According to Economy Minister Kwasi Kwarteng, the British government does not want to curtail workers‘ rights. „We want to protect and improve the rights of workers, not row back,“ said Kwarteng yesterday evening on the short message service Twitter.
Reaction to newspaper report
Kwarteng reacted to a report in the Financial Times. This had reported, citing people familiar with the plans, that the government wanted to dismantle the employee protection previously anchored in EU law.
The new regulations proposed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs would provide for the abolition of the 48-hour week, as the „Financial Times“ reported yesterday evening (local time). The rules for rest breaks should also be changed. Overtime surcharges when calculating some vacation pay entitlements may no longer be taken into account.
Opposition politician Ed Miliband commented on the report by saying that the government’s priorities were “not in line with the needs of workers and their families”. These proposals are not about cutting bureaucracy for companies, but about destroying vital rights for workers.
