LAST Monday the Employment Rights Bill came back to us in the House of Commons.

It has been ‘ping-ponging’ between the House of Commons and the House of Lords since October 10 last year. The House of Lords can’t veto laws, but they can suggest amendments and send them back to the House of Commons to look at again a number of times, so delaying them.

The Lords made 169 amendments to the Bill. The Government agreed with many but opposed 29. What that meant was that after the debate we had to vote 12 times on amendments that couldn’t be agreed. It takes about 15 minutes to vote once, as it involves essentially being ‘kettled’ in either the ‘aye’ or ‘no’ voting lobbies which lie behind the Chamber, then being counted out of the doors one by one and waiting for the tellers to report the vote and the Speaker to announce it to the Chamber. That means voting 12 times can take up to 3 hours. It also means that what you’re actually voting on can be confusing as amendments are ‘grouped’ together. It’s a lot easier in other parliaments, or even UK councils, where they have progressed to voting electronically by pressing a button. Trooping round in a circle numerous times is often why we’re there until past 11pm.

I’ve consistently spoke in favour of this Bill and voted for it at the debates in the House of Commons. It is landmark legislation that will give the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation.

This Bill will end exploitative zero-hours contracts by introducing rights to reasonable notice of shifts and to be offered a contract with guaranteed hours, reflecting hours regularly worked. It will end fire and rehire practices. It will establish day one rights for paternity, parental and bereavement leave for millions of workers. And it will strengthen statutory sick pay by making employees eligible from the first day of illness or injury and extending sick pay to 1.3-million of the lowest earners. The Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Reform were attempting to block these measures in the bill with some of their amendments which we voted against.

The Bill will also give the right to agree fair pay and terms to the most vulnerable and badly paid female workers – like care workers and school support staff and teaching assistants.

Some of the Lords amendments improved the bill. The scrutiny the Lords provide can help pick up unintended consequences and improve drafting. Many Lords are open appointed because they are top of their specialist field and so their insight can be really useful and the second chamber is often a way to strengthen legislation to make it more robust. Amendments were passed to cover bereavement after baby loss and end the misuse of non-disclosure agreements, for example.

This Bill is vital to modernising worker’s protections and making work pay. The accepted amendments will help to ensure that the reforms are balanced and fair – both pro-business and pro-worker.