Delegates pledge to hold Labour to account over New Deal promises

Ahead of September’s Labour Party conference, the trade union movement has made it clear that it will hold the Labour government to account to ensure it implements the promised New Deal for Working People in full.

Delegates at September’s Trades Union Congress instructed the TUC General Council to “campaign vigorously” to ensure Labour keeps to its promises, and urged the government to “bring a swift end to the hostile environment” faced by workers in recent decades that has “resulted in poorer working conditions and falling living standards”.

Union expectations on the new government include that it will remove the various restrictions placed on workers’ ability to strike, including the Trade Union Act 2016, with its stringent balloting thresholds, and the Minimum Service Levels legislation.

It is also expected to outlaw zero hours contracts, strengthen unions’ role in collective bargaining, ease the statutory recognition process, ban fire and rehire and give all workers full employment rights from day one.

There has been concern that pressure from some employers and their organisations might lead Labour to dilute its pre-election promises.

Congress agreed that, if the government has not legislated to realise these pledges within the first hundred days of office as promised, “a TUC Congress will be called to discuss next steps.”