Employment Rights Bill

Debate between Baroness Verma and Lord Leong

Committee stage
Tuesday 24th June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Leong (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord. I ask him to bear with me—patience here. We are already seeing the results. Just this morning, Amazon announced a £40 billion investment. This means that it has resounding confidence in the UK Government.

[Baroness Verma (Con)]

We are talking about small and medium-sized businesses too, and they are not all going to be tech companies; they are not all going to be Amazons. They are small or medium-sized companies that keep most cities and towns going.

[Lord Leong (Lab)]

I thank the noble Baroness for that. I, together with my ministerial colleagues, speak to businesses every day, whether they are tech companies, other businesses or whatever. Yesterday, I had a conversation with Small Business Britain, and we talked about this Bill and most of its members have confidence in this Government. We talk to all businesses.

I come back to Amazon: basically, what it means is £40 billion. It is creating 4,000 new jobs across the UK, which is a major boost to our tech and logistics sector. The latest Lloyds Business Barometer survey shows that business confidence is at a nine-month high, with a rise in hiring expectations among businesses. This is proof that our plan for change is working. Britain is open for business, and the world is taking notice. There is simply nothing more I can add to the noble Lord’s argument. This analysis—and we will continue to do impact assessments—will be done, and I therefore ask the noble Lord to withdraw Amendment 310.

Employment Rights Bill

Debate between Baroness Verma and Lord Leong

Committee stage
Monday 16th June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord in Waiting/Government Whip (Lord Leong) (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who contributed. I will pick up the points that the noble Baroness, Lady Verma, and the noble Lord, Lord Leigh, made about SMEs. Last Wednesday, I gave a speech at an event on the Commons Terrace to a group of SMEs. Most of them were B Corp companies. I think there were about 2,000 of them. I spoke to them about what we are doing with this Bill. I must say, the atmosphere in the room was actually very supportive. Every one of them said that they welcomed the Bill. In fact, some of them said they would do more than what the Bill is doing. So what the noble Lord, Lord Leigh, said about the Government not talking to SMEs is basically not true. We are in constant, regular conversations, whether it is me, Minister Jones or the Secretary of State; we have meetings, including with officials, with all kinds and sizes of business on a daily basis.

I thank the noble Lord, Lord Sharpe, for his amendments, which were spoken to by the noble Lord, Lord Hunt. The Bill provides that a number of clauses related to the repeal of the Trade Union Act 2016 will commence two months after Royal Assent. This includes clauses related to the notice and mandate period for industrial action, trade union political funds and simplification of industrial action notices, which the Government consulted publicly on from October to December last year. We have been clear about our intention to repeal the great majority of the Trade Union Act 2016—it was a manifesto commitment—which places unnecessary red tape on trade union activity that works against their core role of negotiation and dispute resolution.

More generally, the Bill provides for a number of provisions in Part 4 to come into force on or two months after Royal Assent, while other provisions can be commenced via regulations. These amendments would frustrate those intentions by allowing no part of Part 4, covering all of the provisions regarding trade unions and industrial action, to commence until a report following consultation on the effects of the provisions in Part 4 has been published. The further consultation suggested is not required, given that the Government regularly engaged with business, employers, members of the public and unions in advance of introducing the Bill.

The plan to make work pay was established in collaboration with businesses, trade unions and business organisations, and the Government continue to undertake comprehensive engagement. Furthermore, we have been continuing to provide many opportunities for everybody to input into the development of the Bill. For example, we ran a public consultation with all stakeholders—unions represented only 16% of the respondents on specific trade union-related measures in Part 4—from October to December last year. That was open to all to enable the consideration of their views. The Bill will, of course, continue to be subject to parliamentary scrutiny in the usual way, and we will also be conducting further public consultation.

[Baroness Verma (Con)]

Can the Minister tell me what percentage of the consultation was among BME businesses?

[Lord Leong (Lab)]

I thank the noble Baroness for her question. I do not have the figure, but I will find it out and write to her.

The Bill will, of course, continue to be subject to parliamentary scrutiny in the usual way. We will also be conducting further public consultation on certain parts of Part 4 where there is detail to be set out in secondary legislation or codes of practice. Further consultation of the kind envisaged by these amendments before Part 4 can come into force is therefore not required.

These amendments run counter to the Government’s manifesto commitments, as I said earlier. They seek to delay the commencement of essential parts of the Employment Rights Bill with no valid justification and would hinder the delivery of improved workers’ rights. I therefore ask the noble Lord, Lord Sharpe, to withdraw his amendment.

Employment Rights Bill

Debate between Baroness Verma and Lord Leong

Committee stage
Tuesday 29th April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Leong (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord for that. I might turn that around and say that, if I am looking for a job, I have a choice of big or small companies. I am taking a chance and a risk working for a very small company. I am not sure whether that company will last. That risk works two ways. I strongly believe that most people work for companies not because of what the company does but because they look at the owner or the founders and whether they want to work with such people. At the end of the day, the employees will also be taking a chance on the employer.

[Baroness Verma (Con)]

My Lords, there is a huge difference between a large business—and its culture and the ability to respond to all the new burdens that will be placed on it—and a small business. The Minister himself said that a happy business and happy employees add to a good bottom line. The problem is that, if an employer is so burdened by so many things to comply with because it is a small employer, that happiness is soon going to disappear. All I think that all noble Lords around the House are asking is that we ease the burdens for small and micro-businesses by removing not the rights but just the burdens.

[Lord Leong (Lab)]

I thank the noble Baroness for that. There are other additional responsibilities, not only in terms of HR. A company that sets up needs to have IT support and payroll support. How many SMEs have their own IT department or payroll department, let alone an HR department? There will be big businesses that will be providing services to support SMEs. The whole argument is about responsibility: basically, when you set up a business, you have all these responsibilities, and this is part of those responsibilities.

[Baroness Verma (Con)]

My Lords, I do not want to labour the point but, if the Minister were to speak to the small businesses that people like us are speaking to, I think they would really argue that these are huge implications for them.

[Lord Leong (Lab)]

I thank the noble Baroness. I will not hold the House for too long, because I think the dinner break is coming up, but I will obviously meet up with her to talk further on this.

To conclude, the Government believe that having an entitlement to fair, flexible and secure working should not be reserved for those people who work for large companies. It is fundamental that our “make work pay” reforms, including those in this Bill, apply across all employers. Any exceptions to this provision based on the size of the business would create a two-tier labour market, with some workers facing fewer rights, entitlements and protections. This would reduce the talent pool from which SMEs could attract employees, as I mentioned earlier. This in turn would lead to an uneven playing field between employers of different sizes and reduced incentives for small businesses to grow. I therefore ask the noble Lord, Lord Sharpe, to withdraw Amendment 282 and the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, to withdraw Amendments 5 and 124.