Labour vows to 'immediately' scrap anti-strike laws and give trade unions more powers - as responsibility for workers' rights package is shifted from Angela Rayner to new Business Secretary
Labour will move 'immediately' to scrap anti-strike laws and strengthen the role of the unions, the new Business Secretary said yesterday.
Jonathan Reynolds said that restrictions on strikes brought in by the last Conservative government would be 'removed from the statute book' straight away.
Mr Reynolds said the Government would also begin work on wider measures to strengthen workers' rights within Labour's first hundred days.
He told the BBC: 'Some of those things are decisions that will effectively apply immediately in terms of Conservative legislation, which we will remove from the statute book, other things will obviously become law once you've been through that very significant process of passing a piece of legislation under... but we will begin that process immediately.'
Jonathan Reynolds (pictured) said that restrictions on strikes brought in by the last Conservative government would be 'removed from the statute book' straight away
Rules requiring a minimum turnout of at least 50 per cent for strikes in the public sector are also likely to be axed (pictured: People march past the Houses of Parliament during a Not my Bill protest in London)
Labour will move 'immediately' to scrap anti-strike laws and strengthen the role of the unions (pictured: Mick Lynch, general secretary of Rail, Maritime and Transport workers union)
Mr Reynolds did not specify exactly which anti-strike laws will be repealed, but Labour has previously said it will scrap measures requiring unions to ensure 'minimum service levels' in public services like rail, education and health during disputes.
Rules requiring a minimum turnout of at least 50 per cent for strikes in the public sector are also likely to be axed.
In a surprise move, responsibility for delivering Labour's new workers' rights package, was shifted from its champion, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, to Mr Reynolds.
He said the Government would press ahead with a ban on so-called 'fire and rehire', which has allowed some firms to tear up the rights of existing staff.
But he indicated there would be some 'exemptions', saying: 'We recognise where there are occasions where a company needs to do a change of circumstances, because frankly the business would be lost if it wasn't for that.
'We understand, but it's the process you go through and it's about making sure we don't see an economy that tries to be competitive simply by lowering the terms and conditions of the workplace.
