Labour capitulates to big business on workers’ rights
Trade unions stop funding Labour and build a real party for workers
Jim McFarlane – UNISON NEC member (personal capacity)
In an utter capitulation to big business lobbying, Starmer’s government is abandoning another key part of its workers’ rights bill.
The right to protection from unfair dismissal from the first day of employment is now gone. It’s been replaced by a six-month clause.
Unbelievably, the leader of the TUC has accepted the betrayal. “The absolute priority now is to get these rights – like day one sick pay – on the statute book so that working people can start benefiting from them from next April,” argued TUC general secretary, Paul Nowak.
Labour’s business secretary, Peter Kyle, told the CBI conference recently that he would ensure that businesses would not “lose” as a result of the changes.
The legalisation is barely recognisable from its original version. Not only has protection from day one of employment been ditched, a ban on zero hours contracts has also gone, as has an end to fire and rehire, giving businesses the right to use this tactic if changes are unavoidable to ensure viability.
What’s left? Who knows! What about the ending of the Tory anti-union laws, including the 50% threshold for strike ballots? In fact the entire panoply of anti-union legalisation could have been done away with in the first week of a Labour government.
Instead Starmer and his cronies have consciously delayed, allowing for wrecking amendments from the House of Lords to delay the legislation even further.
As it is, most of the planned changes to workers’ rights are being delayed upon implementation, Some will be introduced on April 2026, some in October next year and others will be left until 2027 to allow “business to prepare”.
This confirms what every trade unionist knows. You can’t trust Starmer or Labour with workers’ rights. It’s time to end trade union funding for Labour and for the unions to take the lead in building a mass workers’ party with socialist policies that knows which side of the class struggle to fight on.
