Reports have emerged in the Financial Times that the government are secretly drawing up plans to rip up more of our workplace rights.

These rumours suggest that the government have found time at the height of the pandemic, whilst thousands of people are dying each day, to draw up plans to scrap the very protections that they have long promised would be safe in their hands.

What’s at stake?

The proposals that are allegedly on the table include the package of measures that are part of the Working Time Directive, this could mean:

  • Scrapping the limits on the working week that cap working hours. This would have profound effects on work life balance, leading to more pressure on all of us to work longer hours. It would mean less time spent with friends and family – less time for leisure, care, and rest.
  • Threatening guaranteed rest breaks in the working day. Long working hours without guaranteed rest increases the risk of workplace injuries and are dangerous to our mental and physical health.
  • Basing holiday entitlement on contracted hours, not hours worked, threatening valuable time off. This would particularly hurt those on short hour contracts like retail workers and those working regular overtime on top of their basic hours.

This affects everyone

  • A loss of basic rights not only affects those with bad employers. A race to the bottom quickly becomes the new normal across the economy, spreading insecurity and competition.
  • Long working hours threaten public safety. No one wants their loved ones to receive care from a chronically overworked nurse or be driven home by an exhausted bus driver.
  • Scrapping employment rights will lower living standards and hold back any economic recovery. These changes would put more downward pressure on wages after a decade of pay stagnation. In response working people would tighten their belts and become more wary about investing in the future.

Working people are putting themselves in harm’s way every day to keep this country fed, safe, cared for and connected – working under unimaginable pressures. With insecurity rife throughout much of our economy we believe working people should have their rights at work strengthened, not threatened.