Labour rights are back on the agenda – but the bill must renew workplace democracy

For decades, workers in Britain have endured a slow erosion of their rights, security, and real wages. The Employment Rights Bill, hailed as the most significant expansion of workers’ rights in a generation, is an opportunity to change that. But while its introduction is welcome, without key improvements, there are further measures that should be adopted to ensure it delivers the transformation that workers desperately need.

The decline of workers’ rights in the UK has been systematic. The Thatcher government’s assault on trade unions in the 1980s—through legal restrictions on organising, collective bargaining, and mass privatisation—paved the way for the insecurity that dominates today’s labour market. The gig economy, built on zero-hours contracts, bogus self-employment, and agency work, has only made things worse. In an era where companies like Uber, Deliveroo, and Amazon dictate employment conditions with minimal accountability, this bill can deliver real and lasting protections.

This is the most meaningful upgrade to UK employment law in decades. The bill rightly takes aim at exploitative zero-hours contracts, fire-and-rehire tactics, and the lack of protection for agency workers. But already, powerful business lobbies are working to water down its provisions. They argue that strengthening workers’ rights will stifle growth, yet the evidence suggests the opposite: high union density and strong collective bargaining correlate with better wages, increased productivity, and more stable industrial relations.

We must aim not only for stronger employment protections but for a renewed culture of workplace democracy and collective bargaining. There are three areas in particular where I believe the bill should go further—establishing a single definition of employment status in law, rebalancing legal powers so employees can challenge unlawful dismissals as easily as employers can block strikes, and reintroducing widespread sectoral collective bargaining to end the cycle of declining real wages.

On employment status, the Government’s own ‘Making Work Pay: Next Steps’ document suggests a future consultation, but as many in the labour movement have pointed out, this issue has been debated for long enough. The time for action is now. Without a clear definition, companies will continue to exploit legal grey areas, just as Uber, Deliveroo, and Addison Lee have done—forcing drivers into ‘self-employment’ while denying them basic rights such as minimum wage and holiday pay. Unite the union has highlighted how a lack of full employment rights leaves construction workers at greater risk of injury and exploitation. Even the Government’s own Director of Labour Market Enforcement has acknowledged that “you can consult until the cows come home” on this issue, but urgent change is needed.

The bill must also take firmer action against fire and rehire—a practice that allows unscrupulous employers to dismiss staff and rehire them on worse terms. While the bill strengthens protections by doubling the compensation awarded to those unfairly dismissed, history has shown that financial penalties alone are not enough. When P&O Ferries sacked 800 workers over a video call in 2022, they knowingly broke employment law because the fines were trivial compared to the profits they stood to make. Employers willing to break the law for profit require stronger deterrents.

One potential solution is to give trade unions injunctive power to stop mass dismissals before they happen. Mick Lynch, the outgoing General Secretary of the RMT, has called for exactly that. At present, employers can take unions to court to prevent strikes, yet unions have no equivalent legal mechanism to prevent illegal sackings. It is only right that this imbalance is corrected.

The bill also introduces new collective bargaining mechanisms, with a negotiating body for adult social care and a re-established body for school support staff. These are welcome steps, but they fall far short of what is needed. Labour’s pre-election manifesto pledged to introduce Fair Pay Agreements across the economy, reviving sector-wide collective bargaining after decades of decline. Yet this bill stops short of delivering on that promise. Worse, it explicitly states that these new negotiating bodies should not be considered collective bargaining structures under the law, limiting their independence from government control.

The TUC and unions like Unite and the RMT all urged the Government at the bill’s committee stage to go further. The economic benefits of collective bargaining are well established—not just for workers, but for the economy as a whole. Studies from the OECD and the IMF have shown that strong bargaining systems contribute to higher productivity, lower inequality, and better integration of vulnerable groups into the workforce. The Government can ensure that this bill includes the power to extend sector-wide bargaining to other industries, rather than limiting it to social care.

The UK already has a patchwork of national bargaining structures, from public sector pay review bodies—widely seen as inadequate—to the National Joint Council for Local Government Services and the National Joint Council for Fire Services. These could serve as models for future sectoral agreements that ensure fair pay and conditions across industries.

After 14 years of stagnating wages, job insecurity, and rising inequality, this bill is a crucial opportunity to reset the balance between workers and employers. But it is not enough to introduce new rights if companies can continue to circumvent them. If we are serious about ending exploitative employment practices, we must act decisively.

The goal must be a renewed culture of workplace democracy and collective bargaining. Now is the time for bold action. Therefore the bill needs to be strengthened, not diluted. Let’s not waste this opportunity, and move forward to a more positive future.