THE apostle Paul’s small tent-making enterprise featured in a speech by the Bishop of Newcastle, Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, during a Lords debate on the Employment Rights Bill last week.
Speaking during the Second Reading of the Bill, which would apply to England, Scotland, and Wales, Dr Hartley spoke of her research on work and the apostle. “Paul was never one to shy away from hard work and spoke of the personal cost of his tent-making business, describing it as wearisome and fraught with the challenges of local politics. Two thousand years later, we continue to live amid diverse uncertainties.
“As we scrutinise this legislation, we do so affirming that workers matter. If we get this right, we can move closer to a society in which people are viewed with inherent value and dignity. When people are valued and supported in what they do, they contribute to greater economic flourishing.”
Noting that “in-work poverty has risen significantly in recent years”, she wanted to address security in working conditions, the impact on children, parental leave, flexible working, and implications of the draft legislation for SMEs (small and medium enterprises).
While, she said, she welcomed the Bill “in extending basic rights, protections, and entitlements to workers, concerns remain as to how these individual protections will truly enable collective flourishing and a stronger and resilient society for the confident future desired by everyone”.
Introducing the Bill, Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Labour) outlined “the pressing issues workers face today. Workers have waited too long for change due to the legislative stasis over the past decade and more.” Wage stagnation and “far too many people in low-paid and insecure work” were problems, along with employee anxiety over unexpected changes to working patterns.
The Bill encompasses employment law, collective redundancy, pay conditions in specific sectors, conditions for seafarers, trade unions and industrial action, and employment tribunals.
Lord Hunt (Conservative) expressed concern. “No one can convince me that there has been fair, effective, and comprehensive parliamentary scrutiny of this legislation, which is scandalous when we think of the profound effects it is bound to have on British business and how our businesses operate.” He referred to the Bill’s “Henry VIII powers” — clauses that enable ministers to amend or repeal provisions without a full parliamentary process.
Lord Londesborough (Crossbench) was worried that that it was a “one-size-fits-all”, “whether you are a UK multinational with a workforce of 100,000, a start-up with ten staff, or a family business with two employees”. He described the Bill as “another giant vampire squid sucking the life out of our economy”.
For Baroness Noakes (Conservative), “It is not pro-growth to impose £5-billion-worth of costs on businesses.”
Lord Palmer (Liberal Democrat) raised “kinship carers. I recently heard of a couple caring for their grandchildren out of love and duty, yet they receive none of the employment rights or support given to foster carers. Is this not an injustice?”
In her maiden speech, the great-niece of the Labour minister Emanuel (Manny) Shinwell, Baroness Berger (Labour), said that she applauded the Government’s “commitment to bringing forward practical measures to value and support working parents” and “measures to ban exploitative zero-hours contracts”.
Also making her maiden speech was a former adviser to the Prime Minister, Baroness Gray (Labour), who testified to her Civil Service experience. In another maiden, Lord Young (Conservative) pointed to free-speech implications in the Bill. “Employers will have to balance the rights of third parties to express their legally protected beliefs with the rights of their employees not to be harassed. That is an extremely complicated area of law.”
For Baroness O’Grady, a former TUC General Secretary, “the Bill has strong public support across the political spectrum.” Lord Prentis (Labour), former General Secretary of UNISON, said that “the UK was shamed earlier this year for being the eighth most unequal economy of the 40 studied, and that is why this Bill is so important”.
Summing up, Baroness Jones spoke of “a crucial step towards the Government’s manifesto commitment to enhance workers’ rights and improve the lives of millions. Alongside our new industrial strategy, it will increase productivity and create the right conditions for long-term, sustainable, and secure economic growth.”
The Bill will return to the Lords for the Committee Stage from 29 April.
