Tory Peers block Employment Relations Bill again. Is the Parliament Act the way forward?
The Employment Relations Bill currently in Parliament is far from the measure drawn up when Labour was in opposition. Even so it still contains measures that have the potential to drive improvements to rights at work and hence to people’s working lives.
Despite concessions, some might say because of them, on day one employment rights on dismissal Tory Peers again refused to p any ass the Bill on 10th December.
Of course this has rightly been condemned by Paul Nowak GS of the TUC and by other Union leaders including Mike Clancy at Prospect who the Guardian reports as saying
The behaviour of the House of Lords can no longer be seen as constructive scrutiny and increasingly looks like cynical wrecking tactics that risk a constitutional crisis if they continue.
Further delay is in nobody’s interests and only prolongs uncertainty, the bill must pass before Christmas including lifting the caps on compensation.
However it’s a reminder perhaps as much to Labour as anything else that the Tories are intent on class war. They (and Reform MPs when they trouble to turn up) have consistently voted against the Bill in the Commons. They don’t want any improvements in people’s working lives whatever the rhetoric.
There are several possible ways forward. One is to make further concessions to what is already a much reduced measure. Another is to use the 1949 Parliament Act which would see the Bill delayed for a further year.
Another alternative is to protest both at workplaces and on the streets in support of workers rights and against an undemocratic House of Lords…
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