A Manifesto for Labour Law: towards a comprehensive revision of workers’ rights

Professor Keith Ewing Lord John Hendy KC Carolyn Jones | Jun 2016

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Second edition now available at Rolling out the Manifesto for Labour

About the book

The world of work has changed and with it the nature and role of the workforce. For the UK’s 31 million workers, many of the changes have had a devastating impact on their working lives and their living standards. Britain’s workers are amongst the most insecure, unhappy and stressed workers in Europe.

The law needs to change. This Manifesto offers 25 major policy recommendations for consideration. It proposes changing the way in which working conditions are regulated by embedding the voice of workers at national, sectoral and enterprise levels. It moves responsibility for workplace regulation from legislation to collective bargaining. It calls for a Ministry of Labour and a National Economic Forum; sectoral collective bargaining; the repeal of the Trade Union Act 2016 and the introduction of fundamental and enforceable rights for workers.

This is a timely, authoritative and extremely important contribution to the debate on the future of the world of work.

Reviews

Outcome driven, this manifesto is a well-evidenced route map which has the potential to inspire a new political project to set the labour market on a stronger footing.

Professor Lydia Hayes, Morning Star
The manifesto’s main plank is the reinstatement of sectoral (industry-wide, multi-employer) collective bargaining along the lines deployed in Germany, Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

The Labour Research Department
The great advantage of the Manifesto over proposals like, say basic income, or ‘workers on the boards’ is not only that it’s more efficient or that it supports an alternative economic strategy but that it implicitly emphasises and explicitly licences the role of workers in active struggling to deliver this alternative.

Trade Union Futures
These policy recommendations take inspiration from contemporary and historical experiences of the labour movement, in Britain and beyond. In effect, they call for a complete overhaul of industrial relations in the UK – and not before time. The Brexit result makes such reforms even more imperative.

Ciaron Cross, the International Centre for Trade Union Rights
Builds the labour policy elements for a qualitative shift in politics

Dr Ewan McGaughey, Industrial Law Journal
It is clear that any party professing to represent the interests and preferences of labour now has the formula for winning the votes of 31 million workers throughout the UK and achieving social justice through the recommendations in this manifesto.

Socialist Lawyer

All reviews

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This publication has been publishes as an article in the Institute of Employment Rights journal, published by Pluto Journals. More information on the journal can be found on the journal website here.