‘We Shouldn’t See Anything As Being Off The Table’ – Neil Todd on building on the Employment Rights Bill

This clip is from Episode 6 ‘Fire and Rehire: Labour’s Broken Promise?’ of the Institute of Employment Rights Podcast.

In the full episode, labour law experts Professor Keith Ewing and Neil Todd (Thompsons Solicitors) delve into the Labour Party’s Employment Rights Bill, looking at the provisions on zero-hours contracts, fire and rehire, and the lessons that can be learned from how other countries have successfully tackled these problems. Here, Todd warns against the alarmism employed by critics of the Bill, making the case for expanding regulation that seeks to curb casualisation and precarity for workers and taking a more radical approach to strengthening protections for working people, that could have real life implications for workers, and positive economic impacts.

As recent weeks’ have shown us, Britain’s business groups are lobbying Ministers to water down the Employment Rights Bill, citing consequences to economic growth, alongside ‘guaranteed continued conflict’ with trade unions as a result of measures found in the Bill. In a separate piece, well respected IER economists have argued that actually labour laws are predicted to be good for economic growth.

Ewing and Todd discuss how the Bill may result in the facilitation of fire and rehire whilst loopholes remain wide open, ultimately failing the workers it sought to protect. The final part of the episode explores what needs to be done, how loopholes can be closed and regulation expanded to stop future P&O type situations occurring again, while considering International examples and how other countries, like Australia, have successfully tackled fire and rehire.

You can listen to the full episode here.