The election of a new Labour government raises hopes that the balance of power between labour and capital will begin to shift. JOHN CUNNISON assesses the evidence so far.
The Starmer government’s packed programme of bills certainly gives the impression that this is an administration with a sense of purpose. But we need to look carefully to see what is in it for the labour and trade union movement.
The unions have long been a source of progressive politics. Along with the ILP and others, unions were instrumental in founding Labour at the start of the 20th century, and the country’s main alternative party has been forming national governments intermittently since 1924.
Until the end of the 1970s, unions had a major impact on policy to improve working conditions and pay. But the humiliation they inflicted on Ted Heath’s government in the early 1970s was not forgotten, and when the Conservative Party re-took office in 1979 it had a radical plan to curtail the unions’ ability to organise the working classes.
The legislation put in place over 18 years of Tory rule resulted in a long-term decline in union membership and a reduction in the political education that many had provided.
The return of Labour under Tony Blair in 1997 brought with it some pro-union legislation and activity. The ban on union membership at GCHQ was lifted, for example, and the minimum wage introduced. But there was no wholesale repeal of Tory measures and many of the most egregious elements were left unchanged, despite what unions had hoped.
From 1979 to 2023 there have been 96 bills affecting unions – some good, some neutral, many negative. So will Starmer follow Blair’s approach, or will his government be more radical?
Two pieces on the current legislative agenda will have an impact on the trade union movement: the Employment Rights Bill, which deals with union legislation head on; and the Crime and Policing Bill, which promises to rebuild neighbourhood policing, deliver higher policing standards, crack down on anti-social behaviour and tackle retail crime.
The Employment Rights Bill
This includes some very welcome aspects:
- a ban on zero-hours contracts
- an end to fire and re-hire
- guaranteed parental leave, sick pay and protection from unfair dismissal
- flexible working from day one of employment
- measures to make it unlawful to sack a woman who has had a baby for six months after she returns to work
- the removal of some union restrictions and repeal of the minimum level of service law
- a reduction in the proportion of union members required to vote in a strike ballot
- a Fair Work Agency to enforce workers’ rights
- a fair pay agreement in the adult social care sector to establish national terms and conditions
- a “genuine” national living wage, which removes discriminatory age bands.
However, there is a lot missing. For instance, there are no measures to review, amend or repeal the following:
- The 1984 Act on political funds that requires unions to ballot their members every 10 years.
This vexatious legislation means unions waste time and money re-balloting members for the right to hold a political fund. Even the title “political fund” is misleading. It is not a means to finance the Labour Party, as many assume (although funds for Labour are paid out of it), but money for unions to spend on campaigning – even the most insignificant campaign. - The 1992 Trace Union and Labour Relations Act that prohibits unions from using their general funds to finance political action.
All union activity could be regarded as political, so how can this ever be adequately defined? - The Employment Acts of 1980, 1982 and 1990, and the 1986 Public Order Act that enhanced anti-picketing legislation.
Having been on many picket lines, I’ve never seen any of this legislation enforced. - The 1993 Act that requires unions to give seven days notice of strikes and prevents what it calls “political” strikes.
How about a “right to strike”, as exists in France and Germany, where it’s seen as a basic means of redress for aggrieved workers?
Similarly, there are no proposals to reverse Tory measures that reduced from 90 days to 45 the time available for consultation when 100 or more workers are threatened with redundancy. This makes effective campaigning, including strikes, almost impossible.
And Labour’s bill includes nothing about restoring wages councils. Their abolition led to a decline in pay across sectors and a race to the bottom.
The Crime and Policing Bill
This legislation also contains a lot of progressive measures:
- to create a new specific offence of assault on a shop worker
- to tackle low level shoplifting
- to improve neighbourhood policing, and get police and PCSOs back on the beat
- to expand the powers of HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services to intervene in failing police forces
- to improve national vetting standards across police forces
- to tackle persistent adult offenders with Respect Orders, and make it quicker and easier to clamp down on rapid escalations in street drinking and the anti-social use of off-road bikes
- to create a duty on local partners to co-operate in tackling anti-social behaviour, and for every local authority area to have an anti-social behaviour lead
- to ban ninja swords and other lethal blades, and introduce strict sanctions on senior executives of online companies who fail to operate within the law
- to provide a stronger, specialist response to violence against women and girls, giving police the ability to respond robustly to domestic abuse, rape and other sexual offences, and to strengthen the law against spiking.
However, while welcome, all this feels too much like attacking the symptoms rather than dealing with the underlying causes. Again, it is what’s missing that’s worrying.
After a decade of lurching to the right, with the state growing more authoritarian and less interested in compromise, why is the Labour government not repealing the 2022 Police Courts and Sentencing Act, nor the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Act of 2021?
Overall, Labour’s programme doesn’t yet feel joined up. There is a real opportunity here that could be lost, a chance to properly recast the relationship between employer, state and union as a partnership, as exists in Germany, for example.
To my mind, the government should sit down with the TUC, review all union and employment legislation from 1979 onwards, and plan a flagship bill to repeal the attacks on workers and establish the basis for a more labour friendly future.
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John Cunnison is a member of the area activists’ committee of Unite the Union and currently vice president of North Staffordshire Trades Council.
See also:
‘Labour in Government: Lords Reform & Remaining Wrongs’ by Chris Wilson
‘Labour in Government: Health Reform & the Darzi Report’ by Keith Venables.
