argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Employment Rights: Government Plans — House of Commons, 2021-01-25
Topic: Labor
Andrew Joseph McDonald (Labour, Centre-left): I beg to move, That this House believes that all existing employment rights and protections must be maintained, including the 48-hour working week, rest breaks at work and inclusion of overtime pay when calculating some holiday pay entitlements, and calls on the Government to set out to Parliament by the end of January 2021 a timetable to introduce legislation to end fire and re-hire tactics May I start by welcoming the Secretary of State to his place and wishing him every success in his new role? I am sure that I speak for the whole House in paying a heartfelt tribute to the workers of our country—the women and men who have battled so hard throughout this pandemic, persevering in the most difficult environment that any of us, who have not suffered the horrors of war, have ever known. I am talking about those keyworkers: our nurses, our doctors, health and care workers, shop workers, cleaners, transport workers and, indeed, everybody who has worked so selflessly and bravely battled to maintain services throughout our country. Many of them have had to go to work with real concerns about their own safety and that of their families. Sadly, too many have worked in unsafe conditions because of the Government’s failure to enforce workplace health and safety standards or to provide the financial support needed for people to self-isolate. Tragically, so many workers have lost their lives, including a member of our own House of Commons family, namely Godfrey Cameron, and we grieve with, and for, all who love them. Workers are facing enormous stresses and pressures, and many are having to deal with major mental health challenges. It is with all those workers in mind that Her Majesty’s Opposition bring forward this motion today This pandemic has exposed the many deficiencies in workers’ rights and protections, and now there is a real yearning that, when we emerge from this crisis, a better deal for working people is not only possible, but essential. Yes, the economic position is tough, but people came back from a devastating war in 1945 determined to forge a better society for their families to prosper in. Such a moment, as President Biden said, of renewal and resolve is right now. At no time in living memory has it been clearer that the safety and security of working people is inextricably linked with public health and the economy.
Employment Rights: Government Plans — House of Commons, 2021-01-25
Topic: Labor
Mark Richard Tami (Labour, Centre-left): Does my hon. Friend agree that some employers, such as British Airways and British Gas, have used the covid situation to exploit workers and to try to change their terms and conditions in this very difficult environment?
Employment Rights: Government Plans — House of Commons, 2021-01-25
Topic: Labor
Andrew Joseph McDonald (Labour, Centre-left): There is a clear and active discussion about working time and the quality of life for working people. Since time immemorial, that discussion has taken place. I have no doubt that it will be a subject for debate and consideration between now and the next election, and way beyond. It is a perfectly proper area of debate The Secretary of State has spent a career calling for employment protections to be weakened, so he has a lot of ground to cover if he is to persuade the country’s 30 million-plus workers that he is on their side.
Employment Rights: Government Plans — House of Commons, 2021-01-25
Topic: Labor
Stephen John Doughty (Labour, Centre-left): The hard workers my hon. Friend is talking about includes the many British Gas workers in my constituency, GMB members I met last week. I was very surprised to be told by them that the chief executive of British Gas had called personally to put pressure on them to accept new, worse terms. Bizarrely, he suggested that senior Labour figures had endorsed that. Will my hon. Friend confirm that that is absolute nonsense, that we stand in solidarity with them and that British Gas should get back around the table for serious negotiations? Of course, I draw attention to my membership of the GMB and the support that it has provided me.
Employment Rights: Government Plans — House of Commons, 2021-01-25
Topic: Labor
Andrew Joseph McDonald (Labour, Centre-left): I am more than happy and delighted to confirm that that is utter and complete nonsense. Is it likely? I just ask people: is that really likely? Of course it is not If the Secretary of State now wants to say that the 48-hour cap, holiday pay entitlements and rest breaks will be protected, and that he will scrap the planned consultation, perhaps he can say so in unequivocal terms here today and vote for our motion Today’s motion also calls on the Government to set a timetable to introduce legislation to end "fire and rehire" tactics. It is not a new phenomenon, but it has gained prominence because of the conduct of major employers such as British Airways, Heathrow and British Gas—some in circumstances that they claim to be justified by the covid pandemic. It is about sacking workers and hiring them back on lower wages and worse terms and conditions, including 20,000 British Gas employees who kept working through the pandemic to keep customers’ homes warm and worked with the Trussell Trust to deliver food parcels. I think of the engineer who explained that he was often the only face that people living in isolation were seeing. This is how they are repaid.
Employment Rights: Government Plans — House of Commons, 2021-01-25
Topic: Law and Crime
Justin Piers Richard Madders (Labour, Centre-left): My hon. Friend is absolutely right that fire and rehire has been around for a long time, but does he agree that that shows just how weak the current unfair dismissal laws are and how they really need to be strengthened?
Employment Rights: Government Plans — House of Commons, 2021-01-25
Topic: Labor
Stephen John Doughty (Labour, Centre-left): The Secretary of State is speaking about fire and rehire, and his colleague the Chief Secretary to the Treasury told me that those tactics were completely unacceptable. Does the Secretary of State agree with those comments and does he share my concern? In September of last year, I met the chief executive of British Gas about that specific dispute and he tried to suggest that they were not using those tactics, despite having written to members in July to do just that. Does the Secretary of State agree that that is completely unacceptable in our labour market?
Employment Rights: Government Plans — House of Commons, 2021-01-25
Topic: Law and Crime
Andrew Joseph McDonald (Labour, Centre-left): I am grateful to the Secretary of State for his unequivocal indication that he condemns this practice. If that is so, will he legislate to outlaw it once and for all? We will support him if he does.
Employment Rights: Government Plans — House of Commons, 2021-01-25
Topic: Labor
Justin Piers Richard Madders (Labour, Centre-left): In his rather selective recollection of what the Government have done on workers’ rights over the past 10 years, the Secretary of State forgot to mention the reduction of consultation periods, the increase of qualifying periods for unfair dismissal and the introduction of employment tribunal fees. Will he mention those things, because they were certainly detrimental to working people in this country?
Employment Rights: Government Plans — House of Commons, 2021-01-25
Topic: Labor
Harriet Ruth Harman (Labour, Centre-left): I join the hon. Member for South Suffolk (James Cartlidge) in paying tribute to all those who have worked through this covid crisis, and particularly to those in essential services I support the motion, and I agree with everything said from the Labour Front Bench: we must have no watering down of hard-won employment rights. However, a new employment Bill is also an opportunity for new rights, which are sorely needed by families in today’s world of work. The structure of our current rights was based on the notion of the employed male breadwinner, supported by the wife at home looking after their children. Even if she worked, her primary responsibility was to the children, and she would be supported by her own mother, who would most likely be retired. However, most women now work—many are self-employed rather than employed—and grandmothers, who used to be able to be relied on to step in, are still working We have introduced important rights, such as the right to request flexible work, paternity leave and parental leave, but there are glaring omissions, which should be addressed in any future Bill. A man or a woman employee is entitled to paid sick leave, but what if the child is sick? Parents cannot leave a sick child at home on their own. We should back our working parents when their child is sick. Instead, we leave them in the lurch. One parent—usually the mother—has to ring the employer and beg for time off, often to be told she has to take it as holiday or unpaid leave, which is especially hard for low-income families In a future employment Bill, we therefore need to give a parent of a primary school-age or younger child who cannot go to school or nursery when they are sick the right to paid leave. Other countries do that. That also needs to extend to grandparents, in case that is who is best placed to take the time off when the child is sick. Many parents rely hugely on grandparents, especially in the first year of a baby’s life, so we should factor them into parental leave too. Currently, the mother and the father can share 50 weeks’ leave between them. We should make it so that that could be split between, say, the mother, the father and one of the grandparents. The point is to give families the choice The Government mentioned having more employment rights for families in their manifesto. That is encouraging, and there will be strong support for that from the Labour Benches, but also from the Government Benches and, above all, from the Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee, the right hon. Member for Romsey and Southampton North (Caroline Nokes). I welcome the Secretary of State to his new job. If he wants to do some good and make a difference, I look forward to him agreeing across parties to make progress on this.
Employment Rights: Government Plans — House of Commons, 2021-01-25
Topic: Labor
Ian Lavery (Labour, Centre-left): Is it not totally mind-blowing, in fact utterly grotesque, that during this pandemic the world’s 10 richest men have boosted their wealth by over £400 billion—half a trillion dollars—and here we are debating the upcoming Conservative attacks on working men and women, the bedrock of this nation, many of whom have paid a huge price during this pandemic? How many of these people will face a slash to their wages—a cut in their wages, terms and conditions—as a result of new legislation introduced by this Government It is crystal clear that key members of this Cabinet see coronavirus and Brexit as a perfect storm for tearing apart workers’ rights. Brexit gave this Government the opportunity they have long craved to set a bonfire under workers’ rights, and of course the mayhem caused by the virus has only served to fan those flames The appointment of the right hon. Member for Spelthorne (Kwasi Kwarteng) to his current position of Secretary of State fired the starting pistol; it gave the green light to the ideological attack on Britain’s workers. He has a very well documented and ideological view on the working people of this country. In 2012 a group of newly elected Conservative MPs published "Britannia Unchained", a book that unashamedly claimed: "The British are among the worst idlers in the world." They boomed: "We work among the lowest hours, we retire early and our productivity is poor." They boomed it loud and clear from the rooftops, including the right hon. Members for Witham (Priti Patel), for Esher and Walton (Dominic Raab), for South West Norfolk (Elizabeth Truss), and of course for Spelthorne, who are now key members of the Cabinet. We need to look very carefully at what they have to say We have massive issues with regard to fire and rehire, which has been mentioned before, and I will also mention Heathrow, Barnoldswick, and the GMB action at British Gas. I ask the Secretary of State whether it is not time that British Gas got back around the table with the GMB, and time to stop scoffing at the loyal workforce and outlaw this heinous practice of fire and rehire. We need to ensure that constructive dialogue takes place with the trade unions and the workers in order to make progress.
Employment Rights: Government Plans — House of Commons, 2021-01-25
Topic: Labor
Victoria Jane Foxcroft (Labour, Centre-left): As a former trade union official, I am very grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this debate. In the short time I have this evening, I would like to touch on the importance of workers’ rights in ensuring a happy, productive and innovative workforce As we have already heard, Ministers stated on a number of occasions that Brexit would enhance rather than weaken the EU-derived employment rights UK workers currently benefit from. Yet here we are less than one month after the end of the transition period and those rights are already under threat. If the proposed changes go ahead, they will likely lead many people, including the key workers Ministers have been clapping during the pandemic, out of pocket and working even longer hours Trade unions have a key role to play in all this. Employers want a motivated and productive workforce. Unions want their members to be treated fairly and to be able to participate fully in the workplace without compromising their family lives or general wellbeing. Longer working hours and changes to rest breaks will likely lead to a decrease in efficiency and an increase in sickness. The exclusion of overtime from holiday pay entitlement calculations will lead to employees feeling undervalued and resentful. And this is before we even start to consider employees who might need other support or reasonable adjustments. Having strong employee rights and absolute clarity around those rights means that employees and employers alike can plan their time more effectively, work at a sustainable pace and help to nip causes of resentment and conflict in the bud. It does not take an employment rights specialist to understand that happy and fulfilled employees are much more likely to not only fulfil the basic requirements of their jobs, but to innovate and create positive change In October 2019, the right hon. Member for South Northamptonshire (Andrea Leadsom), the then Business Secretary, said in this Chamber: "As we leave the European Union, we have a unique opportunity to enhance protections for the workforce and tailor them to best support UK workers."—[Official Report, 29 October 2019; Vol. 667, c. 205.] I will finish by asking the current Secretary of State why his Government are not using this opportunity to strengthen those protections, rather than to reduce them. If he remains unconvinced, perhaps he should speak to some of our colleagues in the unions.
Employment Rights: Government Plans — House of Commons, 2021-01-25
Topic: Labor
Clive Stanley Efford (Labour, Centre-left): I wish to speak in favour of the motion in the name of my hon. and right hon. Friends. I declare at the outset that I am a member of the GMB and Unite unions The fact that the Government have consulted businesses on these changes shows that there is an outdated attitude towards industrial relations and workers’ rights at the heart of the Government. Good employment law protects the good employers from the bad. Employees are people; they are not tools that can just be laid aside on the whim of an employer. People have lives to lead, bills to pay, mortgages and rent; many of them have families that they need to support—to feed, to clothe and to plan holidays with. A contract of employment is a way of being able to plan ahead with security for those things. The terms should not be changed just on the whim of an unscrupulous employer Creating a culture where workers feel insecure in their jobs undermines the economy; it makes them less likely to spend money or to take out loans for bigger items. Creating such an environment is not just immoral but self-defeating, and attitudes need to change. Businesses need to understand that they need to act for the common good. It is no longer good enough for them to hide behind the fact that they are serving shareholders and to say, "This is why we are forced to rape the economy or pay poverty wages," and fail to protect workers’ rights The covid pandemic, climate change and the state of the global finances make it imperative that we all work together for the common good. The solution is not to enfeeble workers or trample on their rights, yet companies such as British Gas and British Airways are telling their workers that they will be sacked and rehired on worse conditions. Those are hardly the British values that we want to promote globally British Gas/Centrica is sacking 20,000 of its workforce. It is telling them that they must sign new contracts dictated by the company or consider themselves to be sacked in April. Doing that at the time of a pandemic is grotesque. Centrica as a group had an operating profit of £901 million for 2019. In the first six months of 2020, the operating profit of its domestic heating business in the UK was £229 million, up 25% on the same period the previous year. Why are the workers who delivered that being treated so appallingly by that company I met workers from British Gas. Between them, they have many years of service to the company; some are the second or third generation in their family to work for British Gas. They are proud of the company that they work for; they value the jobs they do and the customers they serve.
Employment Rights: Government Plans — House of Commons, 2021-01-25
Topic: Labor
Antonia Louise Antoniazzi (Labour, Centre-left): Today is the Welsh Valentine’s day, so I wish all key workers and everyone in the Chamber dydd Santes Dwynwen hapus So here we are, and what I am listening to is absolutely disgraceful. Workers in this country are facing the biggest crisis in generations, yet the Government have decided to strip away the rights of those key workers who are keeping this country going, and we know that those with low paid jobs are going to lose out the most. Managers, directors and, yes, even Members of Parliament like us will not be the big losers in any erosion of employment rights. It will be those on zero-hour contracts, those at the beginning of their careers and, as usual, women who will be disproportionately affected The Prime Minister proudly told us that he would not do anything to undermine workers’ rights, yet here we are facing a shake-up of the protections that are in place to defend workers and consumers from unsafe situations. Earlier this evening, I heard the Secretary of State say that his Government’s record stood for itself. Well, if we want to catch a glimpse of what we can expect from this Government, we need look no further than how they treat their own workers—yes, their own civil servants at the DVLA offices in Swansea. During the first lockdown, my office was contacted by numerous constituents complaining that they had family members shielding and they were at high risk themselves, but during this lockdown the situation has escalated. Since September 2020, 535 cases of covid-19 have been recorded among DVLA staff, sparking an outbreak in the call centre that has been declared an incident across all other sites of the DVLA I have been inundated with calls since the news broke on a weekend, and before. Many people are petrified of going into work there, but they have all asked for anonymity because they are scared of a backlash from senior management if it is found out that they have complained. This is the senior management team that would not engage with the local health protection team. It is incredible that a formal notice under regulation 8 of the Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (Wales) Regulations 2020 had to be given in order to get the DVLA management to co-operate with the incident management team. Even this evening, I am receiving messages about this. This is utterly shocking behaviour from one of the biggest employers in Swansea, and that employer is this Government. This is a Government agency that is treating its staff in a wholly unacceptable way. That is unacceptable, but thanks to the First Minister in Wales, the PCS and other agencies, it is being dealt with—
Employment Rights: Government Plans — House of Commons, 2021-01-25
Topic: Labor
Mohammed Afzal Khan (Labour, Centre-left): May I first declare that I am a member of Unite and the GMB trade union? Workers in Manchester and up and down the country are currently preoccupied with negotiating the coronavirus pandemic, trying to stay safe and well, caring for their children, fulfilling their working responsibilities and keeping businesses afloat while the Government are debating how best to rip up hard-won workers’ rights in post-Brexit Britain. The Minister says that no workers’ rights will be reduced, so can he confirm that the Government will not abandon the cap that prevents people from working more than 48 hours a week, and that they will not take any steps to undermine the entitlement to paid holidays or rest breaks at work Years of repeated assurances from the Government about their intention to protect and even strengthen workers’ rights after Brexit have now been revealed to be utterly meaningless. Many of the workers who will be affected by these changes are the same key workers that the Minister was so keen to clap for in the summer. Working people in my constituency have been to hell and back over the past year. They have made immense sacrifices and put themselves and their families at risk and yet this Government think that they have too many rights The motion also calls on the Government to end the abhorrent practice of fire and rehire, which has been used to threaten workers across the country, dismissing employers only to re-employ them on less favourable terms. This current environment means that working people are effectively paying for the economic impact of the covid-19 crisis. In Manchester, GoNorthWest is pushing ahead with its threat to fire and rehire bus drivers on new contracts. This will result in a 10% reduction in the number of drivers employed, an increase in unpaid working hours, and drivers’ conditions slashed Meanwhile, thousands of British Gas workers are being threatened with fire and rehire by the parent company, Centrica. Unions, including Unite and GMB as well as others across the country, are fighting this threat of fire and rehire and I thank all of them for their commitment and determination to protect working people during this difficult time. The Government could step in and stop this disgusting practice today, but instead they have chosen to tear up these rights. Weakening workers’ rights in the midst of a global pandemic and with the UK suffering the worst recession of any major economy is deeply unfair and reveals much about this Government’s priorities.