The Institute at TUC Congress 2024

TUC Congress week is always the most important and busiest time of the year for the IER. 2024 in Brighton was no different.

On Sunday evening, the Institute of Employment Rights held it’s annual TUC Congress fringe, jointly with the Campaign for Trade Union Freedom and sponsored by Thompsons Solicitors. Entitled ‘What Labour’s Employment Rights Bill needs to include’, the fringe meeting was held at the Brighton i360 on the seafront. The speakers were:

• Lord John Hendy KC, IER/CTUF
• Prof Lydia Hayes, University of Liverpool
• Dr Joe Atkinson, University of Southampton
• Fran Heathcote, General Secretary of the PCS union
• James Harrison, Director of IER
• Neil Todd, Thompsons Solicitors

and Sarah Woolley, General Secretary of BFAWU was in the chair.

In a wide-ranging discussion, Lord John Hendy gave an overview of the IER’s work on the New Deal and some of the pieces of the jigsaw that had still to take shape. New IER Director James Harrison talked about his pride at the contribution the IER has made to the employment rights changes that are now on the horizon:

“We should welcome the opportunity for change that the incoming Employment Rights Bill poses, to fix industrial relations and the law in this country, to make it fit for workers of the 21^st century.”

PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said the clock was ticking on the Labour government’s promise to deliver a New Deal for Working People. She welcomed the government’s scrapping of Minimum Service Levels, offering of above-inflation pay rises for public sector workers and the settling of the long-running train drivers and junior doctors.

“But,” she said, “we cannot and will not be complacent.”

She said PCS would scrutinise every clause in the New Deal legislation to ensure it delivers on banning zero hours contracts, ending fire-and-rehire and giving proper rights for all workers from day one.

“When Labour says its New Deal is committed to ending in-work poverty, we’ll be making sure that includes its own workforce.”

Professor Lydia Hayes explained why Fair Pay Agreements in adult social care workers is crucial, adding that public support for such a policy was clear. The message for the new government was ‘don’t delay. Dr Joe Atkinson from Southampton University discussed the challenges posed by algorithmic management and how the new employment rights landscape might shape the way workers are managed via AI. Neil Todd from Thompsons Solicitors told the meeting why we need stronger laws to stop unfair “fire and rehire” practices. Courts should dig deeper into employers’ reasons for dismissals, and loopholes in collective consultation must be closed. The Labour government has a chance to transform worker protections and deliver real change.

The IER / CTUF fringe was followed by an excellent GFTU social at the same venue, with food, drinks, speeches and a DJ set by the famous Trade Union ‘LAHAD DJ’ collective.

Throughout the week, the Institute’s stall in the exhibition centre was busy with delegates discussing various aspects of the New Deal, viewing the display, ‘A framework of labour law fit for the 21st century’ and browsing the IER’s publications and briefings – a real hub of debate and information during Congress week.

Photo credit: Jess Hurd

On the conference floor, many of the motions discussed aspects of labour law and employment rights reform that the IER has been working on for decades. Accompanying the debate in the hall, IER experts Professor Nicola Countouris, Professor Keith Ewing and Lord John Hendy KC published a series of blogs that analysed the new government’s proposals in detail. These are vital contributions to the ongoing debate and can be read here.

You can view the IER’s TUC Congress hub page here, with resources, briefings, publications and guides to the discussions at Congress.