Govt announces right to keep tips and duty to consider flexible working
In the week that insecure staff from across some of the UK's largest hospitality chains protested in the streets from Brighton to Glasgow, the government has announced some improvements to the law.
New legislation will give workers the right to the tips they earn, and the government is considering a new duty on employers to consider which jobs can be performed with flexible hours to make it easier for parents to fit life around work.
In another nod to parents, the government will consult on a proposal to require employers of over 250 staff to publish their parental policies.
These gestures do not go far enough to truly help the millions of people trapped in insecure work. The Institute of Employment Rights published Rolling out the Manifesto for Labour Law in September 2018, which received support from the Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell and Shadow BEIS Secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey, that will provide workers with a living wage, secure work, and equal rights from day one. Parents will have the right to flexible working except where it is genuinely not possible, and fathers will get double the paternity rights.
