Give workers freedom to organise!

Submitted by AWL on 10 August, 2016 - 11:42 Author: Charlotte Zalens

Corbyn′s campaign has published ten pledges. In this and future issues of Solidarity, we will be critically examining these pledges. Here, Charlotte Zalens looks at the ″security at work″ pledge.


The “security at work” pledge goes further towards outlining a positive charter of workers′ rights, stating: ″We will give people stronger employment rights from day one in a job, end exploitative zero hours contracts and create new sectoral collective bargaining rights, including mandatory collective bargaining for companies with 250 or more employees.

″We will create new employment and trade union rights to bring security to the workplace and win better pay and conditions for everyone. We will strengthen working people’s representation at work and the ability of trade unions to organise so that working people have a real voice at work.

″And we will put the defence of social and employment rights, as well as action against undercutting of pay and conditions through the exploitation of migrant labour, at the centre of the Brexit negotiations agenda for a new relationship with Europe.″

Employment rights for newer and younger workers have been drastically eroded under the Tories (building on the dismal record of New Labour). In 2012, the government raised the period for which a new employee does not have a right to claim unfair dismissal — from one year to two. At the same time the government introduced a £1,000 fee for employment tribunals.

Corbyn, and a Corbyn led Labour Party, should commit to giving all workers protection from dismissal from when they start work, and make access to employment law free. This security at work will give workers confidence to stand up to bullying bosses and collectively organise for better pay and conditions. Any strengthening of collective bargaining is welcome, but this pledge should be fleshed out or else it risks being a well-meant but empty promise.

The pledge seems to be alluding to industry-wide collective agreements which covered up to four out of five workers until the 1980s according to the Institute of Employment Rights (IER). Such agreements cover all workers, regardless of whether the union is recognised in their workplace or company; agreements which could end two-tier workforces and outsourcing to undercut wages and conditions. Making it easier to compel employers to recognise and negotiate with workers′ chosen unions would go a long way to giving workers the right to collectively bargain. A 2013 IER report on this issue has some useful specifics that the Corbyn campaign may consider.

Again ″strengthening working people’s representation at work and the ability of trade unions to organise so that working people have a real voice at work″ would be very welcome, but needs to be backed with concrete proposals. One of the first acts of the Corbyn-led Labour Party last September was to fight the Trade Union Bill, and commit to repealing it if elected. This was very good. But Corbyn has been less clear on repealing other existing anti-union legislation.

In the press coverage it has been speculated that Corbyn would repeal Blair′s 1999 Employment Relations Act in favour of a positive, charter of workers′ rights. But we need much more than that, we need a concrete commitment to repeal Thatcher, Major, Cameron′s and other anti-union laws.

Strengthening representation at work must mean a right to strike. And the right to have workplace ballots, to have political strikes, to effectively picket to stop the bosses moving production elsewhere or using scab workers to break strikes. Workers′ representatives on company boards who can easily be bought off, or complicated legal channels to reign in the worst abuses won’t cut it. Give workers the freedom to organise and we′ll deal with the bosses.

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