Labour’s workers’ rights plan is a ticking time bomb for the party

[Colemans Left Hook]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/03/18/labour-workers-rights-plan-ticking-time-bomb/

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves must have known Labour’s stature had improved substantially when she finally made it to the top table at a dinner for world leaders in Davos earlier this year.

Tucking into a Swiss Gotthard pike perch and marinated frisée salad while sat in between Canada’s finance minister and Belgium’s prime minister, the wannabe chancellor found herself in such demand that by the time dessert arrived she had to abandon half her chocolate pumpkin cake to press the flesh elsewhere.

There’s no denying that Labour’s so-called “smoked salmon and scrambled eggs charm offensive” with the world’s rich and powerful has been a roaring success.

Former Bank of England governor Mark Carney and Barclays chief C S Venkatakrishnan are among the influential leaders now working with the party to unlock billions of pounds in investment.

Days after Jeremy Hunt’s Budget, polls gave Sir Keir Starmer’s party a commanding lead of 18 points. Reeves’ seat at the VIP table is looking secure at the next Davos gathering.

But Labour shouldn’t get too comfortable. There are concerns within the party that businesses are confused by some of the party’s flagship workers’ rights policies.

Sir Keir has vowed an overhaul of workers’ rights on a scale that’s “not been attempted for decades”. But just what will the new system look like exactly?

For months officials have been told behind closed doors that a lack of clarity is the biggest impediment to businesses supporting Labour.

Fed up with the unceasing political drama endured during 14 years of Conservative rule, senior executives have told Labour that there must be no more “chopping, changing and uncertainty”. They need to know the plan now.


One of the biggest areas of confusion is around probation periods, which lobbyists and business leaders fear will be ditched.

Labour has vowed to give new hires full employment rights from day one of their employment. That sounds suspiciously like the abolition of trial periods to many. However, Labour insists that isn’t the case – officials say employers would still be able to fairly dismiss people.

“We’re clearing up the confusion,” an insider says. “Businesses want a bit more certainty”.

However, at a Westminster press lunch with deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner last week, one of her colleagues confessed to the Financial Times: “We haven’t done a very good job communicating what we want to do. There is a bit of a reassurance job going on.”

The confusion seems odd given the sheer number of meetings with business leaders over the last year. A failure to communicate clearly will be a significant issue if it proves not to be an isolated incident.

The unease at workers’ rights reforms are unlikely to sway the election or ultimately turn businesses off Labour. Concerns are small fry in comparison to the seemingly never ending crisis engulfing the Tory Party. Business folk can see which way the wind is blowing.

One City banker referred to the Tory Winter Ball held at Whitehall’s former War Office earlier this year as the “last party on the Titanic”.

Even so, Labour officials need to take their own battles seriously. It is crucial that relations with UK plc do not start to turn sour given how vulnerable Labour is to attacks from the Right claiming the party is anti-business and cannot be trusted to run the economy.

Labour wants to be seen as the saviour of both the economy and the City. However, it is hamstrung by the fact there is very little spare cash.

It is therefore reliant on the private sector to help fund investment. Labour has appointed some of Britain’s top business leaders to advise on raising private cash through its proposed National Wealth Fund.

As Reeves herself wrote in these pages earlier this year, the “lifeblood of a growing economy can only come from bringing business investment back to Britain’s shores”. The party has pledged to hold an investment summit every year if elected, aware that those chasing deals have grown tired of being passed from department to department under the current government.

A damning 124-page report into UK foreign direct investment published earlier this year showed executives were fed up with the UK’s revolving door of ministers and found it easier to do business in France because President Emmanuel Macron picks up the phone, texts directly and rolls out the red carpet for them.

The number of foreign direct investment projects in Britain has fallen sharply over the past few years. Around £1.9 trillion has also been pulled from the UK stock market in the last two decades.

Labour hopes to correct these ills by bringing some stability back to Westminster. However, shadow ministers have already been attacked for about-turns following the party’s decision to scrap its £28bn green investment plan last month.

Insiders insist there will be no flip-flopping on employment rights, but can that promise be trusted? If Labour allows confusion about its workers’ rights overhaul to snowball, then the party risks undoing all the good work it has done by building bridges with business.

“It’s the uncertainty that would have an impact,” says one senior businessman. If messaging isn’t crystal clear, then “people might want to wait and see and postpone investment”.

Confusion over certain policies might not be a critical issue for now, but if the miscommunication is not cleared up soon, Labour’s grand economic plans may start to unravel.

[Bristol Red Rover]

At least we're clear about the Tories Workers Rights policies. Right good for businesses, right good for investments, right good for people like Mogg, Sunak and every other exploiter, right good for increasing wealth inequality, right good for all at Davros.

[roverstillidie91]

Wait until all of Britain is privatised.

Corporate Britain.

[tyke1962]

Rumours of scaling back workers rights from the original position .

Scaling back Labour’s workers’ rights plan would be disastrous, warns TUC president https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/may/06/labour-scaling-back-workers-rights-plan-would-be-disastrous-tcu-president?CMP=share_btn_url

[BillyStubbsTears]

Rumours of scaling back workers rights from the original position .

Scaling back Labour’s workers’ rights plan would be disastrous, warns TUC president https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/may/06/labour-scaling-back-workers-rights-plan-would-be-disastrous-tcu-president?CMP=share_btn_url

Maybe that article could have been a lot shorter if it had just gone straight to the final two paragraphs.

"A Labour spokesperson said: “The new deal will be a core part of Labour’s offer and we will be campaigning on this ahead of the general election.

“Labour’s new deal for working people was agreed at the party’s national policy forum last summer building upon our green paper. Our commitments to bring forward legislation to parliament within 100 days to deliver the new deal and to consult widely on implementation have not changed.”

Man gotta eat though...

[Sprotyrover]

Rumours of scaling back workers rights from the original position .

Scaling back Labour’s workers’ rights plan would be disastrous, warns TUC president https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/may/06/labour-scaling-back-workers-rights-plan-would-be-disastrous-tcu-president?CMP=share_btn_url

Maybe that article could have been a lot shorter if it had just gone straight to the final two paragraphs.

"A Labour spokesperson said: “The new deal will be a core part of Labour’s offer and we will be campaigning on this ahead of the general election.

“Labour’s new deal for working people was agreed at the party’s national policy forum last summer building upon our green paper. Our commitments to bring forward legislation to parliament within 100 days to deliver the new deal and to consult widely on implementation have not changed.”

Man gotta eat though...

It would be interesting to see a Labour Government trying to Court Big Business investment, hilarious in fact!

[SydneyRover]

If you think back over the last couple of years it's amazing how many 'ticking bombs' have gone off like damp squibs, membership problems, money problems, litigation problems .......... the list is endless and yet ............ nothing, it's the government who keep lighting up the exploding cigars.

[BillyStubbsTears]

It's people who invested their hopes in Corbyn and Johnson and saw them crumble, refusing to look at their failings and instead assuming that everyone else must fail.

Really quite sad when you step back and look at it dispassionately.