Greens pledge to go further than Labour on workers’ rights with £15 minimum wage

The Green Party has pledged to go further than Labour on workers’ rights, including day one rights on unfair dismissal and a £15 minimum wage for all ages.

Green Party leader Zack Polanski is set to launch a “workers charter” at a May Day rally in Manchester on Friday, which he says will “address the massive imbalance in our workplaces”.

Mr Polanski said Labour’s Employment Rights Act, which became law in December, was “watered down after pressure from corporate lobbyists”.

The Greens would introduce a new Employment Rights Act, which would also include measures on sectoral bargaining, and “full bans” on fire-and-rehire practices and zero-hours contracts.

The Green Party also plans to scrap all anti-union and anti-strike laws introduced since 1979.

Launching his party’s new “workers charter”, Mr Polanski said: “The reforms introduced by Margaret Thatcher nearly half a century ago began the long march downwards in the balance of power and wealth in our country – from those who produce and do the work to those who profit from it.

“Successive governments have continued this, and the current Labour Government’s measures on workers’ rights, while an improvement, are weak and have been watered down after pressure from corporate lobbyists.

“The Greens are the new workers’ party, and we will address the massive imbalance in our workplaces and give control back to workers.”

Labour’s Employment Rights Act was originally going to introduce day-one rights on unfair dismissal, which would allow employees to claim unfair dismissal from the first day of employment.

However, it was eventually amended to reduce the qualifying period from two years to six months.

Fire-and-rehire, when an employer dismisses an employee and then immediately offers them a new contract on less favourable terms, has been restricted but not fully banned under Labour’s legislation.

The Act will make fire-and-rehire an automatic unfair dismissal, unless they meet an exemption for financial difficulties.

On zero-hours contracts, the legislation introduces a duty on employers to offer, at the end of of every reference period, guaranteed hours to qualifying workers that reflect the hours worked in that period.

Some critics argue that these measures fall short of what Labour promised in its manifesto, which was to introduce day one rights on unfair dismissal, to ban fire-and-rehire and to end “exploitative zero-hours” contracts.

However, Business Secretary Peter Kyle insisted the Act will “drag Britain’s outdated employment laws into the 21st century and offer dignity and respect to millions more in the workplace”.

Think tank Centre for Cities has criticised the Greens’ pledge to raise the minimum wage to £15 per hour, arguing that this is just 53p less than the median hourly pay in Doncaster and 80p less than the median hourly pay in Wigan.

A Centre for Cities spokesperson said: “Young people in places like these (Sunderland, Southend and Burnley are others) would be first to face any unintended adverse effects on employment associated with raising the living wage – they would be competing in the job market with more-experienced workers paid less than £1 more.”

The spokesperson said that the National Living Wage is a “blunt instrument for dealing with low pay”, with more targeted interventions needed in areas with low average pay and voluntary opt-in wage floor schemes in areas like London, where the cost of living is high.