Monday 15 May 2017

The "You still have to wait for the manifesto but here are some goodies" election - day 28


Conservative workers' rights

#MrsME's big theme for the day was workers' rights, and she presented a list of eleven pledges, her latest attempt to move into Labour space as the "party of ordinary working people".  She'll be back up to some northern not-so-marginals again before long.

The one worry she might have is that business objects to more regulation, but she's no David Cameron.  Last October she told her party conference she would “put the power of government squarely at the service of ordinary working-class people”.

This list follows hard on the heels of Labour's 20-point plan to strengthen rights at work and to “end the race to the bottom in pay, conditions and job security”.

Keeping it simple, here are the points from the press release reported by the Guardian (and with comments)

1 - Protection for all workers’ rights currently guaranteed by EU law. The Conservatives will guarantee all rights that workers currently enjoy as we leave the European Union.
(This is already planned as part of the #GreatCopyAndPasteBill.)

2 - A commitment to increase the national living wage in line with median earnings until the end of the next parliament in 2022.
(This withdraws George Osborne's pledge that the "national living wage" would reach 60% of median pay by 2020.)

3 - New protections for ‘gig’ economy workers, following the Matthew Taylor review that Theresa May established in one of her first moves after becoming prime minister.
(At least Taylor gets a mention, and the fact that the report is yet to come means that she needn't say any more.)

4 - Representation for workers on company boards, under the Conservatives’ wider reforms to corporate governance.
(This has already been watered down, and there's doubt about a system which could be shaped by the company not the workers.)

5 - A new statutory right to receive information about key decisions affecting your company’s future, subject to reasonable safeguards, and in keeping with but not exceeding the rights of shareholders.
(Great idea!  But not a new idea.)

6 - A new statutory right to request leave for training purposes, to help workers gain the skills they need to retain good, well-paid jobs.
(Let's see the detail.  When Damian Green (Conservative, Ashford, majority 19,296) spoke about it on Radio 4 it sounded just a little like Labour's National Education Service.)

7 - A new statutory right to leave to care for a family member, in line with other countries.
(This would be unpaid, therefore impossible for many people, and will be suspected of being another cheap way to supplement social care.)

8 - New rules to protect workers’ pensions from irresponsible behaviour by company bosses, like unsustainable dividends and takeovers that put the future of the pension scheme at risk.
(The Philip Green effect)

9 - Reforms to the Equalities Act to extend protections from discrimination to those suffering fluctuating or intermittent mental health conditions.
(Important.  Corbyn should nick it to get his own back.)

10 - A statutory right to child bereavement leave, for those who suffer the tragedy of losing a child.
 (The Will Quince effect - see below **) 

11 - The introduction of new returnships for people returning to the labour market from a period of absence, including from parenthood and elderly care.
(This could be valuable.  Let's see the details.)

** Recognition of child bereavement has been a campaign of Will Quince (Conservative, Colchester, majority 5,575) after a family tragedy.  A similar campaign for child burial costs to be paid might not get the same recognition, being the work of Carolyn Harris (Labour, Swansea East, majority 12,028). 




A supportive newspaper neglected to mention that 12 months off to care for a relative is unpaid.



The Federation of Small Businesses gave a cautious welcome to the proposal to let workers take unpaid leave to care for a relative.  It could cause trouble for some employers, they said, but with proper implementation plus guidance and help, it could work.

When asked about the 12-month "sabbatical" to care for a relative, Kwazi Kwarteng (Conservative, Spelthorne, majority 14,152) said "that's how society is evolving", which made me wonder whether this is just another one of a series of moves to offload social care onto family members.  Kwarteng dodged the question of who could afford to do this without pay, and also couldn't say why his colleagues blocked Melanie Onn's (Labour, Great Grimsby, majority 4,540) private member's bill to preserve EU workers rights, which sounds like his leaders point 1.

The TUC, Greens and Labour were "unconvinced" by a party which has repeatedly restricted trade union rights turning into a promoter of workers' rights.  They miss the point.  Tory rights involve state, business and individuals, with no place for unions.

David Allen Green, the Financial Times's legal commentator was more than unconvinced - rights which are not enforceable are not really rights at all.


On Facebook live May simply dismissed the enforceability question.  If a claim is valid, she said, it will be taken to tribunal.  That's not what unions and lawyers have reported in the years since Chris Grayling (Conservative, Epsom and Ewell, majority 24,443) jacked up the fees for an employment tribunal hearing enormously.

The BBC's Norman Smith observed "This is not a Conservative campaign... it's very un-Tory... it's a Theresa May campaign".

And then suddenly, at lunch time, a 12th "right" appeared - extending the requirement placed on companies to report their pay structures to include data on racial pay gaps.



How's the economy, stupid?

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, working with Adecco, forecast a median pay rise of 1% for the year ahead at a time when demand for workers is still robust.  They suggested that companies are absorbing new costs such as the apprenticeship levy by keeping pay awards down, and that there are signs of companies being jittery in advance of Brexit.  If productivity is the central challenge, said the CIPD, the apprenticeship levy should be broadened into a training levy which more companies will use as opposed to just paying it.

This will be the second election in a row at a time of falling incomes.



From Torsten Bell's blog, referred to in Kamal Ahmed's tweet:

"But the fundamental fact remains that, in the middle of a simply catastrophic decade for earnings – one which, according to OBR forecasts, will be the worst in over two centuries – a prime minister has called an election by choice at exactly the point at which it is confirmed that voters pay packets are shrinking not growing. These are odd times, for our politics and our economics."




Corbyn in the north (of England)


Jeremy Corbyn addressed the Royal College of Nursing conference in Liverpool.  The weekend's cyber attack had been highway robbery against all of us, he said, and preventing recurrence needs adequate resources.

(There were several accusations today, mostly from Jonathan Ashworth (Labour, Leicester South, majority 17,845), that NHS capital budgets had been raided to pay day-to-day expenses.  Later in the day Jeremy Hunt casually admitted that point, but claimed that money for IT had been kept separate and maintained. This one will run and run.)


Corbyn opposed privatisation/outsourcing, perhaps £13.5bn heading out of the NHS last year, though I heard no plan for undoing it.  He proposed £37bn of new money over five years - £7.4bn per year.  Since Labour is the "non-credible" party it has to account for every little policy by costing it and explaining where the money is to come from (the "credible" Tories can just sail on, reallocating as they go), and this is not a little policy.

£10bn of the new NHS money was to come from the £250bn investment fund Labour has been talking about, and the rest from raising taxes, including some of the extra corporation tax proposed.  Politicshome suggested that Labour's proposals will necessitate lowering the threshold for 45% income tax to £80,000 (and perhaps introducing a 50% rate from £150,000). 

Over the course of the next parliament there would be £10 billion of capital funding to make sure that NHS buildings and IT systems are fit for the modern day.  In addition, Labour intends to take a million people off the NHS waiting lists by the end of the Parliament by guaranteeing access to treatment within 18 weeks, and also guarantee that patients can be seen in A&E within four hours.  Those are both big pledges, with no wriggle room for extreme cases.

A new £500m winter pressures fund would help ensure that patients never have to experience a winter crisis like the one of recent months.  And the Cancer Strategy for England would be delivered in full by 2020, helping 2.5m people living with cancer.

Then Corbyn went on to Hebden Bridge, where he had to give his speech twice because there were too many people for the hall.  Whatever else people say about Corbyn, he can pull a crowd, and the BBC's man in Hebden Bridge reported that they weren't all Labour.  People had turned up to "hear what the man had to say".







Snippets


A note on yesterday's Tory campaign theme, housing, from a specialist in the field.  The press release "The Conservative manifesto plan for council housing" seems not to be generally available.  Jules Birch tried to read between the lines - is there any money?  is there anything new?  is this a revolution? - but agreed with other commentators that it had started to unravel after a few hours.  Perhaps that explains the non-availability of the press release.

#MrsME was actually out talking to real people in Abingdon today, accompanied by local MP Nicola Blackwood (Conservative, Oxford West and Abingon, majority 9,582) and a couple of the real people laid into her.



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