Employment and Trade Union Rights (Dismissal and Re-engagement) Bill Debate

Full Debate: Read Full Debate
Department: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Employment and Trade Union Rights (Dismissal and Re-engagement) Bill

Shaun Bailey Excerpts
Friday 22nd October 2021

(2 years, 5 months ago)

Commons Chamber
Read Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Kevin Hollinrake Portrait Kevin Hollinrake
- Hansard - - - Excerpts

I was not legally trained, so I am struggling. The key point is this: if we can find a way to meet the objectives of the hon. Member for Brent North (Barry Gardiner) without legislation, I would prefer to see that, and I think we all would because life is tricky enough when someone is trying to run a business, so if there are better, non-legislative ways to do it, we should absolutely look at them. The danger is that this becomes hugely bureaucratic.

Shaun Bailey Portrait Shaun Bailey
- Hansard - -

My hon. Friend the Member for Newbury (Laura Farris) is a lot more learned on this matter than we are, but as a general point, does my hon. Friend the Member for Thirsk and Malton (Kevin Hollinrake) not agree that the way in which we make good laws in this place is by ensuring that they are operational? Does he not share my concern that the Bill is very much open to legal challenge in its current form and that, if we want to make sure that it works, it has to be operational on the ground?

Kevin Hollinrake Portrait Kevin Hollinrake
- Hansard - - - Excerpts

My principal concern is the amount of bureaucracy in and the interpretation of the Bill. I have many good lawyer friends—this usually has a “but” attached to it, doesn’t it?—but there are bound to be different interpretations of this kind of legislation. My hon. Friend the Member for Newbury (Laura Farris) set that out very clearly. Let us take just the phrase “all information”—that can mean virtually anything. A process can be subject to challenge all the way down the line and there can then be a claim for wrongful dismissal on the basis of a simple document that was not provided. Who would decide whether all the information has been provided? The appointed representative, at any point, could challenge the fact that all the information was not provided. It could be a very small piece of information that the employer never considered relevant to the discussion. Again, there is a huge opportunity for interpretation and bureaucracy. That cannot be positive for a good business environment.

There is also the issue of capacity. We already have issues about capacity for employment tribunals. This also brings in a whole new set of responsibilities for the Central Arbitration Committee and there is no understanding of whether that capacity can be filled.

--- Later in debate ---
Gavin Newlands Portrait Gavin Newlands
- Hansard - - - Excerpts

Absolutely. I thank the hon. Member for her intervention. I agree with her 100%. I find myself in agreement with her far too many times these days. She is absolutely right: our moral obligation, as Members of Parliament, is to support our constituents when they are under attack in such a way.

Shaun Bailey Portrait Shaun Bailey (West Bromwich West) (Con)
- Hansard - -

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

Gavin Newlands Portrait Gavin Newlands
- Hansard - - - Excerpts

I will move on. I will come back to the hon. Gentleman. [Interruption.] Or not, if he is going to huff. It is up to him.

I do not believe that it is any coincidence that those countries with heftier employment rights around Europe have better and more robust economies. We can see the results of precarious employment around society right now: labour shortages in all sorts of sectors of the economy and lacklustre demand experienced by retailers. If our economy is 80% centred on the service sector, we need people spending money on those services. Leaving workers with the fear that tomorrow could see their employer slash their wages or show them the door is a sure-fire way to depress spending, demand, and ultimately hinder economic recovery. Workers in Europe have no such fears, and it is surely a factor in their continued long-term outstripping of the UK that employment rights are given such importance and credence by their national Governments.

Whatever ideological objections some Members on the Tory Benches have to improving workers’ rights—I have no doubt a few of them consider the factory Acts a gross impertinence—they can surely see the economic self-interest that protecting workers from fire and rehire would mean for employer, employee, and our society and economy as a whole. It is no wonder Ministers want to isolate the UK further and further from Europe; they want the UK isolated from the norms of employment rights that apply there. They want workers in the UK isolated from the economic benefits that enhanced rights would bring. They want the UK isolated from the basic standards of decency that apply across the continent. On decency, I will give way.

--- Later in debate ---
Paul Scully Portrait Paul Scully
- Hansard - - - Excerpts

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We have heard about reaching for primary legislation. We have had a very reasonable debate which, as I have said, was opened in a very reasonable way by the hon. Member for Brent North. We heard a forensic response from my hon. Friend the Member for Newbury, who brought her expertise to the debate with such élan and showed how we can keep the flexibility of employers to be able to restructure and reconsider their future, while making sure that we can cover the most egregious cases of bully-boy tactics from rogue employers.

Shaun Bailey Portrait Shaun Bailey
- Hansard - -

First, I am sure the Minister will agree that the hon. Member for Newbury (Laura Farris) is not just some “new Member”, but an experienced employment barrister who has practised in this field for some time. Secondly, let me return to a point that has been articulated by my hon. Friend for Newbury in particular. If we are going to make law, it has to work on the ground, because otherwise the only people whose pockets we are putting money in are the lawyers. It is as simple as that, is it not?

Paul Scully Portrait Paul Scully
- Hansard - - - Excerpts

My hon. Friend has hit the nail on the head. What we have on this side of the House is the expertise that we are bringing to bear to try and solve the problem, rather than just throwing things around. Earlier, someone accused the hon. Member for Newbury of over-egging the cake; in one of the other Front-Bench speeches, we heard, basically, no cake but a lot of egg. We cannot take a Poundland Arthur Scargill approach to this; we have to get it right. I hope that Pepco, the owner of Poundland, will forgive me, as the retail Minister, for dragging down its reputation.