British ministers sought to reassure business leaders on Monday about plans to give workers more rights and greater certainty over their hours and pay, saying companies would be crucial to the Labour government’s plans.
At a ‘Business Day’ event at Labour’s annual conference in the northern English city of Liverpool, finance minister Rachel Reeves said she wanted all business and growth policy “to be co-written with business” and sought to reassure over the impact of the changes in workers’ rights.
“We’ll be publishing more details in the next couple of weeks, but I hope you do see that your concerns have been addressed and understood,” Reeves said, adding she did not want to make it harder for businesses to hire temporary workers, or take chances on students or those who had not been working.
“We want to get this right. We want to make sure that work pays for working people, but we also know we need to support businesses.”
The government has pledged to introduce legislation next month intended to give workers more rights, trying to balance demands from trade unions, who traditionally fund the Labour Party, and business leaders, who are concerned about some of the changes.
Business minister Jonathan Reynolds said that the day one rights for workers introduced under the proposals would not remove the ability for businesses to use probation periods for new workers.
He also said the reforms were about providing minimum standards for working conditions, with many employers already compliant.
At Labour’s first conference since it returned to power earlier this year for the first time in 14 years, Reynolds reiterated his party’s pitch to businesses, including improved post-Brexit trading ties with the European Union.
Reynolds said Britain would seek to improve business mobility and aim for some mutual recognition of professional qualifications, but cautioned it would take time.
“I wouldn’t want people to think that’s something we can solve in a very short period of time,” Reynolds said.
（By Alistair Smout）
