19 October 2018

By John Hendy QC, Professor Keith Ewing and Carolyn Jones

This week has seen 'gig' workers and people on zero-hours contracts take a stand against low pay and insecure jobs, with strikes held from Brighton to Glasgow among staff at TGI Friday's, McDonald's, Wetherspoons, Uber and Deliveroo. Joining the picket line at Leicester Square, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell promised to meet the needs of the strikers through employment law reforms, such as rolling out sectoral collective bargaining, establishing a Ministry of Labour, and improving workers' access to trade unions.

19 December 2017

By Professor Keith Ewing and John Hendy QC

I

David Davis has suggested that in place of the EU Treaties, the UK’s relations with the EU should be regulated by a deal which is ‘Canada, plus, plus, plus’. By this he means a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) based on the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) agreed between the EU and Canada. The British people should treat the proposal with revulsion. It contains every one of the defects which led 3.5 million Europeans to sign a petition objecting to the now defunct TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the EU and the USA), a sister agreement to CETA. 

11 July 2017

By Nicola Countouris, Professor of Law at University College London; and Professor Keith D. Ewing, President of the IER

‘A mountain had gone into labour and was groaning terribly. Such rumours excited great expectations all over the country. In the end, however, the mountain gave birth to a mouse’

(Phaedrus, ‘The Mountain in Labour’)

For some, there were great expectations that PM May’s ‘Independent Review of Employment Practices in the Modern Economy’ could offer something more than heart-warming gestures for the millions of workers employed through casual and intermittent contracts, a million or so of them toiling under the permanent insecurity of a zero-hour contract. Unfortunately, after nine long months of gestation, some drama, and a lot of fanfare, the review produced by Mr Matthew Taylor has come up with some seriously underwhelming, where not counterproductive, recommendations.

08 June 2017

As the electorate goes to the polls today, our Chair John Hendy QC and President Professor Keith Ewing, explain why trade union rights are an important factor for workers' future.

04 March 2016

By Keith Ewing, President of the IER

Clause 10 of the Trade Union Bill contains a pernicious and vindictive attack on trade union political freedom.