As a long-time member of the UK workforce, as I’m sure millions of people will attest, that initial slog of proving yourself in a new role can be hard. This time in a new workplace always involves a bit of anxiety, making sure you’re getting the job done well and that the role is a good fit for both you and your employer.
But fear not trusty comrades! Ange is on the case! Her new Employment Rights Bill is promising the biggest shake-up in the workplace for a generation. And her so-called day one rights – which are part of her sweeping reforms – aim to scrap the whole notion of earning your stripes, with your contract protected in stone more or less from the very start. This includes maternity rights, paternity leave, sick pay from the moment you walk through the door.
Amongst her push for immediate rights for workers, is protection from unfair dismissal. This currently requires two years of continuous employment – but under her plan these rights would kick in after a brief probation period. However, even as someone who has never employed staff, I think the whole thing is hugely problematic. And here’s why.
Tory councillor Mieka Smiles is not impressed with Angela Rayner’s plans (Image: Getty)
Mieka Smiles says Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves are playing with the economy (Image: Getty)
We’ve all known those people who talk the talk but when it comes down to it are utterly terrible at their job. It is only fair, therefore, that people who are running businesses are able to just cut them loose without jumping through a million hoops to do so in fear of getting sued up to their eyeballs – and well before their privileges are earned.
As well as these day one rights and banning bosses from handing out zero-hour contracts, flexible working will be made a default for all. What on earth does that mean in practice? Hopefully – and I say this in jest – it won’t mean bin men cleaning the streets from their home office and Tesco cashiers logging on from their kitchen.
More seriously, though, I do have firsthand experience of the kind of impact this WFH diktat has, as it is in place at the local authority where I am a councillor. It not only means that some less conscientious employees are busy sticking on the tumble dryer rather than getting their job done, but it is also helping to kill our town centre.
Our once buzzing town hall that was brimming with people – that met in local cafes for a lunchtime coffee or nipped to the shops before heading home – are all but gone thanks to the work from home obsession. Now, like hundreds of town centres across the country, it’s becoming like a ghost town, with desperate business owners swimming against the tide.
And let’s not forget her insistence in all this to cede even more power to the unions – I mean crikey, read the room Ange! Little wonder, The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is super excited about their proposed new powers: from better access to workplaces through to less notice being needed for strike action. Her terrifying instinct is to effectively try and get all of the private sector operating like a badly-run Labour council: and we all know how that ends. If you’re not sure, Google Birmingham.
Lo and behold it seems as though employers agree with me, with new figures out today saying that confidence has never been so low due to this looming terror. In fact, it has panicked them that much that bosses are preparing to slash jobs and curb hiring. Optimism among employers has fallen to levels not seen outside of COVID according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). Not only that, a quarter of employees are planning to make redundancies.
James Cockett, an economist at CIPD, confirms what we all know – her Marxist interventions couldn’t come at a bloody worse time after her pal Rachel Reeves’ shocking attack on business with her punishing hikes in NICs.
He said in the Telegraph: “The Employment Rights Bill is landing in a fundamentally different landscape to the one expected when it formed part of the Labour manifesto in summer of last year,” he said. He added: “It was always going to be a huge change for employers, but they’re operating in an even more complex world now.”
So – just when the UK’s business needs another reason to panic, Angela Rayner has come up with the goods. The reality is that the only thing that Rayner’s New Deal for workers will transform is the UK into an even less productive, prosperous and business-friendly place, where unions call the shots and ambition is strangled to death by red tape. In summary? Less New Deal and more raw deal.
