Workers rights row: Labour’s Rayner vows to expand protection from sex harassment to interns
Angela Rayner has vowed Labour will expand sexual harassment protections to include interns and volunteers, amid a row with unions over the party’s workers’ rights proposals.
Labour’s deputy leader and shadow secretary for the future of work announced the policy in a speech to the Chartered Management Institute’s (CMI) women’s conference today.
She said: “Sexual harassment remains rife in workplaces across Britain. For any employee, but especially interns and volunteers, experiencing sexual harassment can destroy confidence and ruin early careers.”
Her move, first reported by the Times, comes in the midst of a fresh row over accusations Labour has watered down its proposals on workers’ rights – dubbed the New Deal for Working People.
Unite union leader Sharon Graham blasted an updated version of the plan issued to unions this week as a “row back on a row back”, called it “not worthy of discussion” and said pledges to legislate against zero hours contracts had been “watered down to almost nothing”.
She claimed it was “totally unrecognisable from the original proposals produced with the unions”, a “charter for bad bosses”, and insisted workers would see it as a “betrayal”.
Labour had come under pressure from business lobby groups to work with them on the plans, including from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) president Rupert Soames.
The party says it has not watered down its promises, but is now offering “comprehensive” consultation with firms in the new version of the plans, according to the Financial Times.
Probationary periods for new staff will still be allowed and a blanket ban on zero hours contracts has been moderated. The promised employment rights bill Labour said it would introduce in its first 100 days will now be “draft legislative proposals” within that timeframe.
Rayner added: “My message to working women is clear: with our New Deal for Working People, a Labour government will have your back.”
While Ann Francke, chief executive of the CMI, welcomed the announcement, saying measures to “strengthen employee wellbeing” were “always a good idea”.
She said: “Good employers recognise that they need to move swiftly and decisively – with clear policies in place when it comes to tackling these behaviours – both for the sake of their teams and also to protect their reputation.”
Sexual harassment at work accounts for around a quarter of all sexual harassment, and is the second most common form, according to the Crime Survey of England and Wales.
Research by the Trade Union Congress (TUC) suggests two-thirds of young women have been sexually harassed at work.
Ben Willmott, head of public policy for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), said toughening up legal protections “could play a positive role” in “addressing toxic workplace cultures”.
But he added: “However, there is already a duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment and any revision to the law would only have impact on workplace practices and behaviours if there was much more effective enforcement of employment regulation.
“This would need to include more support on compliance for employers, particularly SMEs, to ensure they understand the law and how to improve their people management practices to meet its requirements.”
A Labour party spokesperson said: “A Labour government will need to hit the ground running and that is why we have been strengthening the proposals to implement our commitments.
“If elected we will bring forward legislation within 100 days of entering government.”
Conservative minister Kevin Hollinrake said: “Keir Starmer has surrendered to Angela Rayner and the unions.
“Their new French-style laws will ban flexible working, make it harder for small businesses to hire new staff and make it much easier to strike. That’s why businesses are warning this risks costing jobs and damaging the economy.”