Harold Wilson said in 1964, “The Labour party is a moral crusade or it is nothing.” By 2015 the focus was rather on what was moral about a crusade: which in many ways epitomises Labour’s problems all too neatly. In a recent thread, it was suggested that Labour needed some policies to attract attention and get voters motivated once again. My response was a Workers Charter. I suggested the following policies.

• Guaranteed minimum hours in every contract of employment.
• A right to get paid if given less than 7 days notice of the removal of hours.
• Sick pay and holiday pay for the “self-employed”.
• Security of employment after a specified period.
• The right to payment for “waiting time”.
• Legal obligations to make sure all self-employed earning less than, say, £25k a year are covered by your employers liability insurance.
• A right to be fully refunded for the cost of using your own vehicle.

With a bit of thought some more could be added. Possibly some could be removed. The point would be to start a conversation. 

The Supreme Court took some steps in this direction in the Uber decision earlier this year: Uber BV-v-Aslam [2021] UKSC 5. This case decided that Uber drivers were workers with workers rights. It is an important decision but it only applies directly to Uber drivers. There are millions of other drivers out there whose rights are not clear cut. That is the purpose of legislation. The Supreme Court are also something of a dangerous ally in this too. Within days of the Uber decision they came out with the Mencap Judgment , [2021] UKSC 8 which said that those who were required to sleep at their place of work, typically care workers in residential accommodation, were not entitled to the minimum wage for the time that they were asleep.  So, some of the poorest paid in our society get less so we can have cheaper care. The SC in that case simply applied the legislation; I think their judgment was plainly correct. That is why we need to change the legislative framework. 

Some would argue that this increases the cost of labour to the point that it gets priced out at the margins but I would suggest that there are three reasons why that is not the case. Firstly, one of the consequences of Brexit has, to date, been more jobs for British workers as EU and international workers have gone home. How much of that is Covid related is, as yet, uncertain but we are not facing the tsunami of unemployment once feared. Secondly, if these standards are applied effectively across the economy the result is that businesses are largely shielded from competitive pressures as everyone else’s costs have gone up too. Demand for their particular product might fall but the price of carry outs and cappuccinos is already irrational, and demand remains strong. Thirdly, better paid workers will themselves become larger consumers of these products and the poorest paid have the highest tendency to spend their income. 

Covid has changed and accelerated numerous existing trends in our society. We have created an ever-growing class of workers who deliver our food and Amazon parcels, care for our elderly, serve us coffee and drink and work in our fields who have few rights most of us take for granted. Without security of income, they cannot get loans or mortgages, they cannot plan for the future, they take far too much of the risk and uncertainty that needs to be borne elsewhere on broader shoulders. 

We need to find ways to overcome the divisiveness of recent years, to become a more cohesive society again, to make sure that the benefits of a rich society are more fairly shared. If Labour cannot make that case who can? I’d love the answer to be Boris but one way or another it needs a moral crusade. Go for it. 

David Logan