Why the Tories’ workers’ rights charter might put the wind up big business

If anyone thought the election was a black and white, or rather blue versus red, a battle between the Tories on the side of big business and Labour fighting for their work comrades’ rights, events today – as the Conservatives showed their hand – suggest otherwise.

Theresa May’s unveiling of a new charter of workers’ rights might not be an A-Z of things workers have ever dreamed of, but it contained plenty of stuff to unsettle hawks in the business world.

With a list that included a guarantee workers will get the same rights after Brexit as they do in the EU, promised increases in the national living wage and pledges of new rights for leave, the PM does not want Jeremy Corbyn to have it all his own way on the domestic labour front.

In fact, the policies appear targeted at winning over those wavering Labour voters who might yet be persuaded to vote Tory come 8 June.

But, for the food and drink industry, alarm bells are ringing that a Tory landslide might not signal the bonfire of EU red tape that some are hoping for.

The BRC lauded the promise of certainty for workers’ rights as a “welcome step forward” but at the same time warned that unconditional promises to ramp up the national living wage were “unsustainable”. It also urged May to think again about plans such as guaranteeing rights for workers to be represented on company boards, despite claiming that the “people agenda” was at the forefront of business thinking in the run up to the big vote.

Predictably, The Institute of Economic Affairs went a lot stronger. Having branded Labour’s plans a “disaster”, it claimed the Tories risked throwing away the chance of ditching unnecessary labour regulation and reducing the costs of business post-Brexit.

Diehard Corbynistas

“Brexit should be used as an opportunity to reduce the burden of regulation in this sector, not to increase it,” said Len Shackleton, IEA editorial research fellow. ‘Not so red Len’ is unlikely to feature in a list of the most popular characters among diehard Corbynistas, but at least he gives it to us straight. Many businesses are excited about the prospect of Brexit precisely because, despite its economic risks, it is a chance to take an axe to EU laws, not to create a whole set of new ones.

However, as with its reaction to the Labour manifesto, businesses in the food and drink industry, and more widely, risk coming out of this debate with their reputations damaged if they are viewed by voters as anti workers’ rights. Standing up for zero-hours contracts, railing against the NLW and warning of the evils of having workers on the board is not going to sit too well with many voters when they read about Tesco’s Dave Lewis getting a £2.4m bonus last week, after a 10% pay cut.

Food and drink organisations have been calling for the government to invest in the workforce, both in guaranteeing the rights of EU-based workers, but also in an investment in training and opportunities for a more highly skilled homegrown workforce.

That must surely come with rights at least as good as those under the EU for it not to be seen as just window dressing for cheap labour.