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A New Deal for Workers: the Institute of Employment Rights on Covid and our rights
Prof K D Ewing and Lord John Hendy QC say the pandemic has strengthened the case for an overhaul of workplace rights
The US reprisal of global nuclear proliferation, threatening a new arms race, could push the world to the brink of annihilation, warns SOPHIE BOLT of CND
SCIENCE AND SOCIETY ask how an 80-tonne whale that lives 200 years is so resistant to cancer
October 2025 was another Black History Month. Has Britain learned anything – or are we going backwards, asks CLAUDIA WEBBE
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VINCE MILLS sizes up the problems facing Your Party north of the border as it grapples with a range of policies, including its approach to Scottish independence
MARK SERWOTKA issues a rallying call to those committed to building a new radical socialist party of the working class to commit to real democracy, not imaginary or performative gestures
Before Covid, a team of experts set out, for the Institute of Employment Rights (IER), a transformative programme for future work relations in Britain. The aim? To improve the poor working conditions prevalent in this country pre-Covid, since exposed and made worse by the pandemic.
Pre-Covid conditions
- Average wages had not increased in real terms for 12 years;
- 5.1 million people earned less than the real living wage (£9.30 per hour);
- 8.3 million people in working households lived in poverty;
- 1 million workers were on zero-hours contracts;
- 3.6 million workers were in insecure work;
- 75 per cent of workers were on terms and conditions determined unilaterally by employers.
Covid impact
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The Bill addresses some exploitation but leaves trade unions heavily regulated, most workers without collective bargaining coverage, and fails to tackle the balance of power that enables constant mutation of bad practice, write KEITH EWING and LORD JOHN HENDY KC
It is only trade union power at work that will materially improve the lot of working people as a class but without sector-wide collective bargaining and a right to take sympathetic strike action, we are hamstrung in the fight to tilt back the balance of power, argues ADRIAN WEIR
Falling short of what was promised: many of the new rights in the Employment Rights Bill have defects or escape loopholes that all need addressing, writes LORD JOHN HENDY KC
The Employment Rights Bill is a vital opportunity to rebalance power between workers and employers. As it passes to the Lords, pressure must be brought to bear to strengthen this key legislation, argues ANDY McDONALD MP