Badenoch made some bizarre claims about the Employment Rights Bill in a speech at the CBI conference yesterday
Kemi Badenoch has been accused of leading a Tory “war on workers” after she attacked the Employment Rights Bill again at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) conference yesterday.
In her speech at the conference, Badenoch made some bizarre claims about the Bill.
These included saying that new hires would be able to turn up at 9am and lodge a complaint with an Employment Tribunal before they’ve even worked out where the toilets are.
The Tory leader also claimed that the Bill will “destroy” Christmas jobs. She said: “If a university undergraduate, a student, anyone chooses to get a Christmas job and works 40 hours a week in the three months to December, they then have the right to those same hours in January, February and March.”
The Employment Rights Bill requires employers to offer employees on zero hours or “low hours” contracts guaranteed hours after 12 weeks, but this would not give them a right to the same hours as during a busy seasonal period.
Badenoch also criticised unions having the right to enter workplaces to meet with, recruit and organise with workers. She described the legislation as “a 330-page assault on flexible working written in the TUC’s headquarters”.
She has said the government should scrap the Bill.
Peter Kyle MP, Labour’s Business Secretary, who also spoke at the CBI conference, said: “Nobody did more to hammer business and employees than Kemi Badenoch did as Business Secretary. Her Tory Party crashed the economy – leaving firms and families saddled with sky-high interest rates, rocketing energy costs, and higher prices. Yet they still haven’t apologised.
“The Conservatives are clear: they’ve declared war on workers. Badenoch already described maternity pay as ‘excessive’ and her cruel plans would mean a return of fire-and-rehire and quashed wages for workers, while she drowns business in red tape all over again.”
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “The Conservatives presided over a race to the bottom on workers’ rights and pay – and they now want to continue this failed experiment which saw living standards squeezed, growth stunted and productivity flatlining.
“The Employment rights Bill will deliver sensible changes like sick pay from day one, an end to fire and rehire, ban on exploitative zero-hours contracts.
“These reforms are popular right across the political spectrum – including with Conservative and Reform supporters.
“And they’re good for the economy too. More money in workers’ pockets means more spend on high streets.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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