Consult and Deliver: Shaping the Future of UK Employment Rights

November 15, 2025March 23, 2026 admin Legislation, Reforms, Unions

The landmark Employment Rights Bill (ERB) is set to transform the UK workplace, and the Government is now moving to the crucial implementation phase. To ensure these reforms are both practical and effective, a first series of four consultations has been launched, inviting stakeholders to help shape the final regulations.

While the Bill establishes the core principles, the consultations will define the details. A central theme is enhancing security and support for employees during life's most vulnerable moments. This includes significantly stronger protections for pregnant employees and new mothers, who will benefit from an expanded protected period and the classification of maternity as a protected characteristic. The consultation explores applying a stricter test for fairness, potentially making dismissal permissible only in cases of serious safety risks or gross misconduct. There is also consideration of extending these robust protections to parents returning from adoption leave.

Tate Staff Forced to Strike as Directors Prioritize Bonuses Over Fair Pay

November 13, 2025March 23, 2026 admin Strikes, Unions

In a powerful demonstration of solidarity, frontline staff at the Tate galleries have voted overwhelmingly to strike, rejecting a pay offer that would plunge them deeper into financial hardship. The move is a direct response to an institution that values its directors' bonuses over the well-being of the very workers who make its world-class exhibitions possible.

An incredible 98% of Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) members, on a massive 87% turnout, have mandated strike action, sending an unequivocal message to management that they will no longer accept poverty pay. The strike, set for 26 November to 2 December, is a necessary step after Tate’s management offered a derisory 2-3% pay increase—a significant real-terms pay cut during a crushing cost-of-living crisis.

Billionaire Backlash: John Caudwell Lobbies Labour to Scrap Landmark Workers’ Rights Protections

November 9, 2025March 23, 2026 admin Legislation

Phones 4U founder, worth £1.5bn, claims basic job security and sick pay would make Britain "less investable," exposing a stark divide between corporate interests and employee wellbeing.

In a move that has ignited fury among labour advocates, billionaire Tory-turned-Labour backer John Caudwell is publicly pressuring Sir Keir Starmer to abandon the party's flagship Employment Rights Bill. The Phones 4U founder, whose fortune is estimated at £1.5bn, has voiced alarm that granting fundamental protections to employees would make the UK “less investable.”

Unelected Lords Side with Bosses in Battle Over Workers’ Rights

November 2, 2025March 23, 2026 admin Legislation

In a stark display of where their loyalties lie, the House of Lords has launched an offensive against core pillars of the government's proposed Employment Rights Bill. Their opposition targets fundamental reforms designed to tip the scales back towards working people, including a ban on exploitative zero-hours contracts, fairer rules for industrial action, and protecting the right for unions to have a political voice.

The bill is now set for a tense "ping pong" between the Commons and the Lords, a political tug-of-war that will determine whether the promise of a fairer workplace becomes reality or is watered down into meaninglessness.

Holland & Barrett Named and Shamed for National Minimum Wage Underpayments

November 1, 2025March 23, 2026 admin Bad Companies

Holland & Barrett is one of the latest major high street retailers to be named by the UK government for failing to pay its staff the National Minimum Wage. The company was listed among nearly 500 employers who have been fined a total of over £10 million for similar breaches.

The list, published by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), revealed that Holland & Barrett underpaid more than 2,551 workers a total of over £153,000. They were 9th in the list of worst offenders. The government's crackdown has ensured that 42,000 workers nationwide were repaid more than £6 million.