LABOUR’S deputy leader has BLANKED demands from UK trade unionists to give the Scotland powers over workers' rights.
Angela Rayner set out Labour’s planned new deal for workers at the TUC Congress on Tuesday but ignored calls from the organisation just a day earlier to devolve employment law to the Scottish Parliament.
“Labour will start by bringing forward an Employment Rights Bill to legislate for this within the first 100 days of entering office. That is a cast-iron commitment,” she said.
“Labour’s new deal for working people will transform ordinary working people’s lives.
“Work will finally pay, rights will be properly enforced, and crucially it will strengthen the role of trade unions in our society.”
She outlined plans to update union laws, outlaw blacklisting, give unions a new legal right to access to workplaces, making it easier to recruit and represent workers, and allow electronic balloting.
Her speech made no mention of devolving employment law to Scotland and Rayner has previously said there would be no need to do so.
Social care pay boost
Rayner – a former social worker – also announced there would be a “fair pay agreement” for workers in adult social care, which she said would make a big difference to low-paid workers in the sector.
Labour also supports an investigation into the violent events at Orgreave during the miners’ strike, a promise imbued with symbolism for trade union veterans.
Rayner added: “We’ll bring in a proper living wage that people can actually live on.
“The state will take a more strategic and active role in our economy by fixing the UK’s broken labour market, giving businesses the confidence they need to invest in our infrastructure and people once more.”
She pleaded to unions to stand with Labour in the run-up to the election and campaign “side by side”.
It is one of the first major insights into what a Labour government under Keir Starmer’s leadership might look like, with critics accusing him of lacking substance.
Her speech came after a TV interview in which Rayner defended Labour dropping previous commitments to renationalise industries, comparing the past pledges to Liz Truss's policies during her short time in power.
Absent from her speech was any commitment to devolving employment law to the Scottish Parliament, despite a motion in favour of this passing at the conference the day before.
Roz Foyer, general secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC), said: "It’s clear, especially to any incoming UK Labour Government, that the voices of workers across the country now support the Scottish Parliament having full autonomy over labour and employment rights."
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak (above) said: “Angela Rayner set out a vision for a Britain that delivers for working people.
“Labour’s transformative new deal for working people stands in stark contrast to the Tories’ dire record on workers’ rights and pay.
“The Conservatives have presided over an explosion in insecure work and the longest pay squeeze in modern history, and they are now launching a full-scale attack on the right to strike.
“The country desperately needs a fresh start.
“British voters across the political spectrum want more security and fairer treatment at work.
“Make no mistake – implementing the new deal would be the biggest upgrade in workers’ rights in a generation.”
