Workers Rights

Dear constituent,

Thank you for contacting me about Government plans to review workers’ rights after Brexit. I agree with you on this important issue. Employment rights should be strengthened, not weakened.

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed many deficiencies in our workers’ rights and protections, so it is essential that when we emerge from the crisis, we provide a better deal for working people. It is therefore extremely worrying that the Government would even be considering reducing employment rights. Yet, as revealed by the Financial Times in January, the Government looked at plans to end the 48-hour working week, weaken rules around rest breaks and exclude overtime when calculating holiday pay entitlement.

I believe these changes would have a devastating impact on working people. They would mean longer hours, lower wages and less safe work.

The 48-hour working week limit, for example, is not only a vital protection for people’s work-life balance, but also crucial for the health and safety of workers. Quite simply, working longer hours leads to more deaths and serious injuries.

Excluding overtime from holiday pay entitlements, meanwhile, would hit the finances of the lowest paid and those in insecure work. Under current rules, regular overtime is included when calculating holiday pay entitlement, ensuring that it reflects the hours that are actually worked. Scrapping those rules would mean lower holiday pay, with care workers, police officers, HGV drivers and more losing hundreds of pounds a year. For those who work irregular hours, such as retail workers, the impact would be even more severe. A worker on an 8.5-hour contract who normally works 36.5 hours, for example, could lose over £2,000 a year.

It was for these reasons that I supported a motion in the House of Commons on 25 January 2021 that called for all existing employment rights and protections to be maintained, including the 48-hour working week, rest breaks at work and inclusion of overtime pay when calculating some holiday pay entitlements.

It was disappointing that the Government did not support this motion. However, I welcome that following this debate, it abandoned its review on removing these protections. I pay tribute to the efforts of the campaigners who helped bring about this change of course.

Thank you once again for contacting me about this issue. I can assure you that I will continue to support efforts to protect and strengthen workers’ rights.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Dowd MP