Trade unions leaders will meet Keir Starmer next Tuesday after several expressed public reservations about changes to the party’s workers’ rights policy – and warned there should be no watering down of what has been pledged.
It comes as party sources admitted that only draft legislation would be published within 100 days of taking power – rather than a full bill before parliament.
Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, has said businesses would have “nothing to fear from the changes”, which include ending enforced zero hours contracts and “day one” protections from unfair dismissal.
Labour is preparing the guidance with the final version of proposals to be sent out to candidates to use for election campaigning.
Trade union sources said they hoped to go through the document at the meeting with Starmer to see whether any changes had been made since the policy was broadly agreed at the national policy forum last summer. Representatives from trade unions affiliated to Labour met on Tuesday before the meeting with the party leader next week.
One said: “Key for us is to make sure there has been no shift on the right to organise, the right to join a union and the right to collective bargaining. But we are concerned about [any watering down of the ban on] zero hours, and that could turn out to be the most significant.”
At a speech to business leaders, Reeves said it was essential to continue to consult on the proposals “so that there aren’t any unforeseen, adverse consequences from it”.
Pushed on whether Labour would introduce legislation to bolster workers’ rights in the first 100 days or merely publish draft proposals for consultation, Reeves suggested it would be the latter.
Key aspects of the workers’ rights proposals – such as the right to switch off – are also expected to form part of best practice advice or be enacted via secondary legislation.
“We will bring forward legislation in the first 100 days of a Labour government,” Reeves said. “Of course we will then consult on that both within those 100 days and afterwards as it goes through the normal parliamentary process.”
Reeves said she and other shadow cabinet ministers had spent a lot of time talking to businesses to try to strike the right balance, saying that the party would ban “exploitative zero hours contracts” – a new phrasing to encompass a change that would see workers able to opt into a zero-hours contract if they prefer one.
“If you want that flexibility as a worker, you can remain on the contract you’re on,” Reeves said. “It’s just about saying that the flexibility can’t be all one way. And there’ll be nothing in Labour legislation that would stop employers from using overtime, for example, or taking workers on on a seasonal basis.”
Matt Wrack, the general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union and the president of the TUC, has warned there should be “no backtracking and no weakening” of the promises made to workers.
Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite, said her union was prepared to consider withholding funds to Labour if it emerged that the package of rights had been weakened.