The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 7th March 2025
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 7th March 2025
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
On the last day of February, the TUC called on union members to support “Work Your Proper Hours Day” and to stop working for free doing unpaid overtime. For the umpteenth time it urged workers to “take the breaks they are entitled to and finish their shifts on time”. For good measure “managers are encouraged to support staff by setting reasonable work loads and putting in place workplace policies to protect against burnout”.
This is the TUC’s response to the fact that millions of workers, 3.8 million to be precise, did unpaid overtime in 2024, at an average of 7.2 unpaid hours per week, thus foregoing the equivalent of £8,000 per year.
The TUC’s report, drawn from the official Labour Force Survey, shows that of the 3,807,000 workers involved, this was most common in teaching at 38 per cent and among health and care managers on 35. Regionally it is most common in London, with 17 per cent above the national average of 13. Geo graphically the figures vary enormously from 6.2 in Wales to 15.9 in the South East. Overall, it looks as if the more prosper ous regions are worst affected. (Scotland and Northern Ireland were not included.)
The gender difference here is very small with 13.2 per cent of women working unpaid overtime, slightly above men on 13.1, but women do an ex tra 6.8 hours a week compared with 7.5 hours for men. Across England and Wales, no less than 27,295,000 hours of unpaid overtime are worked every week amounting to an annual total of 1,419,337,000 hours to a value of £30,729,760,000.
The TUC says these figures highlight staffing pressures in schools and hospitals, and that Government plans to recruit an other 6,500 teachers will help to improve levels of work intensity. More engagement is needed on workforce issues across the public sector.
When the report was is sued, TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak said: “Most work ers don’t mind putting in extra hours from time to time, but they should be paid for it. This analysis shows once again the staffing pressures in our public services that have been driven by 14 years of Tory mismanage ment.” He hopefully added that: “The Employment Rights Bill will make it easier for people to come together in a union and challenge unfair practices.”
Nowak’s appeal has had only marginal influence on the Government, however. The Sunday Times reported that Labour’s “New Deal for Working People” has predictably, been watered down to exclude the “right to switch off”. The present Em ployment Bill, presently creep ing though Parliament, currently has excluded such measures.
While Government amend ments to the Bill were tabled on Tuesday, the Sunday Times quotes a “Government source” as explicitly saying “the right to switch off is dead”. This is to curry favour with business interests annoyed by the rise in employers’ National Insurance contributions and “Making Brit ain the best country in the world to do business and a key part of that is removing unnecessary barriers”. Surprise, surprise.
This is not a trivial matter. Many workers feel they are never off duty. In particular, out sourced workers are contacted at all hours of the day and night by managers pressuring them to take extra shifts, often at very short notice.
The present Working Time Regulations (WTR) were introduced more than 25 years ago when mobile phones were lit tle more than expensive status symbols. Now hardly anyone can live without one. Legislation is urgently needed to keep pace with new technologies and their potential to blur the lines between work and home.
To make matters worse, WTR is not adequately enforced. The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) is responsible for enforcement of the maximum weekly working time limits, night work limits and health assessments for night work. However, its work is curtailed by staff shortages. Its funding has been halved in recent years. Its latest annual report makes no mention of any enforcement activity in this area. No convictions for breaches of WTR have been made in the last decade.
As a result, there has been a recent increase in occupational ill-health. Although fewer work ers die from injuries on the job many suffer the effects of occupational cancers or work-related stress and fatigue.
Twenty per cent of all serious accidents are caused by fatigue. Long-term ill health conditions caused by overwork include hy pertension and cardiovascular disease, digestive problems and long-term effects on the immune system.
Parliament’s all party sub-committee on such matters takes a firmer line. It has piously declared that loopholes that allow employers to exploit workers should be closed “once and for all”. By this they do not mean abolishing capitalism but want to stop “outstanding” employers being undercut.
The committee’s Chair, Labour MP Liam Byrne, said: “As we’ve travelled the country, our committee has heard loud and clear that getting the right workers for the right roles is the number one challenge for Brit ish business trying to grow.” So “it’s obvious we can’t fix that problem by letting rogue firms sidestep new rules and mistreat their workforce.”
All this is for the benefit of “Britain’s most outstanding employers” who are at risk from “unscrupulous companies who might side-step reforms to zero-hours contracts by using agency workers”.
The committee also wants some tightening-up of the Bill, including modernising how unions are allowed to organise in the digital age, and updating the Modern Slavery Act. But it is becoming clear that business has been listened to more than unions.
The appeal by leaders of 11 trade unions affiliated to the La bour Party shows they also are concerned about this backslid ing. They wisely observe that “now is the time to face down the naysayers, see these essential commitments through, and ensure that the measures in the Employment Rights Bill will work in practice to deliver the change so urgently needed” but warn that: “The push back against the Employment Rights Bill, the crucial first step in delivering the Make Work Pay, is as predictable as it is tired. We’ve been here before, when the doom-mongers, including in the Conservative Party, said that the national minimum wage would cause business closures, job losses and the sky to fall in.”
It is telling that while union leaders have roused themselves to write an open letter, nothing has been done to organise any mass protests on this vital issue. After all they don’t want work ers getting too bolshy, otherwise union bureaucrats will have to get out of their offices more.
Tuesday’s amendments were applauded by bosses and unions alike. The Government claimed it “has listened to the views of stakeholders”. While this means it made some modifications in line with union demands it is clear that the bosses’ requests have been acted upon.
Speaking for Unite, Gen eral Secretary Sharon Graham said of the changes: “For de cades workers’ rights have been pushed down the agenda. This is the first time in a generation that workers’ rights have been taken seriously.”
She pointed out however, that deplorable shortcomings re main: “This includes not taking further action to ensure an out right ban on fire-and-rehire and the lack of stronger measures to ensure unions have a right of access to workplaces to organise workers.”
Fire-and-Rehire will still be permitted. The only change will be that workers will not be subject to such indignity until they have been employed for 180 rather than the existing 90 days. This is a distinction with out a difference as it is normally well-established workers who suffer from this.
One welcome move is that agency workers, of whom there are 900,000 in the UK, are to be included in a crackdown on zero-hours contracts so that such work does not become a loop hole for bosses.
The Tory legislation that forces unions to have ballots on industrial action predictably remains in place, but the man date from such ballots will last a whole year rather than the present six months. Another change, which is more technical than transformative, will permit elec tronic balloting, which will cut down on stamps and perhaps not find favour with the Union of Communication Workers.
Statutory Sick Pay is to be improved making it a legal right for all workers for the first time. Nearly 1.3 million employees on low wages will either receive 80 per cent of their average weekly earnings or the current rate of Statutory Sick Pay, whichever is lower, naturally. Access to sick pay will now be available from the first day of sickness absence.
Bosses found little to com plain about. Chris O’Shea, CEO of Centrica Group which owns profiteering British Gas, and which has used fire-and-rehire in recent years, said: “We are fully supportive of this legislation. This isn’t just the right thing to do – it’s a foundation for the high-growth, high-skill economy the UK needs.” Singing from the same hymn sheet Julie Abraham, CEO of Richer Sounds, piously said “we have always put the treatment and wellbeing of our colleagues at the forefront of everything we do”. The CEO of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) was also a cheerleader, saying: “The Employment Rights Bill represents a significant step for ward in improving conditions for the UK’s workforce. Many of these measures reflect what successful, responsible and for ward-looking employers are already doing.”
Only the Federation of Small Businesses were angry, claiming that: “Two thirds of small busi nesses are deciding that they’re not going to take on any future employees. About a third are saying they might reduce their workforce as a result of these changes.”
Jane Gratton, of the British Chamber of Commerce, was more telling, saying: “There is much here to welcome as sensible moves that will help ensure that employment works for both the business and the individual, including the nine-month statutory probation period and the promise of a light touch approach.” The probation period could make it easy to sack workers, and we all know what “light touch” regulation means.
A Fair Work Agency is also promised, which will merge existing regulatory bodies – but as these are presently grossly un derfunded it remains to be seen if there will be any extra funding to make the laws effective.