It is disheartening to read that not only is Labour planning to further dilute its employee rights package but that it is doing so to appease businesses (Labour’s ‘new deal for workers’ will not fully ban zero-hours contracts, 1 May). Your article appeared online on May Day. You don’t have to wrap yourself in the red flag and sing The Internationale to recognise that having a motivated, educated and supported workforce is good for business, the economy and society.
Both the party and those in business lobbying for the changes are ignoring the lessons of recent history and are taking a depressingly narrow view of labour market flexibility and efficiency. The introduction of the minimum wage 25 years ago has been hailed as one of the great postwar economic policy successes. But at the time, business groups warned, wrongly, of mass job losses.
