Asked by
To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to
legislate to ensure high standards of workers’ rights.
The Minister of State, Department for Business and Trade ( of Lainston) (Con)
Over the past year, we have proven our commitment to supporting
workers across the UK by raising the national living wage to its
highest rate yet. The Government are supporting six Private
Members’ Bills to increase workers’ rights. These deliver
enhanced protections for new parents, unpaid carers and
hospitality workers. They also give all employees easy access to
flexible working and workers the right to request a more
predictable contract.
(Lab)
My Lords, the Tories won the last election by promising
improvements to employment rights, but we have seen completely
the opposite. I am sick and tired of posing the same questions to
the Minister time and again concerning the protection of TUPE
legislation. We never get a straight answer, and I believe that
it is disrespectful to this House. The Minister’s attitude to
date has always been, “Let’s just wait and see.” That cannot
possibly be right when we have employers and employees wondering
what is coming round the corner—if, indeed, there are any
fundamental changes to the Government’s thoughts on employment
legislation. So, for the fourth time of asking: will the Minister
confirm that TUPE will remain to protect workers’ wages and terms
and conditions? Or, failing that, will he finally admit that the
British people were hoodwinked at the 2019 election?
of Lainston (Con)
I thank the noble Lord for raising this matter, and I think it
right that we look at employment rights. He asks what is coming
round the corner, and I will tell him: the Neonatal Care (Leave
and Pay) Bill, the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Bill, the
protection from redundancy Bill, the Carer’s Leave Bill, the
employment relations Bill and the Workers (Predictable Terms and
Conditions) Bill, all supported by the Government. Three of those
Bills were brought into this House on Friday with the wonderful
cross-party support of everyone here who believes in actually
doing something for workers and giving them the protections this
Government will afford them.
(Con)
My Lords, do not workers’ rights apply equally to all our school
leavers this summer, regardless of whether they were educated in
the independent or public sectors? If those rights do apply, why
has the Bank of England announced that independent sector pupils,
including those on bursaries, will be excluded from its education
presentations and group talks? Surely this is social
discrimination. Will my noble friend approach the Bank and ask it
to think again?
of Lainston (Con)
I thank my noble friend for that question. I saw that article
myself and I was surprised by it. It is not for me to comment on
the tour practices of the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street, but
this is certainly worth further inquiry.
(LD)
I want to come back to the issue of paid care workers. Care
workers are skilled workers who are often subject to low wages
and poor working conditions. Without urgent reform, this sector
will continue to suffer from high vacancies that jeopardise the
quality of care. Currently there are 165,000 vacancies, an
increase of 55,000 from last year. Is not the answer that if more
money is provided to these skilled workers, many of the problems
the care sector faces will no longer exist?
of Lainston (Con)
I appreciate the noble Lord’s point. It is an incredibly
important sector, and the approximately 1.5 million people who
work in it are to be cherished and celebrated. The Government
have put £7 billion into the sector over the last two years,
which clearly is a follow-on from the crisis we faced during
Covid. I will be pleased this afternoon to place a statutory
instrument before this House to raise the national living wage
and the minimum wage by a substantial 9.7%. All these things will
help, but I am always aware that we must do all we can to support
that important and vital sector.
The (CB)
My Lords, I think the Minister mentioned hospitality work.
Freelance work has been a long-term and growing aspect of the
economy, with 1.77 million freelancers contributing £125 billion
to the economy. What attention are the Government going to give
to those insecure workers’ rights?
of Lainston (Con)
I thank the noble Earl for that point. Hospitality has been an
important focus for this Government, which is why we are
introducing the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Bill, an
important measure to ensure that, when you tip, the money
actually goes to the service staff who have supported you. To my
surprise, and probably that of many other Members of this House,
in many instances it did not. These are the sort of Acts we
absolutely need to focus on, and I am always delighted to have
further conversations about how we can do more to protect this
vital sector.
(Lab)
My Lords, the employment Bill that was promised back in 2019 has
been promised time and again; in fact, on 20 different occasions
we have been promised a comprehensive Bill that would deal with
workers’ real concerns. Millions of workers in this country are
on zero-hours contracts, false self-employment or other forms of
temporary work, or stuck in low-paid employment, and now with the
prospect of real fears and concerns about what will happen to
their rights. Can the Minister explain why there has apparently
not been time to bring forward a Bill that would give workers
much-needed and urgent protection on everything from TUPE to
sexual harassment to insecure contracts, yet the Government have
found time to bring forward two red-rated Bills, on retained EU
law and strikes, that will make it harder for workers to stand up
for their rights?
of Lainston (Con)
I enjoyed that question because it bites into my time for
answering questions, so I thank the noble Baroness. It is very
relevant to realise that this Government have invested a huge
amount of time in focusing exactly on this, and I would like to
go through a few quick points. Apart from increasing pay by
raising minimum wage levels, we have extended the ban on
exclusivity clauses, which is vital for allowing flexibility in
the workforce; we have introduced legislation to ensure that an
equivalent to the minimum wage is paid to thousands of seafarers,
who are in a sector that is very important to this country and
needs protecting; we have closed loopholes that allowed agency
workers to be employed on cheaper rates than permanent workers;
and we have quadrupled the maximum fines for employers who treat
their workers badly. I have mentioned the list of employment
legislation that we are bringing in, and we continue to try to do
more. If you look at it in the round, better than having one
huge, complicated piece of legislation is getting these measures
through in their own way and actually making a difference to the
workers in this country. That is how I would prefer it.
(Con)
My Lords, the disability work gap remains stubbornly wide. Can
the Minister update the House on the workforce review being
conducted by the DWP, which is examining proposals for subsidies
for occupational health services that could close that gap?
of Lainston (Con)
I am grateful to my noble friend for that question. I am afraid
this is not my department, but I would be delighted to come back
to her with a Written Answer.
(Lab)
My Lords, both the Minister and I founded and ran our own
businesses before coming to this place. I hope he will agree not
just with me but with many business leaders and trade unionists,
such as my noble friend , that decent working
conditions for employees’ security, health and well-being
directly lead to improvements in productivity. Will he remind his
government colleagues that a surefire way to make UK plc more
productive would be to enshrine the highest standards of workers’
rights in legislation and not to seek to weaken or remove them
through the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill or the
Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill going through both
Houses?
of Lainston (Con)
I thank the noble Lord for that point and for the extraordinarily
high level of collaboration we engaged in last week when we were
doing exactly this: bringing in protections for workers—in this
case, the Carer’s Leave Bill, which will allow carers the
flexibility to have a much-needed one week of unpaid leave.
Ultimately, the best way to strengthen the workforce in this
country and to enable businesses to give pay rises is to
encourage the sorts of policies this Conservative Administration
have brought into play, which have resulted in nearly 4 million
new people in work, the average and minimum wages going up by
over £8,000 and—
Noble Lords
Oh!
of Lainston (Con)
This is important, because if you do not have a strong economy,
you cannot deliver the sorts of benefits this country needs and
the strength of pay, which is the most important thing in a
proper workforce.
(Con)
My Lords, I am sure the catalogue the Minister read out is
welcome to many people. I was here last Friday when we brought
some of those laws forward, but the fact of the matter is that
the wealth generators of this country who go to work every day
feel that the Government do not particularly see them as
colleagues. May I ask the Minister to do his best to get the
social partners back together again and, in particular, to meet
with the TUC and other people who want to improve the benefits
and productivity of this country so we can all work together as a
team?
of Lainston (Con)
I thank my noble friend for raising that point. It is important
that we work collaboratively, and my department does meet
regularly with the unions in terms of trade advisory groups. We
will continue to do so, and to collaborate to ensure that we have
the best framework for employment, employment rights and business
in this country.
