Business secretary claims workers’ rights bill U-turn doesn’t breach Labour’s manifesto – UK politics live

Peter Kyle denies unfair dismissal policy U-turn is breach of manifesto pledge but unions and Labour MPs criticise decisionIn interviews this morning, Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, also rejected claims that the employment rights bill U-turn contradicted Labour’s manifesto. (See 9.30am.) She told Sky News:In the manifesto, what we said was that we would work with trade unions, with business, with civil society, in consulting on those protections that we’d be bringing forward.So, there are both parts to that, within the manifesto, the important rights and the consultation.The employment rights bill is the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation … The risk here was that if we didn’t make progress, those important rights wouldn’t come into force from April next year.I am really proud that we have delivered already so many of the manifesto commitments that we made, whether that’s in education or around employment rights and much, much more besides.From April next year, millions of workers and lots and lots of your listeners will have access to sick pay that they wouldn’t otherwise have. That is a really big, important step.Labour will stop the chaos and turn the page to create a partnership between business and trade unions, by implementing ‘Labour’s Plan to Make Work Pay: Delivering a New Deal for Working People’ in full – introducing legislation within 100 days. We will consult fully with businesses, workers, and civil society on how to put our plans into practice before legislation is passed. This will include banning exploitative zero hours contracts; ending fire and rehire; and introducing basic rights from day one to parental leave, sick pay, and protection from unfair dismissal. Continue reading...