Justin Madders
MP for Ellesmere Port and Bromborough · Labour · United Kingdom
“Friend the Member for Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard asked about, will consider the points raised in this debate and whether any of them can be put into future updates to guidance. As was mentioned, good passenger information is central to standards.”
“As the roads Minister, I of course recognise the importance of bus stops and the important effect they have on the streetscape. My hon. Friend the Member for Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard made clear that she is passionate and informed about the importance of bus journeys to everyone.”
“Where responsibility for highways or individual assets sits elsewhere, close and effective working between the relevant authorities is essential. We expect local plans to join up services, infrastructure and passenger information, rather than treating them as separate issues. That will no doubt be music to the ears of my hon.”
“Our guidance encourages authorities to take a strategic approach to stops and interchanges, including keeping an inventory of infrastructure, identifying priorities for investment and setting locally appropriate standards for facilities and maintenance.”
“She is absolutely right that the quality of a bus stop is about more than accessibility, although of course accessibility is vital. Passengers notice whether a stop is easy to find and use, whether it offers shelter or seating where appropriate, whether it is clean, whether the surroundings feel safe and well maintained and, as we have di…”
“That approach reflects a simple principle: local transport authorities know their areas and are best placed to plan improvements across the whole local bus network. That is why the Department’s vision for buses, within an integrated transport system, puts local transport authorities at the centre of delivery.”
The complete record
Every one of 8,481 lines we hold for Justin Madders, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 51 of 170.
“There is an exemption from this requirement already in place for businesses with fewer than 10 employees if there are not already representatives in place, but as the Minister outlined, this will now be extended to larger businesses: specifically, it will change the collective consultation requirements of businesses that employ fewer than 50 employees where a transfer affects fewer than 10 people. We have concerns about that. We know how lax the Government have been about consultation requirements in other areas of the law, and I need not remind the Committee of the fact that some 43,000 employers have resorted to fire and rehire in recent years.”
“Did the Government consider any other approaches? If they did, I would be grateful if the Minister told us what other approaches were considered before this decision was arrived at. Finally, as if that were not enough change to be included in one piece of secondary legislation, we also have a few provisions to amend the TUPE regulations. Under existing rules, in advance of a transfer of a business, the current employer and new employer need to inform and consult with the affected workers’ existing representatives—typically trade union reps—or arrange elections for representatives. For the record, I refer to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial interests and my trade union membership.”
“Is he not a little bit concerned that the BMA says the removal of these records will have “a profound, long lasting and damaging impact” on the NHS? We argue that better enforcement and strengthening of the law to prevent workers from being exploited is needed, not regulations that fly in the face of court judgements. It would be easier to accept the Government’s arguments that these requirements are too onerous for a business were there not already stringent obligations on employers to keep records to show compliance with the national minimum wage. It seems clear to me that putting in requirements to ensure that workers are not overworked would not only have health and safety benefits, but would lead to a productive and happier workforce. Would businesses not prefer alternative ways of monitoring the hours of their employees?”
“In the context of enduring NHS pressures and the scale of stuff for the staffing crisis, such a change to the recording of daily working hours poses significant risk to staff retention and wellbeing, as well as having a detrimental impact on patient care.” The BMA also says: “Without guarantees that the hours they have worked will be accurately remunerated or that they will not be subject to rotas which breach the safeguards that protect them and their patients, more doctors could leave the NHS. The health service cannot afford to lose any more doctors.” I think we all understand where the BMA is coming from. What discussions has the Minister had with his ministerial colleagues in the Department for Health and Social Care?”
“Ensuring that workers are able to work safely is more important than the pursuit of profit. This matters not just in private businesses, but in the public sector as well. The British Medical Association says: “From the perspective of doctors, it is essential that the daily working hours are recorded to ensure both that doctors are fairly paid for the hours they are working rather than those that are scheduled to work (which are routinely a significant underestimation of how long a doctor will have to work depending on what kind of shift they undertake) and the working hours of doctors do not exceed the contractual and legislative safeguards put in place. Any attempt to undermine the recording of these hours will have a profound, long lasting and damaging impact on doctors and the wider functioning of the NHS.”
“The proposals also contradict the 2019 judgment in Federación de Servicios de Comisiones Obreras v. Deutsche Bank, which stated that the employers must have an objective, reliable and accessible system enabling the duration of time worked each day by each worker to be measured. The case held that records must be kept in relation to the right to a minimum daily rest period of 11 consecutive hours in each 24-hour period; the right to a minimum uninterrupted period of rest of 24 hours in each seven day period; and of course the maximum weekly working time limit. That judgment made it clear that record keeping was, in fact, important for the health and safety of workers, and was not something that could become subservient to pure economic factors. That is surely right.”
“Now, the regulations will say, in effect, “You can keep records if you like, but you don’t have to.” Making sure that employers keep these records is already an issue—the impact assessment found that 26% of businesses do not formally record the working hours of their workforce—and enforcement is so pitiful that the Health and Safety Commission records only one prosecution in respect to this since 2007, despite the labour force survey showing that, since 2012, the proportion of night workers working over eight hours per day has risen from 40% to 50%—again, beyond the legal maximum. It is clear that workers are not being adequately protected now, so it seems perverse in the extreme to weaken protections further by removing these reporting requirements.”
“The change also ignores the Government’s consultation, which showed that 70% of respondents said that holiday pay should be paid at the same rate. The Minister said that the Government chose not to make that change in response to stakeholders’ concerns, but it is clear from the consultation responses that most stakeholders thought it was a good idea. Why did he take a different view? Turning to changes to record keeping and the changes to TUPE. Under the current regulations employers must keep adequate records to show that the working time for all workers does not exceed 48 hours a week.”
“Even the simple act of equalising the way different elements of holiday entitlement are calculated could have saved businesses money because it would mean that they had to make fewer calculations. It would have guaranteed parity for everyone on all elements of their holiday pay. It would also have been consistent with what our courts said as recently as October, when the Supreme Court, in its judgment in Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland v. Agnew and others, specifically held that all paid annual leave, from wherever it is derived, must be viewed as a composite whole and forms part of the same pot. Yet the regulations do the opposite. They not only override UK court decisions, but fail to take the opportunity to level up—something that the Government claim they wish to do for people throughout the country.”
“That will almost certainly require further litigation in the courts, which will come at a further cost to businesses and employees and add further strain to an already stretched court system. The impact assessment suggests that there will be significant savings to business, but does not appear to consider the costs of satellite litigation while the mess is cleared up. If the savings from reducing reporting requirements will really be £1.2 billion a year, why on earth did not the Government take the opportunity to level up holiday pay so that the additional 1.6 weeks could be paid at the same potentially higher rate that the four weeks is paid at?”
“Do the regulations mean that the hundreds of thousands of term-time only staff who work for education employers and are paid a salary across 12 months, but for the 39 weeks that they work each year, will not be affected? Again, will the Minister clarify that in his closing remarks? The draft regulations are inconsistent and appear at odds with existing requirements for the calculation of a week’s pay under the Employment Rights Act 1996. The side-effect of that is important because calculating a week’s pay is necessary for separate employment rights, such as statutory redundancy pay and maternity/paternity pay. The definitions may not be clear, but what is clear is that there will be a great deal of uncertainty.”
“It is equally unclear whether regulations intend to restrict the definition to zero-hours contract workers or whether those on short-hours contracts, whereby a worker has a small number of guaranteed hours with variable work on top, will also be included. What about those workers who have more than one contract with an employer or do variable hours for part of the year and fixed hours for another part? Will the Minister clarify their position before the regulations become law? I am afraid that the definition of a part-year worker is not much clearer. I note that the proposed definition excludes workers with annual contracts who are not required to work for parts of the year when they are not paid.”
“A worker is classified as working irregular hours in the regulations “if the number of paid hours that they will work in each pay period during the term of their contract in that year is, under the terms of their contract, wholly or mostly variable.” What “each pay period” means is not clear, and neither is the phrase “wholly or mostly variable”. Who can say whether they work wholly or mostly variable hours? Where is the tightness in that definition? What will the Minister do to ensure clarity about that? On one reading, the regulations mean that every worker who periodically works paid overtime could be impacted by the changes. Such an interpretation would cause chaos. I hope that the Minister will clarify that in his closing speech.”
“We are talking about almost a quarter of a billion pounds a year in cash coming straight out of people’s pockets. Is the Minister proud that his Government are doing that during a cost of living crisis? Is that levelling up? Is that a benefit of Brexit? Overall, the regulations represent detrimental changes to the rights of irregular hours and part-year workers. One would expect, at the very least, the definitions of those workers to be tighter. However, several stakeholders have raised concerns that the definitions of irregular hours and part-year workers in proposed new regulation 15F are vague and will leave workers and employers uncertain about their rights. One stakeholder called them “a mess” that “beg more questions than they answer”.”
“What is included in the regulations completely undermines a sovereign UK court’s decision—our own Supreme Court, not the European Court of Justice. What efforts will the Government make to assist workers who have difficulty in accessing their full holiday entitlement because of the way the new accrual system will work? The worst aspect is probably that the Government appear to be focusing on effectively cutting holiday pay entitlement for some workers. The impact assessment calculates that workers could lose up to £248 million a year as a result of reducing the amount of paid holiday accrued by irregular hours and part-time workers. Described euphemistically in the impact assessment as a “transfer to employers” that is an astonishing and strange priority for the Government.”
“That, by the way, was a UK Supreme Court decision, which secured the principle that all workers are entitled to a minimum of 5.6 weeks’ annual leave per year, to be paid at the ordinary rate of pay. The Supreme Court specifically rejected the employer’s argument that the statutory minimum paid annual leave entitlement should be calculated on the basis of 12.07% of the annual hours worked. It reinforced the point that statutory minimum paid annual leave does not “accrue” through each annual leave year; rather, the 5.6 weeks’ leave exists to be taken when the worker requests it. It is clear that that decision did not please the Government as the draft regulations have clearly been designed to reverse the effect of the judgment.”
“There is a risk that including holiday pay as part of the hourly rate could be presented as an increase in wages or a reason to hold down pay. Owing to the complexity of the arrangement many may not realise that, in receiving rolled up holiday pay, their entitlement to paid time off is no longer there. Has the Minister considered those impacts—particularly given that the regulations also contain looser requirements for monitoring hours worked? What steps will be taken to ensure that low paid workers are protected from exploitation? The other key change under the regulations is to make annual leave different in respect of the decision made in Harpur Trust v . Brazel, which the Minister mentioned, in 2021.”
“I suggest that no problem is being solved—there is no overwhelming call for a particular problem to be fixed. This is an ideological move. The ideological approach is especially true of the proposal in the regulations to place entirely in the employer’s hand whether to allow a conventional paid holiday or rolled up holiday pay for irregular and part-year workers. Why is that the employer’s rather than the worker’s decision? It is clear that the measure will exacerbate the disparity of power in many workplaces. Workers on low pay and who are vulnerable will more likely end up with sub-optimal annual leave arrangements, with very little real power to challenge them. They are also liable to be exploited by employers, who can use the added complexity around the role of holiday pay to make their remuneration less generous.”
“Indeed, the original directive had health and safety at its heart, recognising that daily, weekly and annual time off were essential for a worker’s wellbeing. I do not think that ensuring that people have sufficient time off from work ought to be considered a controversial proposition, but the Government have now, in part at least, abandoned that principle. That begs the question of why they have decided to make the changes. It is not as if the consultation that they launched earlier this year showed a resounding support for the move; in fact, 45% of the respondents to the consultation were of the view that the changes should not be introduced. Only 12% registered their support. Given that there is so little support, why have the Government gone ahead and introduced the changes?”
“That interpretation of the law has been replicated since in numerous courts in both the UK and the EU. Rolled up holiday pay is when workers receive their holiday pay as it accrues as part of their normal wages. That means that a worker receives payment for leave but it does not mean that they are given an express right to take their leave. They are not paid for when they do take time off, so there is a perverse incentive not to take the time off and instead to accrue the holiday pay entitlement. In practice—this is absolutely clear; there is no ambiguity about this—rolled up holiday pay can be a deterrent to taking time off work. We know how important time off and rest is to a worker’s health and wellbeing and how important it is to maintain healthy and safe workplaces.”
“Although we welcome the Government’s U-turn on the original Bill that removed the threat of the automatic sunset on all regulations, there is still a cliff edge on the interpretative effects of retained EU law, and that is coming rapidly into sight. We have until the end of this month to restate those interpretations because they will no longer apply from 1 January 2024; opposing the regulations outright would risk the loss of those protections. First I will consider holiday pay, which appears to be most affected by the regulations. Perhaps the most controversial element of the changes is the introduction—reintroduction, should I say—of rolled up holiday pay, which was considered unlawful following the 2006 European Court of Justice decision Robinson-Steele v . RD Retail Services.”
“Workers cannot risk losing those protections and we must not put them in jeopardy. I start with the restated elements. We are encouraged that important principles from the working time regulations and its associated case law will be restated into British law. The right to carry over annual leave when an employee has been unable to take it due to being on maternity or sick leave, and in situations where an employer has failed to inform them of their right to take it, are important principles that need retaining. Taken in isolation, those protections are undoubtedly welcome, but they are part of a wider package that contains controversial elements that we would never support. That is why it is disappointing that we will not be able to vote on individual elements of the package but will vote on the whole lot.”
“There is no doubt that the regulations will have a negative impact, in particular, on irregular and part-year workers, as well as having the potential to impact on the EU-UK trade and co-operation agreement, which contains a non-regression clause on workers’ rights. The Minister said when he opened this debate that he was confident that the regulations complied with the TCA, but will he tell us what discussions he has had with his EU counterparts about these proposals and whether he has received legal advice to confirm that the regulations do not constitute a regression that is actionable under the TCA? Although we have serious reservations about the impact of the draft regulations, we will not oppose their passing due to the inclusion of some important protections that are being restated from retained EU law.”
“Member for Wealden (Ms Ghani)—said: “The Government have no intention of abandoning our strong record on workers’ rights, having raised domestic standards over recent years to make them some of the highest in the world.” –– [ Official Report, Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Public Bill Committee, 22 November 2022; c. 144.] These regulations show us that things have not quite turned out like that. As much as the Government might assert that the draft regulations do not constitute a reduction in workers’ overall level of entitlement and protection, we think that the overall effects will see some workers left with fewer entitlements and protections, with many being out of pocket to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds as a result of the regulations.”
“It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair this afternoon, Mr Efford. It is just over a year since we were in these rooms for the Committee stage of what became the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023. For those who were not lucky enough to attend those debates—my hon. Friend the Member for Walthamstow was a regular attender—we discussed at length the potential for EU-derived protections to be removed or watered down. During the Committee and on Report, we tabled numerous amendments to seek to protect UK workers from the loss of key EU-derived rights, but we were told that the amendments were not necessary. Indeed, the then Minister for Industry and Investment Security, who led that Bill through Committee—the hon.”
“We do support business, but every time this Government bring forward legislation, it is about attacking workers. Is it not the same today? Is not taking £250 million out of workers’ pockets an attack on workers?”
“Was the Minister not listening when I when I talked about how having a different holiday pay calculation rate for the four weeks and the extra 1.6 was actually going to create more burden on businesses?”
“The Minister pointed out that, apparently, this will save businesses £1.2 billion. I don’t know if that is more or less than the change would cost, but I would have thought that it is something that could have been looked at, yet it does not appear to have been considered at all.”
“Last week another dentist in my constituency told my constituents that they were no longer able to provide NHS services. These people have literally nowhere else to go nearby. I want to come back to what my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Riverside (Kim Johnson) asked about the underspend, because we had a meeting with the ICB and it was specifically told that the ringfence was being disapplied. Does the Secretary of State agree that that money should be spent on dental services and that that instruction should be given by her today?”
“The Resolution Foundation’s report on economic stagnation, published today, shows how levelling up simply is not happening under this Government. One of the speakers at the event this morning was Andy Haldane, the chair of the Levelling Up Advisory Council, who said that greater financial devolution was needed in all areas, not just in the favoured few. It sounds like he has been taking inspiration from our proposed “take back control” Bill. Does the Minister agree with him that more economic devolution is needed in all areas of the UK?”
“We all want the killing to stop, and if we get to a point where there is an end to the violence on a long-term basis, what guarantees can we obtain from the UK Government that the many people who have been displaced will be allowed to return and that there will be sufficient infrastructure in place to ensure that they have something to return to?”
“After 13 years in power and seven years after we voted to leave the EU, I do not know why anyone would believe that this Government will reduce net migration in the way that is being claimed today. But if we assume the Home Secretary’s figures are right, net migration will still be higher than it was in 2019 when his party promised to reduce it. That is right, isn’t it?”
“Fire and rehire is rife in this country. Research published by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found that, between March 2020 and July 2021, 43,000 employers changed their employees’ contracts through fire and rehire techniques. The Government promised in March 2022 that they would take action following the P&O scandal, and we now learn that it will be a full two years since that time before anything actually changes. Given the propensity for using fire and rehire tactics, can the Minister tell us how many employees he estimates will have had their contract changed through fire and rehire in that two-year period?”
“Communities urgently require a response that is up to the scale of the problem they face. We urge the Government to accelerate the introduction of the discretionary registration scheme and to legislate for the introduction of a new planning use class for short-term lets without delay. Nothing less than a full array of planning and non-planning tools is needed to appropriately regulate the number of short-term holiday lets. If this Government will not get on with it, they should step aside and leave it to a Government that will.”
“However, there is a sting in the tail—giving with one hand but taking away with the other—because the new consultation also invites views on introducing new permitted development rights that would in fact make it easier to convert dwelling houses into short-term lets. Perhaps the Minister can explain the rationale for including that in the consultation and how it will help with the problems we have been discussing. I encourage hon. Members to see what investors are saying about that part of the consultation. They are happy with the consultation overall because it is light-touch and it will make it incredibly attractive and easy for them to continue to convert properties into short-term lets. The time has gone to recognise that this is an issue; the time has gone for sticking-plaster solutions.”
“Reforms have been attempted on a small scale, but nothing substantial has been done to get to grips with the problem. For example, Members have talked about the consultation conducted and completed in June, and I am sure all Members will want to hear from the Minister about when it will be published. But this piecemeal, foot-dragging approach is patently not enough to tackle the deep problems faced in our communities. The Government are still opposed to, for example, the introduction of a discretionary licensing scheme of the kind the Opposition have proposed on numerous occasions. We believe that such a scheme would be part of the solution to tackling this issue. We welcome the consultation on the new planning use class, just as we welcome the commitment to introduce a new discretionary registration scheme.”
“In Devon, it is clear that short-term lets are making problems worse, with 4,000 homes taken out of the private rented sector, but 11,000 added to the short-term lets sector since 2016. Those damning statistics lay bare the impact of what happens when the balance is out of kilter. Does the Minister accept that there is a clear link between the number of private rented properties and short-term lets? It is beyond doubt that the deregulated nature of the short-term letting sector is deeply problematic. There needs to be an overhaul of the regulatory framework. We would also argue that there is now a watertight case for giving local authorities that are struggling to cope with this issue the necessary powers to protect the sustainability and cohesion of their communities.”
“For many people in many parts of the country, the cost of purchasing a home is already out of reach; in these tourist areas, that dream is even more unobtainable for too many people. This issue stretches far beyond the challenge of actual home ownership. In Cornwall, for example, 15,000 families are on waiting lists for social housing, which, coincidentally, is the number of properties being marketed as holiday lets. In South Lakeland, roughly half the families in need of social housing could be accommodated in the properties that are made exclusively available for holiday lets. In Cumbria more widely, the 4% decline in privately rented properties has coincided with a 14% increase in social housing waiting lists since 2016.”
“The ONS reported in September 2021 that house prices were rising at three times the national rate in some of these areas—places such as Conwy, north Devon and Richmondshire have experienced increases of more than 20%, continuing trends that had begun in the pandemic. A report published today by the CPRE shows that demand for short-term lettings grew by 661% in Cornwall in the five years to September 2021, and by 1,231% in South Lakeland between 2016 and 2020. Nationally, the number of short-term lets has increased by more than 1,000% since 2015. This is not just one part of the country; it is north, south, east and west—every place that has significant tourism activity is seeing the same.”
“For these destinations to thrive, there needs to be a community that underpins the hospitality at attractions; otherwise, who will be there to run the services that both visitors and locals rely on? Unfortunately, I think that that balance has got out of kilter in recent years, and the consequences that flow from that have been set out today. Demand for housing has spiralled in many tourist destinations across the country. It was reported that, in the south-west alone, 3,000 new holiday and second homes were listed during the pandemic, while the number of homes listed for normal letting halved and rents increased significantly. In Wales during that period, there was a 5% increase in the number of holiday lets, with average rents rising from £155 to £181 a week. As a consequence, house prices in those areas have spiked.”
“I think we can all see how that direction of travel has hollowed out communities, and the consequences that can flow from that. Having said that, as other Members have said, there is clearly a balance to be struck—one I think we all appreciate. Tourism is crucial to local economies, and indeed to regional and national economies, and many local communities rely on an influx of visitors to keep their economies going. In some places, tourism is the No.1 income generator, and we cannot ignore that. The availability of accommodation is also an important element in attracting people to visit a particular destination. However, I reiterate that a balance has to be struck.”
“Members for Truro and Falmouth (Cherilyn Mackrory), for Strangford (Jim Shannon) and for St Ives (Derek Thomas) also all spoke with great passion and sincerity about the issues this subject brings up. To summarise the crux of those issues, it is clear that the housing problems in tourist hotspots have spiralled over the last decade and that the Government have not got a handle on the situation. As a result, local people are facing deep problems in accessing affordable housing. Those who live year round in some of the most beautiful parts of the country are being squeezed out by the owners of second homes and the proliferation of short-term lets. People who have grown up in an area, who work there and who are the bedrock of the community now feel secondary to those who spend just a portion of their time there.”
“Member for North Devon (Selaine Saxby), so it is absolutely clear that there is more than one tool in the arsenal that we can use. She also mentioned the pressures this issue puts on education and dentistry, and I think we all recognise the pressures that those parts of the public sector face. The hon. Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Tim Farron) talked about average house prices in his constituency being 12 times average incomes. I think we can all see why it is absolutely impossible for young people, in particular, to get on the housing ladder when they face these issues. The hon. Member was also right to raise the impact these issues have on recruitment in the hospitality and care sectors. The hon.”
“Member for East Devon (Simon Jupp) spoke about the balance that needs to be struck between the competing demands in his area. That is absolutely the right way to look at this issue. It was a pleasure to hear from my hon. Friend the Member for York Central (Rachael Maskell). She spoke in stark terms about the pressures in York, with a 23% increase in house prices and the fourth highest rents in the country. However, she also talked about a £6 billion tax deficit—money that is not reaching the Exchequer—and I am sure my colleagues in the shadow Treasury team will be looking at that with interest. She also made the important point that this is a cross-departmental issue and that a taskforce approach should be considered. I will certainly take that point back to others in the team. Cross-departmental approaches were also raised by the hon.”
“My hon. Friend the Member for City of Chester (Samantha Dixon) showed what an excellent Member of Parliament she is and what an excellent council leader she was in bringing back council housing. She now has a third role as an excellent advocate for the Chester tourist board, because she spoke glowingly about the wonderful attractions in Chester. However, she really identified the nub of the issue, which is how right to buy has turned into private rented sector lets, which have turned into short-term lets. That is really at the root of the problems we are discussing. As an MP with a neighbouring constituency, I can see that the pressures Chester is experiencing are having an impact on the wider housing market. The hon.”
“It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Sir Charles. I start by congratulating the hon. Member for St Austell and Newquay (Steve Double) on securing the debate. I also welcome the Housing Minister to his role. Reference has been made to the rapidity of changes in the identity of the Housing Minister. One wonders whether, with such a rapid turnover in the occupants of the Housing Department, it should be sponsored by Airbnb. The hon. Member for St Austell and Newquay set out very well the challenges facing his constituency: the pressure on the housing market, the issues with recruitment, and the stark disparity between the average house price and the average wage in Cornwall. He was right to welcome the increase in local housing allowance and to mention the pressure placed on parish councils—all local authorities will recognise that.”
“In response, all we got from the Minister was that it would be for a court to decide.”
““Reasonable steps” is a pivotal phrase that jumps out at anyone reading the Act. It stands out so much not only because it is vague and is left undefined in the primary legislation, but because the phrase’s definition carries hugely punitive consequences for those who get it wrong. It determines whether a union’s actions could leave it liable to proceedings in tort for sums that would be likely to bankrupt it. It could also see an individual worker’s protections against unfair dismissal removed. Those are not issues that as legislators we can ignore. How “reasonable steps” is defined is a fundamental part of the legislation. As the Bill progressed through the House, we repeatedly asked for greater clarity as to what it meant. Time and again, we asked what constituted “reasonable steps”.”
“It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair this afternoon, Ms Nokes. I draw the Committee’s attention to my membership of the GMB and Unite trade unions. I thank the Minister for his introduction. However, it will come as no surprise to him that the Opposition will oppose the code of practice. He described it as controversial, which is an understatement. We remain clear in our view that the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act is fundamentally unworkable and places undue limitations on an individual’s freedom of association. These freedoms have been fought for and won over many decades, and they deserve much better than to be chipped away and undermined in the way that we see before us today. Labour has promised to repeal the legislation when we get into government, and we stand by that pledge.”
“It is hard to understand how that provision could not be deliberately designed to cause confusion and undermine trade unions. What will happen if an employer varies a notice over a bank holiday weekend, or even at Easter, when there is a bank holiday either side of the weekend? Are trade unions expected to have people perpetually on call during such periods just in case another notice is issued? The code makes no mention of bank holidays and weekends, so might a union be asked to respond to hundreds of varied work notices at two days’ notice—or even one day’s notice—with no leeway given?”