A pernicious element of 14 years of Tory rule was the attacks on the rights of working people. Conservative ministers were always trying to please their paymasters in the City – and that meant workers were often underpaid, overworked and denied basic rights.
The Tories presided over an increase in the use of zero-hour contracts and “fire and rehire” was used to appalling effect.e The Conservatives tried to justify this by saying they were tackling business red tape. But they were actually making life a lot harder for hardworking people.
So it is a welcome move by this new Labour Government that it has published its Employment Rights Bill within its first 100 days in power. Banning exploitative zero-hour contracts and other unscrupulous business practices are vital to provide security and dignity at work.
Providing basic rights from day one, such as on sick pay and unfair dismissal, is also overdue. Our low-pay culture has largely been caused by a free-market system that allows bosses to pay staff poverty wages.
Staff are then forced to use the social security system to top up their meagre income, which is basically big business getting subsidised by the taxpayer.
We hope this Bill becomes law quickly and is accepted as a fact of life by all political parties, and also a sign of good things to come after a difficult start for Sir Keir Starmer.
Stop the secrecy
The flagship Queen Elizabeth University Hospital should have been a world-leading new facility, showcasing our nation’s proud heritage of medical innovation. Instead, it has been mired in controversy.
Our series of exclusives about deaths linked to waterborne infections led to the Scottish Government ordering a full inquiry, which is currently underway. Yesterday, the probe heard scarcely believable evidence from Dr Jennifer Armstrong, the medical director of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
She said staff expected a “fantastic hospital”. Instead, they were forced to work in wards “not fit for patients”. We’re confident the inquiry chair, Lord Brodie, will be fearless in identifying what went wrong – and who is to blame.
But this inquiry must also bring about a major shift in the way we do big public sector buildings in Scotland. Too often they are over budget, delivered late or simply not up to the job.
That’s because staff working at the sharp end of an organisation are too often silenced when raising concerns. That creeping culture of secrecy and fear must come to an end – or these same mistakes will be repeated time after time.
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