TUC Warns Government Against Weakening Workers’ Rights Following Rayner’s Exit
Union leaders are standing their ground and calling on the government not to water down the Employment Rights Bill after Angela Rayner’s recent departure from the cabinet.
Speaking at the TUC’s annual conference in Brighton, General Secretary Paul Nowak urged ministers to resist pressure from Tory and Liberal Democrat peers seeking to weaken protections for workers.
The conference comes at a time when insecurity in the workplace is at an all-time high. According to the TUC, four million workers, roughly one in eight in the UK, are trapped in insecure employment, with many in low-paid roles within care, leisure and service industries.
“Black and ethnic minority workers account for 70% of the explosion in insecure work,” the union reported, with regions like southwest England and Yorkshire being particularly hard hit.
Nowak has made it clear that the union’s stance is uncompromising. “We are now at a crucial stage in the delivery of the Employment Rights Bill, just weeks away from Royal Assent,” he told.
“I’ve got no doubt at all that decent working rights go hand in hand with a growing economy.”
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak says the government “must” deliver the workers’ rights bill “in full”.@Nowak_Paul | @StigAbell pic.twitter.com/yTtcXJuvmE
— Times Radio (@TimesRadio) September 8, 2025
“And our clear message to the government will be to deliver the bill and deliver it in full. Ignore the amendments from the unelected peers, Tory and Lib Dem peers in the House of Lords, that are aimed at gutting the legislation, weakening workers’ rights.
Stand with the British public, deliver decent employment rights. That’s important in workplaces up and down the country, but it’s important because these are proposals that are popular with the British public as well.”
Rayner’s resignation last Friday came amid controversy over unpaid stamp duty on a seaside flat in Hove – just under two miles from the conference venue.
Her departure has been seen by many as politically motivated. Nowak, a staunch supporter, described the ordeal as “a real heavy dose of misogyny.”
In his interview, he said: “Angela Rayner is playing a really important role in government and I wouldn’t want to see her hounded out of an important role by right-wing politicians and the right-wing media, who frankly can’t handle the fact that a working-class woman is our deputy prime minister.”
The Employment Rights Bill, which Rayner and fellow Labour minister Jonathan Reynolds have championed, aims to crack down on exploitative practices such as zero-hour contracts and unfair dismissals.
However, critics from the Lords attempted to water down the legislation by reducing the qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims from two years to six months.
Nowak remains adamant. “We’ve got well over a million people now on zero-hours contracts.
We’ve got millions of people who don’t have sick pay from day one, and 70% of the kids who live in poverty have parents who go out to work.
The government is absolutely right to be focused on making work pay. And the Employment Rights Bill is about putting more money in the pockets of working people, giving people more security at work.
That’s good for workers, but it’s also good for good employers as well, so they’re not undercut by the cowboys.”
With the bill now set to enter administrative clunk- pong, unions sweat that backdoor emendations will erode its impact.
They’re calling on ministers to repel lobbying from vested interests and deliver legislation that supports working families across the country.
The communication from Brighton is loud and clear. No retreat on workers’ rights. The TUC’s marshaling cry, “ TUC warns government,” is being echoed across union halls, workplaces, and communities nationwide.
