Kwarteng to launch post-Brexit ‘review’ of workers’ rights. Shall we make some predictions?
Kwasi Kwarteng: a few years ago he said, “Fracking is over.” Will he soon be saying, “workers’ rights are over” too?
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has admitted he is reviewing protections to UK workers’ rights.
Kwarteng has denied plans to strip us of our entitlement to paid holidays and other protections – but he is infamous for having condemned UK workers are “among the worst idlers in the world”, that the UK “rewards laziness” and “too many people in Britain prefer a lie-in to hard work”.
When he stated this in the book Britannia Unchained, he was slated as a hypocrite because his own record for attending Parliament was among the worst of all MPs. One can only hope being promoted to a ministerial position has instilled a sense of diligence in him. But I doubt it.
The business secretary has confirmed his department is reviewing how EU employment rights protections could be changed after Brexit, while insisting they will not be watered down.
The Guardian understands a consultation on employment rights was signed off by Kwasi Kwarteng’s predecessor Alok Sharma… Insiders say the consultation is ready to launch and has been circulated among some select business leaders.
If business leaders are being asked to provide input before the consultation even starts, then the aim seems clear: to coerce working people into making more money for their employers and taking home less for themselves.
I’ve been writing about this since before the EU referendum, and I fancy having a stab at predicting how we’ll be attacked.
The rights most at risk would be:
• Working time rules, including limits on working hours and rules on the amount of holiday pay a worker is entitled to;
• Transfer of Undertakings (TUPE), i.e. the EU-derived protections to the terms and conditions of workers at an organisation or service that is transferred or outsourced to a new employer;
• Protections for agency workers and other ‘atypical’ workers, such as part-time workers;
• Current levels of compensation for discrimination of all kinds, including equal pay awards and age discrimination; and
• Rights for workers’ representatives to be consulted if major changes are planned that will change people’s jobs or result in redundancies (as have been used in recent major announcements in the steel industry).
Feel free to add your own predictions to the comment column.
Source: Business secretary confirms post-Brexit review of UK workers’ rights | Brexit | The Guardian
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I’ve no doubt women’s right to maternity leave will be abolished and replaced with a fake one wherein women workers can take time off work but they won’t be eligible to return to work because employer can say ‘your job has been taken by a male!’
Add huge reduction in female and male worker rights to holiday pay – one week will be considered a luxury because the greedy profit driven employers want their labour slaves to work 24/7!
Employees will have no right of redress when they are dismissed because employers will be viewed as always being fair and just!
Zero working practices will be the norm so all low paid and disposable women and men workers will not be given permanent contracts!
Laziest scrounger of the fascist tories Kwasi Kwarteng is an excellent business secretary because he leads by example – he works part time (that is if he even bothers to turn up at his lavish office!).
Corrupt fascist tories not seeking consultation with trades unions – no no no – select big business boys are the experts on employee non rights!
But but little england is now a proud little backwater because we’ve left the EU!