Part-time Workers

HC Deb 30 March 1993 vol 222 cc108-9W

Ms Quin

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what plans she has to increase the employment rights of part-time workers.

Mr. Michael Forsyth

The Trade Union Reform and Employment Rights Bill, currently before Parliament, will further increase the already substantial range of statutory employment protection rights, including for part-timers.

The Bill will give all employees, regardless of their hours of work or length of service, the following new rights: a right for pregnant women to take at least la weeks statutory maternity leave; comprehensive protection against being unfairly dismissed on maternity-related grounds; protection against being unfairly dismissed or otherwise victimised for taking certain specified types of action on health and safety grounds; and protection against being unfairly dismissed for having sought in good faith to enforce any statutory employment protection right.