RCM Public Affairs Adviser Stuart Bonar takes us through the hefty Employment Rights Bill’s first parliamentary test and says, after a slow start, the new Government seems to have its foot on the gas.

Fairly or not, the new UK Government took a lot of flak over the summer from political and media commentators saying it seemed to be shuffling around not doing very much. With MPs now back at Westminster, however, the pace is picking up. Not only are we just days away from a potentially seismic Budget, this week also saw the substantial Employment Rights Bill easily clear its first parliamentary hurdle, passed by MPs by 386 votes to 105.

In Monday’s Commons debate, the Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, referred to the Bill as “the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation”. She was not wrong.

The RCM encouraged MPs to vote for the Bill, and since the election – in the many face-to-face meetings we have had with MPs – we have been pushing on much of what now appears in the Bill.

Why do we support it? Firstly, if passed into law, the Bill would strengthen protections from dismissal for pregnant women and returning mothers. We have some questions about when these additional protections would be brought in, for example, but that kind of debate is for a later stage in the Bill’s passage through Parliament. Rest assured, we will continue to press for answers.

It was good to see so many of the MPs we have spoken to ahead of the debate speak up in the Commons chamber. In particular, several MPs spoke about many of the points we raised, and we will be making contact with them to see if we can work together as the Bill works its way through the Commons.

We welcome the proposed new legal recognition of equality reps, who help to tackle discrimination and promote equality in the workplace. We also support the proposed requirement on larger employers to produce equality action plans, to include action to address any gender pay gaps and support for those going through the menopause. We would be keen to see such plans include ethnicity pay gaps too, as well as the inclusion (where relevant) of bank and agency staff.

Individuals already have a right to join a trade union, and the RCM supports provisions in the Bill that would require employers to provide a written statement to this effect to their employees, as well as provisions that would enable access for unions into workplaces.

We support action on zero-hour contracts, though we would like to see work go further in this area. In the NHS, we believe that those who work ‘on the bank’ should do so on terms that are negotiated with the NHS trade unions.

On flexible working, we welcome the measures in the Bill. In the NHS, more flexible working would enable the service to retain more staff, many of whom leave when they can no longer balance inflexible working hours with the changing demands of family life. Flexible working is fundamental to delivering an economy that works for everyone.

The Government also wants to get rid of laws passed in recent years that were excessively hard on trade unions. For example, we support provisions to repeal turnout thresholds in industrial action ballots, returning to a simple majority of those who participate in any ballot. After all, MPs don’t have to clear turnout thresholds to get elected to Parliament for five years, so why should trade unions have to do so to authorise even one day of industrial action?

We also support changes that would allow for electronic voting in industrial action ballots, which would boost turnout and participation, ensuring such ballots better reflect the will of union members.

Additionally, we support the repeal of minimum service levels (MSLs), introduced by the Minimum Service Levels Act 2023. On the occasions when RCM members have taken industrial action, they have always ensured that safety is maintained. MSLs threatened to rip up this system, built on goodwill.

After years of new laws that always seemed to tighten the restrictions under which trade unions operate or further water down employment rights, it is refreshing to read through this weighty 150-page Employment Rights Bill and see measures that we actually support.

Is it perfect? No. But we are heading in the right direction, and even if the Government did have a bit of a slow summer, as autumn sets in they now have their foot firmly on the accelerator.