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Labor has promised a “full and comprehensive” consultation with businesses and other groups on Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge to improve workers’ rights in the UK in a new version of the opposition party’s New Deal for Working People.
The document, seen by the Financial Times and due to be unveiled publicly in the coming weeks, is an attempt by the party to put policy “into a form that our candidates can campaign on”, Labor said this month.
The opposition party promised a range of measures in 2021, including a ban on zero-hours contracts and a “right to switch off”, bundled in a “labour rights law” that it would introduce within 100 days of taking office.
The New Deal, led by Vice Chairwoman Angela Rayner, also included a promise to give workers full employment protections on the “first day” of a new job. These three commitments have been weakened since they were first proposed.
Labor is now committing to “starting the legislative process” within 100 days if it wins the next general election, saying it will “publish draft legislative proposals” during this period.
The new text makes some changes to reforms agreed last year at Labour’s national policy forum, a meeting of party officials, MPs and union leaders.
This includes allowing companies to continue to offer trial periods for new employees and giving workers the right to a contract that reflects their current regular working pattern, rather than banning zero-hours contracts entirely.
But it also goes further with repeated promises, including to business groups who have been increasingly vocal in their opposition to the policy in recent months, that Labor would not proceed without consultation.
The text promises a “full and comprehensive consultation on the implementation of the New Deal” involving “businesses, unions and civil society”.
Labor has also supplemented its promises with more business-friendly language, such as its promise to ban redundancies and new hires, where the party says: “It is important that businesses can restructure to remain viable and retain their workforce , if there really is no alternative.” ”
Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite the Union, Labor’s biggest single donor over the last decade, said the document was “one slam-dunk after another”.
“It is completely unrecognizable from the original proposals drawn up with the unions,” she said on Wednesday. “The workers will see through this and call one retreat after another a betrayal.”
Labor insisted there had been minimal changes to the New Deal since last summer’s national policy forum.
A Labor spokesman said: “A Labor government must get started immediately and that is why we have strengthened proposals to deliver on our commitments. “If elected, we will bring forward legislation within 100 days of coming into government.”
Another union representative expressed disappointment that the New Deal no longer includes a commitment to use public procurement to “support good work” by awarding contracts to companies that recognize unions, have high environmental standards and are “fully tax compliant.” .
Labor said the procurement pledge remained a party policy but declined to say whether the pledge would be included in its election manifesto this year.
A Labor promise to give workers the “right to disconnect” so that employers cannot contact them outside of working hours was also changed in the document.
The text now promises an ad hoc approach, inspired by models in Ireland and Belgium, that will “give employees and employers the opportunity to have constructive discussions and work together on tailored workplace policies or contractual terms that benefit both parties”.
The right to turn off policies in other countries hasn’t always been as effective as hoped – other than requiring managers to add lines to their emails saying replies were not required outside of business hours.
Some other Labor promises from three years ago are still being fully implemented, including a pledge to reverse three anti-strike laws introduced by the Conservative government.
A moderate union official said it was sensible for Labor and unions to negotiate a final “transformative” New Deal.
“This new version, which brings together years of hard work from across the movement, is the latest version of that. “The unions will continue to meet with the party before, during and after the election to make these radical proposals a reality for all working people in the country,” he said.