Luton North MP Sarah Owen praised workers’ rights strengthening new reforms as “groundbreaking” while lawmakers last night voted to back the Employment Rights Bill and reject the House of Lords’ amendments, which the government said would have weakened the proposals.
Designed to modernise employment law, the Bill promises day-one rights for parental and paternity leave, improved sick pay, protections for workers on zero-hours contracts and stronger rights against unfair dismissal.
Speaking in the House of Commons debate last night, Ms Owen said the reforms are about “ensuring that all people can work safely, with respect and dignity, and have security in their work”.
For Luton, where many people work in care, hospitality and other sectors with high levels of insecure employment, the Bill could have a tangible impact.
Arguing that better rights lead to greater loyalty, trust and staff retention while providing some startling figures, Ms Owen provided some startling figures, saying: “A woman is 34 per cent more likely to be stuck in a zero-hours contract than a man. If we are talking about black and Asian minority people, that figure reaches 103 per cent. Disabled workers are 49 per cent more likely to be stuck on such a contract. This Bill is about protecting all workers, not just some.”
The Luton MP drew on her own working life in making the case for reform, saying: “I have worked a zero-hours contract, and I would have benefited from this Bill. I have been a care worker who would have benefited from the collective bargaining that this Bill will introduce, and the Bill would also have meant that I was paid for time spent travelling between the jobs I had to travel to.”
Under the reforms, workers would be able to take parental and paternity leave from their first day in a new job, while those who experience miscarriage would no longer have to rely on sick leave or unpaid time off.
The Bill also contains major changes to bereavement leave. Having suffered miscarriages herself, Ms Owen specifically welcomed clauses that would expand bereavement rights to cover miscarriage and pregnancy loss before 24 weeks. At present only parents who lose a child under 18 or experience a stillbirth after 24 weeks are entitled to statutory bereavement leave. It would make the UK just one of only four countries in the entire world that recognises miscarriage as the bereavement.
The Bill would allow employees to take time off following miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, molar pregnancy, IVF embryo transfer loss and terminations for medical reasons. Britain would become one of only four countries to recognise miscarriage as a bereavement.
Ms Owen also highlighted the difference the new law will make to grieving parents, saying: “Women who experience baby loss will not need to use sick leave, which implies that their body had something wrong with it.”
She added: “For someone to go to their employer and say, ‘I need to take sick leave’, as if there is something wrong with them, as if there is something wrong with them, is fundamentally different from how society sees pregnancy loss and miscarriage now.”
The MP stressed that the measure is not just a change in paperwork but recognition of profound loss.
“Grieving parents will no longer need to push through their pain to carry on working,” she said, adding that expectant fathers will have the same right because “they grieve, too”.
Ms Owen paid tribute to campaigners, charities and fellow politicians who helped push for the reform. The Bill will now go back to the House of Lords for final sign-off before Royal Assent.
But Ms Owen’s speech in the House of Commons made clear that, for workers, these changes represent more than parliamentary debate. They are, she said, a long overdue recognition of the dignity and security every worker deserves.
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