Britain denies wanting to reduce workers' rights post-Brexit

[snoop1130 12,647]

Britain denies wanting to reduce workers' rights post-Brexit

 

FILE PHOTO: A person looks at the adverts in the window of a job agency in London, Britain October 13, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo

 

LONDON (Reuters) - The British government said on Friday it had no plans to lower standards on workers’ rights, rejecting a Financial Times report that a shake-up of EU labour regulations as part of a post-Brexit overhaul was in the works.

 

The FT reported here on Thursday that the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy was proposing changes focused on ending the 48-hour working week, rules around rest breaks, and not including overtime pay when calculating some holiday pay entitlements, citing people familiar with the plans.

 

The measures were being prepared with Downing Street’s approval but have not yet been agreed by ministers or put to the cabinet, the FT said.

 

In response, business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said the government wanted to build up workers’ rights.

 

“We want to protect and enhance workers’ rights going forward, not row back on them,” Kwarteng said in a tweet.

 

A government spokeswoman added: “We have absolutely no intention of lowering the standards of workers’ rights.”

 

“The UK has one of the best workers’ rights records in the world, and it is well known that the UK goes further than the EU in many areas. Leaving the EU allows us to continue to be a standard setter and protect and enhance UK workers’ rights.”

 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he wants to use Britain’s exit from the European Union and the end of what many in the ruling Conservative Party believe to be the bloc’s restrictive rules to benefit business growth.

 

The government is having discussions with businesses in a wide-range of sectors to try to gauge how to use what it calls its new freedoms from the EU to boost growth.

 

But many opposition lawmakers and trade unions fear the government will use its new freedom from EU rules and regulations to diminish rights rather than build on them.

 

Ed Miliband, the business policy chief for the opposition Labour Party, said the government’s priorities were “out of step with the needs of workers and their families”.

 

“These proposals are not about cutting red tape for businesses but ripping up vital rights for workers,” Miliband said in a statement.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-01-15

 

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[candide 12,077]

We all know they can be trusted!

[blazes 4,056]

I was once in a pub in Cheriton, Hampshire, deep in John Arlott country, where everyone spoke with that deep burr of 'Ampshire.

A guy walks in and obviously knew the locals having their beer.  He calls out to the pub: "I almost 'ad a 'eart attack today."

"Oh, why?"

"I wuz on me bike when I came across a bunch of council workers, and they were WORKING!!"

 

 

[MaiDong 512]

15 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

“The UK has one of the best workers’ rights records in the world, and it is well known that the UK goes further than the EU in many areas. Leaving the EU allows us to continue to be a standard setter and protect and enhance UK workers’ rights.”

Zero hours contracts. I'll leave that here. 

[robblok 41,499]

15 hours ago, candide said:

We all know they can be trusted!

That is ok let him degrade the workers rights, as long as its not for workers that make products that go to Europe there wont be a problem. Otherwise its the end of trade as UK  has to follow the EU rules on labor (cant deviate negatively) or lose access.

 

But I clearly remember people posting on this forum that the UK had really good workers standards and those would not be deflated. I guess they were the same as those who voted for Brexit and believed the lies of BJ and his ilk. 

[Chomper Higgot 36,686]

The Tory government referring the UK worker's rights neglects to mention that those rights were fought for by workers unions and that the Tories did most of the fighting against workers rights.

 

There’s a ‘tell’ in this news report.

 

The government can’t say what improvements in workers rights they are planning, it’s such good news they want to keep it to themselves.

 

 

Edited January 16 by Chomper Higgot

[Pique Dard 468]

18 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

“We want to protect and enhance workers’ rights going forward, not row back on them,” Kwarteng said in a tweet.

let me be sceptical! one of the main stumbling blocks during brexit talks was workers' rights. johnson wants to lower them. there is not any great secret about it

[Pilotman 19,362]

Quite right too.  Workers have far too many rights. Remove most of them, scrap Employment Tribunals, make it easy to hire and fire  and you will increase employment over night. Finish the job that the Blessed and much lamented Margaret T started so many years ago. 

[stevenl 29,745]

4 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

Quite right too.  Workers have far too many rights. Remove most of them, scrap Employment Tribunals, make it easy to hire and fire  and you will increase employment over night. Finish the job that the Blessed and much lamented Margaret T started so many years ago. 

In a time where corporate greed is at an all time high, I strongly disagree with all of this. 

[Pilotman 19,362]

2 minutes ago, stevenl said:

In a time where corporate greed is at an all time high, I strongly disagree with all of this. 

Nothing at all wrong with it, so long as you are the 'corporation'.   As my Nephew is fond of quoting, nothing wrong with a Dictatorship, so long as you are the Dictator or his family.  Told my kids when they were young, don't whinge about your rights, or get jealous of others in a higher position that you,  just work hard and become one of the bosses. I've seen too many 'workers', in the UK at least, who basically  sit on their asses most of the day,  wanting more and more for less and less.   

[stevenl 29,745]

11 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

Nothing at all wrong with it, so long as you are the 'corporation'.   <snip>

Totally wrong for society.

[Pilotman 19,362]

8 minutes ago, stevenl said:

Totally wrong for society.

As Margaret Thatcher once  famously said,  'there is no such thing as 'society'.  Covid has shown this to be manifestly true, almost Worldwide, but certainly in the UK, where breaking the rules put in place to protect  this mythical idea of 'society', are being broken by thousands if not millions. 

[stevenl 29,745]

6 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

As Margaret Thatcher once  famously said,  'there is no such thing as 'society'.  Covid has shown this to be manifestly true, almost Worldwide, but certainly in the UK, where breaking the rules put in place to protect  this mythical idea of 'society', are being broken by thousands if not millions. 

Thatcher has been wrong on more than one occasion, this being one of them.

[MaiDong 512]

36 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

Nothing at all wrong with it, so long as you are the 'corporation'.   As my Nephew is fond of quoting, nothing wrong with a Dictatorship, so long as you are the Dictator or his family.  Told my kids when they were young, don't whinge about your rights, or get jealous of others in a higher position that you,  just work hard and become one of the bosses. I've seen too many 'workers', in the UK at least, who basically  sit on their asses most of the day,  wanting more and more for less and less.   

You shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater though.

Whilst I have seen many shirkers in my time, I've also seen a lot of hard workers, who, despite their hard work, have been down-trodden by their employers. 

Some of them have been saved by their unions, some of them took time off for mental health reasons, and in my opinion, no job is worth the cost of your mental health. 

Workers rights are what gave us lunch breaks, insurance at work, sick pay, maternal/paternal leave, defence from unfair dismissal etc etc, the list goes on. 

 

[Bluespunk 53,145]

19 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

The British government said on Friday it had no plans to lower standards on workers’ rights, rejecting a Financial Times report that a shake-up of EU labour regulations as part of a post-Brexit overhaul was in the works.

Yeah, right, sure...