In the wake of P&O, Brexit gives us a chance to strengthen employment law

800 workers dismissed on the spot and replaced with cheaper labour. Handcuff-trained security guards ready to remove seafarers from the ships that they had crewed for years. A bad boss brazenly admitting to breaking employment law because he could get away with it. This isn’t a story from 200 years ago or 2,000 miles away – but just two months ago and on our shores, when P&O Ferries dismissed its workforce with immediate effect by video call and text message.

Whilst this behaviour was shocking, it was not surprising to those of us well versed in the UK’s employment law framework. Bad practice is commonplace: just look at the way the cast and crew of Cinderella were treated this month, informed minutes before the press that the curtain would be falling in June. Actors who had clinched roles for the musical’s second year and had foregone other employment opportunities found out by press release. In the university sector, the creeping casualisation of work has undermined pay and conditions for teaching staff, forcing them to re-apply each year for nine-month contracts despite having 12 months of living costs to meet.

It is true that the government has announced pay protection reforms to ensure maritime workers docking at UK ports are paid at least the minimum wage. But these reforms come too late for the illegally sacked workers, and nothing the government has done gets to the heart of the issue: another P&O or a variant is not just possible but likely. The absence of the long-promised employment bill in last week’s Queen’s Speech was a missed opportunity to correct course.

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way. Campaigners for Brexit – including Boris Johnson – promised greater employment standards as part of a newly sovereign UK liberated from the rules and regulations of the EU. The government enjoys a hefty majority in the Commons, there is cross-party agreement on the need to crack down on poor employment practices and the public strongly back action to prevent this kind of scandal occurring again. There’s no question about a lack of support – we just need the political will to get it done.

So when Brexit opportunities minister Jacob Rees-Mogg is hunting for Brexit bonuses, bolstering employment law is a good first port of call. As co-chair of the Independent Commission on UK-EU Relations, and general secretary of Prospect trade union, I want to work with the current or any government to make the post-Brexit labour market fair for working people and to raise employment standards for British workers.

British labour law relies too much on post-fault remedy – no prevention, just cure (if you can get to court in time – which is another scandal in itself). There have been suggestions that introducing punitive damages will deter would-be P&O pirates, but it will simply remain a question of cost: is it cheaper to just break the law and pay the fine? For P&O, the answer was yes – and the sad truth is that they’ve largely gotten away with it.

What is needed instead is a significant overhaul of collective redundancy and associated law to prevent these abuses happening in the first place.

Allowing unions to apply to the High Court for an injunction to stop dismissals taking place without consultation would change the equation for unscrupulous employers considering egregious and illegal betrayals of their workforce. Barring rule-breakers from holding senior positions – in the same way that the finance regulator can deem a person to not be “fit and proper” to run a bank – would make executives think twice before flouting the law.

We also need justice for the victims of these cowboys. The maximum compensation of 90 days’ pay should become a minimum, with the cap raised to at least six months. Workers whose employer goes into liquidation should be entitled to the same level of payout as all other workers, rather than having a cap on their entitlement at eight weeks of pay at a maximum of £571 per week. All of this should be delivered by properly funded employment tribunals. At present, too many cases are taking more than a year to reach a hearing because of cuts to this essential service.

I don’t believe that anyone, regardless of their political leanings, wants to see another P&O scandal that contravenes those very British values of fair play and decency. These changes would rebalance power towards workers and prevent the absurd spectacle of a law-breaking CEO telling parliamentarians he’d do it all over again. Brexit gives this government the chance to break with the past and give workers greater rights, voice and partnership in our economy. It’s a chance it must seize – otherwise Rees-Mogg risks becoming the minister for missed opportunities.