Fire and rehire tactics

That this House notes with alarm the growing number of employers who are dismissing and re-engaging staff on worse pay and terms and conditions, a practice commonly known as fire and rehire; agrees with Government Ministers that such tactics represent an unacceptable abuse of power by rogue bosses, many of whom are exploiting the covid-19 crisis to increase profits at the expense of loyal staff who have risked their lives during the pandemic to keep businesses going; welcomes the Government’s stated commitment to tackle those shameful abuses; calls on the Government to publish the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service report into the practice received by Ministers on 17 February 2021; and further calls on the Government to commit to including proposals in the forthcoming Queen’s Speech to outlaw this form of industrial blackmail, as is the case in other European countries, and to bring forward this new legislation as a matter of urgency to protect UK workers from exploitation by unscrupulous employers.