Angela Rayner failed to name a business that supports Labour’s flagship workers’ rights overhaul in a BBC grilling.
The Deputy Prime Minister was rpeatedly unable to say which companies back the Employment Rights Bill she is spearheading.
It comes after the country’s biggest recruiters sounded the alarm over the proposed legislation, which has promised the biggest shake-up of employment conditions for a generation.
Ms Rayner told BBC 2’s Politics Live programme: “Well we’ve worked with many of the companies…
“I’ve worked with so many of them on this, I’ve had many roundtables as has the businesses secretary, and they’ve very much welcomed the work that we’ve been doing”.
Pushed on which businesses have welcomed the plans, she added: “Like I say, I’ve spoken to many companies, we’ve had many roundtables with them, and we’ve been discussing it.
“And they’ve acknowledged that there has to be a balance, and broadly welcomed it, we’ve made changes, for example on the probation periods, where we’ve listened to what business said, so we have the probation periods alongside the balance of rights from day one.”
Asked for a list of these companies, Ms Rayner said: “There have been many of the companies that we’ve worked with. Like I say, so many of them.”
It comes after executives from more than a dozen recruitment companies including Adecco, Hays, Manpower and Randstad raised concerns in a letter to Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds.
They said: “Growth is the Government’s priority … Yet the approach taken in the current consultation delivers the opposite of this. If applied, it would undermine both the temporary and permanent jobs markets, slowing job search by reducing opportunities and potentially exposing workers to poorer treatment and false self-employment.”
The bill includes a ban on zero-hour contracts and employment protections from day one in a job.
