime minister Boris Johnson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Unite general secretary Len McCluskey welcomed the news that the review of employment rights was – at least for now – not going forward, he called on the government to make good on its promises to improve workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Parents and the low paid will breathe a sigh of relief that the Tories are not yet coming for their rights,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 McCluskey said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe epidemic of low pay and insecure work in this country are the real problems, not the basic rights of working people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Kwasi Kwarteng now has to put his money where his mouth is; if he wants to improve the lot of UK workers, then pick up the phone,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe’ve got a list ready to go.\u00c2\u00a0 He could start by outlawing the appalling fire and rehire practice that is laying waste to wages across the country, and fix sick pay so that being unwell and unable to work in this country is not a sure path to poverty.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Hajera Blagg<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following pressure from Labour and trade unions, the government has taken yet another screeching U-turn after axing a review of EU-derived workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights. Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported reported that a \u00e2\u20ac\u015bpackage of deregulatory measures\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 on employment rights was in the works by the business department with the approval of the prime minister. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27557,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[486,468,356],"wps_subtitle":"Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng says workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights review \u00e2\u20ac\u0098is no longer happening\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 following pressure from Labour and trade unions","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27556"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27556"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27581,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27556\/revisions\/27581"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}