Prospect At Work – campaigning for workers’ rights

Protecting employment rights is a key campaign for Prospect in 2016. Our new campaign – Prospect at Work – kicks off with a month of activities in February.

We will be highlighting the difference that unions make in the workplace and challenging the government’s attack on workers and their unions.

The past four years have seen concerted government attacks on employment rights and trade unions.

Changes to the law have made it easier and cheaper for employers to dismiss workers. The introduction of excessive fees to bring claims to employment tribunals has denied many workers access to justice.

The government has also launched the Trade Union bill, which will seriously hinder the right to strike and create new burdens on trade union organisation and administration.

Prospect at Work will focus on:

• challenging changes to the law
• defending existing rights and
• ensuring support for members in the workplace.

Marion Scovell, head of Prospect Legal, said: “In this climate of government hostility to workers’ rights, there is an overwhelming need for effective and well-organised unions.

“Part of our campaign is to feature Prospect representatives to demonstrate the very real difference they make in the workplace.”

February campaign activities

The campaign is kicking off with a month of activities in February, including:

• A campaign meeting at Prospect for members and reps to discuss implications of the TU bill on 2 February at Prospect head office from 5.00pm to 6.30 pm
• Encouraging Prospect members to support the TUC’s #heartunions week from 8 to 14 February
• Organising for the Big Workplace Meeting on 9 February, with union workplaces throughout the country joining the TUC’s live broadcast at 12.30pm http://heartunions.org/BigWorkplaceMeeting
• Prospect Legal will be attending a number of branch meetings to discuss employment rights and the campaign
• A ‘knowledge call’ for reps on the TU bill
• A survey of reps on employment rights (for a report to be produced for national conference in May)
• Enhanced social media activity around workers’ rights
• Profiling Prospect’s Workers’ Rights Advocates

See the Prospect at Work campaign web pages for more information, updates and resources.