The UK’s most senior trade unionist has urged the government to deliver its Employment Rights Bill in full, amid fears it would be watered down as some of its key backers left the cabinet.
Addressing the Trades Union Congress (TUC) annual conference, Paul Nowak, the group’s general secretary, echoed Unison’s Christina McAnae, who said it would be a “huge mistake” for the government to water down the bill which is due to become law in a few weeks.
The legislation would be a major shake-up of workers’ rights, including protection against unfair dismissal and a ban on “exploitative” zero-hours contracts.
The government said it was “absolutely backing” the bill.
Speaking to journalists, the prime minister’s spokesperson said: “We are a pro-worker, pro-business government and the workers’ rights legislation is the single biggest upgrade of workers’ rights in a generation.”
At the TUC conference in Brighton, senior union figures voiced their concerns that the bill would be watered down following the departure of Angela Rayner, the sacking of Justin Madders as employment minister and the decision to move Jonathan Reynolds from business secretary to chief whip.
A senior Labour MP also told the BBC that the bill risks being ”slow walked” because ministers may be tempted to favour businesses in an environment where the economy is under strain and growth is desperately needed.
Unions have been concerned that amendments to the bill, added by the House of Lords, could drop day one employment tribunals and the right to guaranteed hours. However, the prime minister’s spokesperson said the government would be overturning these amendments.
Nowak said previous Conservative governments had left a “toxic legacy” and argued that Labour’s promise of change at the last election doesn’t feel like “a lived reality” for many people in the UK.
He added that the government must do more for working class communities, and that the government must “deliver the employment rights bill and deliver it in full”.
He also called for the two child benefit cap to be lifted – paid for by new taxes on wealth, such as taxing surges in bank profits, known as a windfall tax.
There was a similar message from Sharon Graham, the leader of the Unite union – though her warning to Labour has financial as well as political consequences.
At her own union’s conference in the summer, delegates voted overwhelmingly to re-examine its relationship with Labour.
She has now told the BBC that at a future Unite conference, there will be an opportunity to sever a long-standing link which is worth around £1.3m a year to Labour.
She said: “Instinctively, workers don’t feel that Labour is on their side. We will be giving our members the opportunity to vote on whether to remain part of Labour when the time comes.
“If that vote was today, I think they’d vote to disaffiliate. There’s no doubt about that in my mind.”
Graham predicted that Reform UK would be the chief beneficiaries if Labour failed to improve standards of living. She argued that “unless Labour do something quite radical”, then “they are going to find themselves in huge difficulty.”
She added: “They’ve got about a year to get this right. And if they don’t do that, people will start moving away from them, and I don’t believe they’ll go back.”
Nowak also had a message for Reform’s leader, Nigel Farage: “Ignore your wealthy backers and vote for the Employment Rights Bill.”
He asked Farage to come clean about whose side he’s “really on”.
“You’re not representing working people – you’re selling them out,” he said.
Labour has said it is delivering the biggest uplift in workers’ rights in a generation and that wages are now rising faster than prices.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said that the next phase of government will focus on “delivery, delivery, delivery” of its promises.
The BBC has contacted Reform and the Conservative party for comment.
