MP backs biggest upgrade in workers rights in a generation

Marie Tidball MP spoke in favour of the Employment Rights Bill in Parliament, which will introduce the biggest upgrade to workers rights in a generation. These protections could help save workers in insecure work up to £600 year, and up to 2.4 million workers overall could benefit from the new rights. 

The Bill will ban exploitative zero-hour contracts, end fire and rehire, and introduce basic rights for workers all from day one. This includes the right for paternity, parental and bereavement leave for millions of workers, and strengthening statutory sick pay.  

In Parliament, Dr Tidball highlighted the support from businesses for the new rights, highlighting the words of the CEO of Richer Sounds, Julie Abraham, who said, “Happy colleagues are likely to be more productive. This also leads to reduced stock loss and higher staff retention, which in turn, minimises recruitment and training costs, not to mention disruption to established teams.” The new measures will also be beneficial for employers, helping to keep people in work, reduce recruitment costs for employers by increasing staff retention and levelling the playing field on enforcement. 

Dr Tidball was also a member of the Employment Rights Committee, which scrutinised the new law line-by-line, before it returned to the Commons for MPs to vote on it. During Committee stage, Marie also spoke in favour of the new law reinstating the School Support Staff Negotiating Body, to give “proper voice” to school support staff. This will mean teaching assistants and other school support staff will once again have a collective bargaining system for pay and conditions, which was previously scrapped by the Coalition government in 2010. 

Labour's new law will also make things better for parents, with an additional 1.5 million parents getting access to Unpaid Parental Leave as a Day 1 right. The estimated 4,0000 pregnant women and mothers returning from Maternity Leave a year who are dismissed each year, they will benefit from new protections. 

Following the exchange, Dr Marie Tidball, Labour MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge, said: 

“I am proud to represent working people and their families across our communities. 

In Parliament, I have been working on strengthening the new rights in the Bill, including extending statutory sick pay to 1.3 million of the lowest earners. 

We promised to make work pay, fix the labour market that has seen too many people in low paid insecure work, and we have done just that.”