Latest editorial
A TORY minister yesterday talked out a Bill which would ban unpaid trial shifts that exploit vulnerable jobseekers who “don’t know their rights and can’t stand up for them.”
SNP MP Stewart McDonald said current legislation was “insufficient” in dealing with unpaid trials.
He said that his Unpaid Trial Work Periods (Prohibition) Bill would help people with learning disabilities who he said were more likely to “fall victim” to the practice.
The new Employment Rights Act is a step forward, but restoring collective bargaining and union power remains essential to tackling insecurity, outsourcing and low pay, says PAUL WHITEHOUSE
Employment lawyer ALICE BOWMAN warns ‘day one rights’ include an undefined ‘initial period’ and the zero-hours contract fixes create baffling fixed-term loopholes. If the Bill doesn’t work properly and deliver, Labour is doomed
CWU leader DAVE WARD tells Ben Chacko a strategy to unite workers on class lines is needed – and sectoral collective bargaining must be at its heart
Labour must not allow unelected members of the upper house to erode a single provision of the Employment Rights Bill, argues ANDY MCDONALD MP