Britain denies wanting to reduce workers' rights post-Brexit

[snoop1130]

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]

We all know they can be trusted! ????

[blazes]

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]

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]

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]

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, 2021 by Chomper Higgot

[Pique Dard]

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]

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]

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]

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]

11 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

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

Totally wrong for society.

[Pilotman]

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]

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]

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]

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...

[Chomper Higgot]

3 hours 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. 

 

Your Blessed and much lamented Margaret T destroyed the UK’s manufacturing industries, announced the death of ‘society’ and set the UK on course for the ‘all rights an no responsibility’ mess the UK is in.

 

 

[Chomper Higgot]

3 hours 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.   

It’s one thing to support abuse of working people, it’s quite something else to instill such beliefs in one’s children.

 

Your views on how working people spend their day are common amongst people who don’t themselves work.

[Pilotman]

Just now, Chomper Higgot said:

It’s one thing to support abuse of working people, it’s quite something else to instill such beliefs in one’s children.

 

Your views on how working people spend their day are common amongst people who don’t themselves work.

hold on, who said anything about abusing others? Presumably, unless someone is independently wealthy, we were , or are still,  all 'working people', its just must better to be the boss of others and not in the general  herd.   Not a bad lesson for them to learn. 

[Chomper Higgot]

2 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

hold on, who said anything about abusing others? Presumably, unless someone is independently wealthy, we were , or are still,  all 'working people', its just must better to be the boss of others and not in the general  herd.   Not a bad lesson for them to learn. 

Well who was it who wanted to get rid of ‘employment tribunals’ Which predominantly deal with the abuse of workers by their employers?

 

Away with you and your ‘I’m all right Jack’ nonsense.

 

[Pilotman]

56 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Well who was it who wanted to get rid of ‘employment tribunals’ Which predominantly deal with the abuse of workers by their employers?

 

Away with you and your ‘I’m all right Jack’ nonsense.

 

They are cram full of spurious claims, like the lady recently who was awarded 20,000 Pounds because  her manager  told her to put her hair up as it was a health hazard.  All the other workers complied with the rule, including a couple of men with  long hair, but not this poor hard done by lady. That is pathetic and by no means an isolated case.  In my company we were taken to a tribunal by a lazy no good moron who was more off work than on, but still well enough to go to the bettering shop and the pub very day.  He didn't even bother to turn up for the hearing but we still had to go through the motions of a full hearing.  One wasted day at whatever expense just because of a useless individual and a stupid broken system. Lots of similar examples in the media. They are a good idea gone wrong  and are being routinely  'abused' (your term)  by unscrupulous people. This  idea  of employees being routinely  'abused ' by bad employers is so socialist 1950s. 

Edited January 16, 2021 by Pilotman

[MaiDong]

9 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

They are cram full of spurious claims, like the lady recently who was awarded 20,000 Pounds because  her manager  told her to put her hair up as it was a health hazard.  All the other workers complied with the rule, including a couple of men with  long hair, but not this poor hard done by lady. That is pathetic and by no means an isolated case.  In my company we were taken to a tribunal by a lazy no good moron who was more off work than on, but still well enough to go to the bettering shop and the pub very day.  He didn't even bother to turn up for the hearing but we still had to go through the motions of a full hearing.  One wasted day at whatever expense just because of a useless individual and a stupid broken system. Lots of similar examples in the media. They are a good idea gone wrong  and are being routinely  'abused' (your term)  by unscrupulous people. This  idea  of employees being routinely  'abused ' by bad employers is so socialist 1950s. 

Again, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. 

Are you unable to give us any good examples of where workers rights have been a benefit? Or are they all socialist 1950's in your somewhat skewed (poundshop?) tory mind? 

[Pilotman]

4 minutes ago, MaiDong said:

Again, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. 

Are you unable to give us any good examples of where workers rights have been a benefit? Or are they all socialist 1950's in your somewhat skewed (poundshop?) tory mind? 

The laws on discrimination and all the HASW legislation, while not workers right per see, have been a good thing.  The ones I most agree with are the minimum wage, the right to collective bargaining, the right to opt out of a closed shop and not join a Union ( excellent that one),  the right to have a proper job description and a formal contract of employment, the rest, not so much. 

[Chomper Higgot]

1 minute ago, Pilotman said:

The laws on discrimination and all the HASW legislation, while not workers right per see, have been a good thing.  The ones I most agree with are the minimum wage, the right to collective bargaining, the right to opt out of a closed shop and not join a Union ( excellent that one),  the right to have a proper job description and a formal contract of employment, the rest, not so much. 

And if, as you suggest, Employment Tribunals are abolish, where will your nephew go for redress if these rights you agree with are abused?

 

[I here accept your own children will have followed your advice and become bosees].

[Pilotman]

1 minute ago, Chomper Higgot said:

And if, as you suggest, Employment Tribunals are abolish, where will your nephew go for redress if these rights you agree with are abused?

 

[I here accept your own children will have followed your advice and become bosees].

Small Claims Court. 

 

The two older ones yes; my youngest,  mixed race, not so sure  as she is still deciding on her future after Uni.  I strongly suspect that she is an under cover  socialist,   not in my presence of course, if  that proves correct,  I will of course disown her immediately. 

Edited January 16, 2021 by Pilotman

[2530Ubon]

Instead of tinkering around the edges, such as doing stupid deals for fishing rights and doing god knows what with workers rights, how about they get back to the important part of the "oven ready deal?"

We're STILL waiting for the government to do a deal with the EU for our services sector - let's not forget that it's worth 80.6% of the economy. So far, this trade deal only covers 19.4% of the economy. Not really worth it in my opinion.

[BusyB]

 

I really don't know where to start here, but my blood boils when I hear such unadulterated bovine faeces as 'best worker rights in the world'. Compared to who for God's sake?

 

Let's just say that here in Germany I have always worked hard and gone many an extra mile and looked after just about every company I worked for in the last 40 years. So do nearly all my colleagues. That's because labor law and enlightened and (generally) efficient management looked after me/us as well.

 

If I was working in Britain I'd be doing my damndest to squeeze as much as I possibly could out of a company for as little input as I could possibly get away with.

 

It was a Labour government that insisted on British workers' 'rights' to work more than 48 hours a week. Yeah, just to pay the rent! Ok Ok ... let's not get started.

 

I know which side my bread's buttered on whatever problems we may have here (and they are far fewer than in Blighty).

 

If British workers seriously believed Brexit was about improving their lot ... watch this space.

 

[Loiner]

9 hours ago, MaiDong said:

Zero hours contracts. I'll leave that here. 

EU did nothing to stop Zero hours contracts. The EU contributed to the problem by supplying about 2.31 million workers into the UK, many of whom are the ones on those contracts.

[oldhippy]

UK pensions are a joke compared to developed EU countries.

[elliss]

9 hours ago, blazes said:

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!!"

 

 

 

        I was a council sweeper ,  i had all the qualifications , failed six O levels .

       However that said ,  i knew the mechanical advantage of a brush n shovel.

         I  phoned our gaffer up , @ midday  start of shift .told him , our brushes have 

           have been nicked ..

          We were then instructed to lean against each other .  Elf n safety ..

[Loiner]

8 minutes ago, oldhippy said:

UK pensions are a joke compared to developed EU countries.

47 years of EU membership and the EU did nothing to align UK pensions with other developed EU countries pensions. Why would that be and would they have done anything to increase UK pensions had we Remained in the EU?