Labour’s plan to overhaul employment rights will kill Christmas working, Kemi Badenoch has warned. The Tory leader said the measures will destroy opportunities for many, especially young people, describing it as a “de facto ban on seasonal and flexible work”.
Mrs Badenoch will deliver a speech to the CBI conference on Monday in which she will also say that the controversial Employment Rights Bill (ERB) will drag Britain back to the 1970s by handing militant trade unions more power than they have had in several decades. “When I visit business and ask them what causes anxiety, yes, they do talk about the tax burden,” she will say. “But the single most complained about measure in this government’s programme is not a tax rise.
“It is the Employment Rights Bill.
“It is a 330-page assault on flexible working…written in the TUC’s headquarters…designed to drag Britain back to a world where unions call the shots and employers carry the blame.”
It adds to a growing chorus of opposition to the reforms, which were championed by Angela Rayner, the former deputy prime minister.
The planned legislation contains a blizzard of measures which businesses say will damage competitiveness, including introducing employment rights from day one, banning flexible ‘zero-hours’ contracts and scrapping anti-strike laws.
The Government’s own impact assessment found it will add up to £5billion a year to business costs.
Mrs Badenoch will also warn the package will cripple seasonal and flexible work.
“If a university undergrad chooses to get a Christmas job and works 40 hours a week in the three weeks before December, they then have the right to those same hours in January, February and March,” she will say.
“Great.
“Except there’s no demand then, and revenue falls off a cliff.
“A measure designed to ensure employment in January will effectively mean firms don’t hire in December and everyone loses.”
Earlier this month Sir Tony Blair warned the plan risks harming jobs and hurting growth.
The former prime minister’s think tank said controversial “day one” protections against unfair dismissal would make it more expensive and risky to hire workers.
“Well-intentioned efforts to improve worker protections through the Employment Rights Bill risk increasing the cost of starting and growing businesses,” the Tony Blair Institute said.
CBI boss Rain Newton-Smith will urge the government to “change course” and avoid inflicting more cost pressure on UK firms.
She will tell ministers and business leaders that firms are concerned the UK could “risk getting locked in a stop-start economy”.
Initial measures linked to the Bill, such as day one paternity leave and changes to statutory sick leave, are due to come into force in April next year.
Ms Newton-Smith said the legislation is “damaging” and called for a change in direction from the Government.
