Support the Statutory Redundancy (Amendment) Bill. On 13th March Labour MP Lindsay Hoyle will put forward the Statutory Redundancy (Amendment) Bill for its Second Reading. This far from revolutionary proposal seeks to up-rate redundancy pay and to link it to average earnings. It is however a measure of this government that this is a private member’s bill.
Essentially the Bill highlights the appalling results of the government’s years of promoting “labour flexibility” i.e. policies that make it easy for business to hire and fire employees easily and at little cost. The trade unions have long complained that it costs so little to make British workers redundant compared to most European countries, that multinational firms often choose Britain as the first place for cuts and closures.
This Bill aims to improve the compensation paid to British workers. Employers currently only have to pay up to 30 weeks pay with an upper limit of £350 per week. That is a maximum of £10,500 redundancy pay however long you have worked for the same company. A 40 year old employee who has worked for 20 years could, as a maximum, get less that £7,000 in redundancy pay. Some employers do pay more, but statutory minimum is increasingly common and all that workers are guaranteed if their company goes bust.
The £350 weekly limit is a particular target for change, as it is little more than the average weekly wage, and can significantly restrict compensation payouts to better paid workers.
Organised mainly by MPs previously loyal to the Government this Bill highlights – like the Rights for Agency Workers Bill – a simmering discontent building amongst Labour MPs that the Government is doing little or nothing to improve conditions for its core supporters. It is a provision that could easily benefit more than a million workers over the next year, as the economy shrinks. If enough MPs attend on Friday 13th March to give the bill its second reading this will place considerable pressure on the Government to adopt its provisions and support them into legislation.
However, MPs will need to keep up pressure to ensure early implementation. Recently we have seen the anger of car workers at Cowley who were made redundant with no compensation because they were Agency Workers. This has only happened because the Government has dragged its feet implement the provisions of the Agency Worker’s Bill which they promised to adopt last year.
“Unionstogether” – the organisation of Labour Affiliated Trade Unions is calling on all members to lobby their MPs to ensure they attend on 13th March
