‘Day one rights were promised – Labour must deliver them’

The cost of living crisis has pushed millions of workers to the brink, and the government’s own figures show what working people have long known: wages have failed to keep pace with rising prices, rents and bills, while the labour share of national income has been in historic decline. In recent months, we have seen steps that begin to shift the dial—an overdue rise in the minimum wage, some improvements in public sector pay settlements, and the welcome decision to abolish the punitive two-child cap. But these measures, while important, are only the beginning of what must be a sustained effort to raise living standards.

Short-term income boosts will never be enough unless working people also have the power to secure better pay and conditions at their workplaces. That demands a rebalancing of rights—towards employees, and the trade unions who represent them—and a recognition that the current system allows far too many employers to exploit insecurity to drive down pay.

READ MORE: ‘To deliver day-one rights, unions like mine chose strategy over stalemate’

Central to that rebalancing is the principle of day one rights. It was one of the foundation stones of the New Deal for Working People— the programme developed with trade unions, first published in 2021, and reconfirmed repeatedly in the years and elections that followed. It is a principle backed by every senior Labour figure who has spoken on it, from Angela Rayner to Jonathan Reynolds to Peter Kyle, who as recently as September 2025 reaffirmed that unfair dismissal protections would be available from the first day on the job.

This commitment has always been about more than process. It is about tackling the most egregious abuses that occur in the shadows of precarious work: workers dismissed without reason days before qualifying for rights; employees pushed out when they raise complaints; unscrupulous employers exploiting zero-hours or insecure contracts to churn through staff at will. Day one unfair dismissal rights are not a threat to good employers—they are a safeguard against bad ones.

Yet, as Parliament reaches the final stages of the Employment Rights Bill, the government has resiled from this essential commitment, proposing instead a reduction of the qualifying period from two years to six months. 

This is not day one rights. It is a half-way measure, and it falls far short of what was promised to workers in Labour’s manifesto.

This climb-down is particularly troubling given the government’s overwhelming majority in the House of Commons. When a reform is supported by the elected chamber, when it appeared explicitly in the manifesto on which that majority rests, and when every relevant Cabinet minister has publicly endorsed it, there is no justification for allowing the unelected House of Lords to dilute or dictate its content. The authority of the Commons must be respected—and a confident government should be prepared to assert that authority.

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But there is a deeper concern. The Bill has been drafted with heavy reliance on secondary legislation, with at least a dozen—and potentially many more—consultations required before the detail of the reforms becomes law. Already, consultations on union access, unfair dismissal protections for pregnant workers, statutory bereavement leave, and the duty to inform workers of their rights are underway. Many more are expected. That means the essential shape of the reforms—on day one rights, on collective bargaining, on the single status of workers—remains unresolved.

If the government is willing to trim back manifesto commitments at the final moment of the primary legislation stage, it raises a serious red flag about what may happen when the real decisions are buried inside secondary regulations. Too many crucial questions—on the expansion of sectoral collective bargaining, on the long-promised single worker status—have already been pushed down the road. If this latest concession becomes a precedent, business lobby groups will not stop at day one rights. They will return for more—and some will hope to chip away at commitments the moment public attention moves on.

Trade unions will, of course, continue fighting for the strongest possible implementation when the consultations conclude and the regulations are drafted. They will do what they have always done: organise, negotiate, and advocate relentlessly for their members. But they cannot do it alone. They need partners in Parliament—Labour MPs who are prepared not just to vote for the New Deal for Working People, but to defend it, make the case for it, and challenge any attempt to water it down.

Workers have been promised the biggest upgrade in rights for a generation. They deserve the full delivery of those promises. And Labour MPs must make clear—inside government and out—that the commitments made to working people in 2021, in 2024, and ever since cannot be chipped away, hollowed out or traded off. Not now, and not in the secondary legislation still to come.

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Day one rights were promised. Working people expect them. Labour must deliver them—fully, and without qualification. Because if day one rights fall, every other part of the New Deal will be left to the mercy of consultation rooms and lobbyists’ pressure.

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