Demands to strengthen the employment rights bill

Composite motion 4 called on the UK Government to listen to the unions, fight back against the influence of big business, and support a progressive economy which has workers' rights at its heart.

Although the bill is likely to pass, heavily amended, by autumn, our members will not be able to feel any benefits until spring 2026, at the earliest. Although the bill does deliver some huge changes including the repeal of Minimum Service Levels (MSL) Act and large amounts of the 2016 Trade Union Act, there is still a very long way to go until trade union rights replicate a modern workforce.

Steve Gillan, general secretary of POA, moved the motion on strengthening the employment rights bill and described how his union had been “left behind by the employment rights bill.”

He said that POA members had been denied the right to strike for 31 years since the Tory government banned prison officers from taking action.

He highlighted how now home secretary Shabana Mahmood when she was Lord Chancellor had said that she “would see the POA in court” in Strasbourg in the European Court of Human Rights over its attempts to have the ban repealed.

“Shabana Mahmood told us there was no way a Labour government would restore our right to strike, which I found contemptuous. But we’re not going away,” he said.

He called on the TUC to demand his members’ right to strike is restored.

“The bill is a step in the right direction but it’s got to go further and we should not be ashamed to demand that it goes further,” he added.

We demand more

Sarah Woolley, general secretary of the Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union, seconded the motion and said that while we have been waiting for a long time for anti-union legislation to be repealed the bill “falls far short of what’s needed”. She said solidarity action should be legalised, collective bargaining available to all and a total ban on hire and rehire and zero-hours contracts.

“We need to be ready to demand more,” she said.

Mick Whelan, general secretary of Aslef, said that the bill was “always going to be a stepping stone and today we set forward what we want next.”

“Everybody should have the right to strike and everybody should have the right to secondary action,” he said.

First-time delegate Bluebell Eikonklastes spoke in support of the motion for PCS and said: “Our members are key workers who keep the UK running. We were threatened by the MSL. The bill is step in the right direction but it doesn’t go far enough and it still sits below the minimum international thresholds.

“This is a disappointing first step, but come on, Sir Keir, let’s see the employment rights bill deliver the full deal that you promised.”

Steve Croke from the CWU said that austerity and anti-union legislation had had a devastating impact on working people.

The motion was carried.

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