No backsliding on workers' rights plans, says Labour's Angela Rayner

Labour has denied rowing backmost connected pledges to fortify employment rights, aft it emerged it plans to consult connected the proposals.

The enactment announced plans successful 2021 to align protections for antithetic types of worker, including those successful the alleged gig economy.

Following a argumentation gathering past month, this volition beryllium taxable to a consultation.

The Unite union, a large fiscal backer, has accused the enactment of watering down its commitments.

Deputy person Angela Rayner denied this, saying the enactment remained committed to enacting its blueprint wrong 100 days if it won power.

"Far from watering it down, we volition present acceptable retired successful item however we volition instrumentality it," she wrote connected X, formerly known arsenic Twitter.

Under the 2021 proposals, Labour said it would make a azygous ineligible class of "worker" to make "base level of protection" for each employees.

This would use to employees connected each declaration types, prevention for those deemed to beryllium "genuinely self-employed".

It would mean each workers would automatically beryllium entitled to rights including statutory sick pay, minimum announcement periods, and the close to petition flexible moving patterns.

It would besides extremity the two-year qualifying play for extortion against unfair dismissal, with workers entitled to the close from time one.

The Financial Times has reported that, pursuing a enactment argumentation forum successful Nottingham past month, the enactment has agreed it volition consult connected the argumentation successful authorities if it wins the adjacent wide election, expected adjacent year.

A papers agreed astatine the lawsuit stated it would research however the caller presumption could "properly seizure the breadth of employment relationships successful the UK," the paper reported.

The substance besides clarified that bosses volition inactive beryllium capable to reasonably and transparently disregard workers during probation periods.

The papers agreed astatine the event, astatine which commercialized unions, MPs and enactment members sermon aboriginal argumentation ideas, has not been published by the party.

However, it is expected to beryllium made nationalist earlier the party's yearly league successful October.

Unite, which did not enactment the papers astatine the event, accused Labour of watering down its plans to "curry favour with large business".

"They request to halt wavering and marque a wide awesome that they are genuinely the dependable for moving people," added wide caput Sharon Graham.

Momentum, a left-wing radical acceptable up to enactment Jeremy Corbyn's enactment of the party, said the substance was "alarming".

Other Labour-affiliated unions, including GMB and store workers' national Usdaw, backed the argumentation document.

Posting connected X, Ms Rayner - who is besides the party's shadiness aboriginal of enactment caput - said Labour's program to fortify workers' rights would beryllium a "core portion of our manifesto" up of the adjacent election.

"Tackling bogus self-employment is simply a cardinal precedence for a Labour government, and stronger protections against unfair dismissal volition mean workers tin nary longer beryllium sacked without crushed from time one," she added.