Latest editorial
SHADOW Chancellor John McDonnell unveiled his vision of “socialism with an iPad” yesterday, saying workers must benefit from Britain’s tech boom.
He said the popularity of apps such as Uber masked the “grim reality” of low-paid people working on zero-hours contracts in the “gig economy.”
Mr McDonnell conceded that “technological change, and the unfettered free market, are tearing up the old work contract” won by trade unions over generations.
LOUISA BULL traces how derecognition, outsourcing and digitalisation reshaped the industry, weakened collective bargaining and created today’s precarious media workforce
Labour’s watered-down legislation won’t protect us from unfair dismissal or ban some zero-hours contracts until 2027 — leaving millions of young people vulnerable to the populist right’s appeal, warns TUC young workers chair FRASER MCGUIRE
Labour must not allow unelected members of the upper house to erode a single provision of the Employment Rights Bill, argues ANDY MCDONALD MP
The Bill addresses some exploitation but leaves trade unions heavily regulated, most workers without collective bargaining coverage, and fails to tackle the balance of power that enables constant mutation of bad practice, write KEITH EWING and LORD JOHN HENDY KC