Employment Law: Devolution to Scotland

Mhairi Black Excerpts

Tuesday 6th September 2022 Westminster Hall

[Amy Callaghan (East Dunbartonshire) (SNP)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Lanark and Hamilton East (Angela Crawley) on securing the debate. There are endless merits to devolving employment law to Scotland, but do not fret—I have only chosen a few to discuss today. We could look at unpaid trial shifts, fire and rehire—the list is endless—but what underpins this debate for Scottish workers is that we cannot trust the Government of the day in this place to be progressive and look out for the rights of workers, so we need to devolve employment law to ensure that Scotland can bring forward an employment Bill to look out for Scottish workers.

If employment law were devolved, Scottish workers would have the right to protection against vile tactics such as fire and rehire and unpaid trial shifts—tactics that we have seen deployed on our workforce by profit-making companies just to increase their profits that bit more. They are despicable and unnecessary. This Government and previous Governments could have done something about them, but they have deliberately chosen not to.

We can look at both the rights and the opportunities that are being denied. For example, this Government are denying people the opportunity to recover fully from ill health because the level of sick pay is so woeful that people are going back to work before they should. We are ending up with a workforce who are working while still in ill health. If we devolved employment law, I do not believe that would happen. I state on the record that we should also devolve all social security benefits to Scotland, to ensure that statutory sick pay is adequate, and that people with significant disabilities and ill health are fully supported in their return to work.

[Mhairi Black (Paisley and Renfrewshire South) (SNP)]

It strikes me as really concerning that part of the new Prime Minister’s reforms seems to be to undermine the one tool that workers have at their disposal, which is striking and industrial action. All the rights that people enjoy, including holidays and sick pay, were brought about not by kindly asking but by striking—by industrial action. Any attempt to undermine that by bringing in agency workers—more colloquially known as scab labour—is appalling and should not be allowed to pass.

[Amy Callaghan]

I thank my hon. Friend for that welcome intervention. The new Prime Minister certainly will have disastrous consequences for the workforce across the United Kingdom. Employment law should be devolved to Scotland, and we should stand up against those vile tactics—especially those against the right to strike—and ensure that our workers are protected from them.

It says a lot about a Government when they are unwilling to protect workers’ rights and, instead, their new leader has pledged to cripple them within her first 30 days as Prime Minister. That is why we need employment law devolved to Scotland.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mhairi Black (Paisley and Renfrewshire South) (SNP)]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Lanark and Hamilton East (Angela Crawley) for bringing the debate forward. When we think of the potential merits of devolving employment law to Scotland, the main one is that the Tories would be nowhere near it. That is the selling point for me and a lot of other people. As we leave the pandemic only to enter a cost of living crisis, it cannot be any clearer how little interest this Government have in the lives of ordinary people. The last 12 years of Tory Government have been nothing more than a project of erosion. Not only is poverty on the rise and has been for years, but in-work poverty is rising, too. People who are working all the hours that God sends still cannot afford to live. Wages have not risen. The UK has the lowest level of sick pay in the OECD, and yet we kid ourselves that we are this great nation—this great United Kingdom—and a beacon for the rest of the world. Well, the stats just do not add up.

If we compare Scotland in the UK to what is happening in similar sized independent nations, we see that it does not have to be like this. Just one example: out of all the workers in the Netherlands, only 6.4% of them are low-wage earners. Of all the workers in Iceland, 7.6% are low-wage earners. Finland has 8.6% low earners and Denmark has 8.7%. In the UK, nearly 20% of all workers are low-wage earners. The countries I just mentioned have fewer people at risk of poverty and in-work poverty. They have fewer employees working extra hours and very long hours. They have a lower gender pay gap. They have sickness benefits that actually cover their wage if they are sick—something unheard of here. They are integrating flexible working patterns and learning from the pandemic, as my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow East (David Linden) said earlier. They are figuring out fairer working practices to move with the 21st century.

[David Linden]

I wonder if my hon. Friend could say whether those countries have “Wheel of Fortune”-style things in the morning where people have to phone in and try to win money for their energy bills? In those countries, do they have former Conservative Cabinet Ministers picking the tinfoil off their head and telling them to put it down the back of their radiators to heat their houses?

[Mhairi Black]

Fortunately, they are spared that horror but, here in the UK, that is where we are at: “This Morning” paying bills. Instead of learning from everything that has happened in the pandemic, and trying to integrate fairer work practices, we have a Government running around leaving passive-aggressive notes on desks, telling people to hurry up and get back, when the Prime Minister—sorry, the last Prime Minister—was nowhere to be seen for weeks. They have shown time and again that they cannot be trusted with workers’ rights. All the way from 1830 right through to now, they have proven time and again that they cannot be trusted.

As my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow South West (Chris Stephens) mentioned, we had the Taylor review of modern working practices. That was five years ago, and we have heard nothing, because this Government are all about show not substance. The UK has reneged on its promise to protect EU-derived workers’ protections. During the Tory leadership race, the now Prime Minister promised to scrap all remaining EU regulations by the end of 2023. That means that hundreds of laws covering employment and environmental protections will disappear.

Despite the Government’s commitment to an employment Bill on at least 20 occasions, as we have heard from numerous people, it is still nowhere to be seen. I am not talking about little add-ons because we are nice to our workers. I am talking about fundamental rights: how long we need to work, holiday entitlement and sick pay. Those are all fundamental. The UK is being mismanaged into the ground, and has been for a long time.

We heard earlier from the hon. Member for Edinburgh West (Christine Jardine), who is no longer in her place. She asked whether these arguments meant that changes to rights should apply across the whole of the UK. That is rubbish, because Northern Ireland has devolution of employment law, so why can Scotland not have that? Secondly, there is the idea that we have to wait for reform across the whole of UK. We have been trying. In just the seven years that I have been in this place, my hon. Friend the Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire North (Gavin Newlands), who was here earlier, had the fire and rehire Bill talked out by the Government. Colleagues have tried to get rid of unpaid work trials, yet nothing has come from that.

It goes even bigger than that. Scotland has always played its part. We have not voted Tory since 1955. Yet all we get is Tory Prime Minister after Tory Prime Minister making empty promises, delivering nothing. Scotland has played its part and, frankly, I am tired of trying to tell people in Scotland who are being pushed into poverty, “Sorry, you just need to wait for the rest of the UK to get its act together.” No, not any more. If there is one thing we can see, it is that countries of a similar size to Scotland are successful and fairer. The only difference is that they are not governed by Westminster.

[Amy Callaghan]

I thank my hon. Friend for giving way. To address the earlier intervention by the hon. Member for Edinburgh West (Christine Jardine), my predecessor, as part of the Lib Dem-Tory coalition Government, slashed redundancy notice from 90 days to 45 days. Does my hon. Friend agree that we cannot rely on this place to look after our workers? Reform is not the answer; that is simply not enough. We need employment legislation devolved to Scotland.

[Mhairi Black]

I could not agree more. My hon. Friend put her point succinctly. To sum up, if you are an average person in the UK right now the chances are that you cannot afford to eat or to heat yourself. You certainly cannot afford to be sick. The one thing that you cannot afford is another Tory Government.