Tories Are a Threat to Employment Rights

The recession that we are currently enduring is the forth in 40 years, but it’s the deepest since the 1930s.

Thankfully the steps taken by this Labour government have minimised its impact on ordinary working people who bore the brunt of previous recessions when the Conservatives were in government.

But unemployment has inevitably risen which is why I have asked the city council to bid for the government’s £1bn ‘Future Jobs Fund’ to create additional employment opportunities in Derby.

In previous recessions, low paid workers in particular were subject to even greater exploitation, but the introduction the National Minimum Wage 10 years ago, and its annual uplift has put a stop to that.

Before Labour came back into office in 1997, unscrupulous employers could hire and fire virtually at will and in a recession, even more people would have lost their jobs. In previous economic downturns, vulnerable workers were often treated with contempt by unscrupulous employers.

But workers nowadays enjoy protection against unfair dismissal after 12 months in a job and compensation of up to £63,000 if they are dismissed unfairly.

It was the Labour government that also gave workers the right to paid leave of 24 days a year, which increased to 28 days last April. Prior to Labour giving workers a statutory entitlement to paid holidays, some employees didn’t receive any holiday pay at all.

These employment rights have been complemented by measures such paid maternity leave, which now stands at 39 weeks, with two weeks paid paternity leave for new fathers as well.
I shudder to think what would have happened to the rights of ordinary working people had David Cameron’s Conservatives been at the helm in this recession.

We’ve already seen a group of Tories trying to bring in legislation giving employers carte blanche to opt out of the minimum wage. Just think of the havoc the Conservatives would wreak if they were in government.

History shows us that with a Conservative government in power during a recession, welfare is cut and unemployment goes up

Make no mistake, if the David Cameron wins the general election, the welfare and employment rights we enjoy today will be bulldozed away and long term mass unemployment will make a comeback.