Chris O'Shea: The Employment Rights Bill will be good for business.

The UK Government’s Employment Rights Bill is a big moment for businesses and workers. 

The Bill’s provisions, including strengthened protections for parental leave, enhanced rights to sick pay, and improved rights for trade unions, are significant reforms and should help foster fairness, flexibility and certainty for both colleagues – and companies – alike.  

Crucially, I believe these changes will be good news for businesses – and ultimately help us to drive growth and build a stronger economy.  Too often we fall into the old trap of thinking the interests of companies and colleagues are at odds – that one can only do better if the other does worse. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is not a zero-sum game.

Businesses make profit not from undercutting workers, but by serving customers, selling things people want, at a price they can afford.

At Centrica, we’ve seen first-hand that a business thrives when its people thrive. Our 21,000 amazing colleagues are engines of growth, driving innovation, delivering for customers, and powering the UK’s energy future.  We are proud to have the biggest unionised workforce in energy, and we’re building a business based on engagement with our colleagues.

It hasn’t always been easy, and I’m candid about the difficult choices we’ve faced in the past which were painful both for colleagues and for our company. 

For example, we’ve created the Centrica Council, bringing together senior leaders with trade union representatives, and we’ve rolled out market-leading family-friendly policies. For example, offering support with fertility, adoption or surrogacy, and granting up to six weeks of paid leave to colleagues juggling work and care. Just a few weeks ago, we announced entitlement to paternity leave will increase from two to eight weeks and that our pension contribution matching will begin on day one for a new colleague. We also have a market leading profit share scheme where 2% of our pre-tax profits goes into a pool which is split equally between our colleagues. 

As a result, we now have a more engaged workforce, improved retention, and boosted productivity. In part, that’s because we’re supporting colleagues through life’s challenges. 

None of this is to say there aren’t tough decisions. We still make the sort of tough decisions any business has to make to grow and succeed – that means we often have very difficult conversations with our Unions, but we strive to do it in partnership, with good dialogue.

I also know different businesses have different strategies and different views on this legislation, but in my experience, many of these provisions represent not just the right thing to do, I believe ultimately, they’ll be good for business. 

But we don’t just need good regulation for workers, we also need it to drive investment and growth.

Alongside action on improving job security, we also need pace and certainty from Government to unlock investment in our energy infrastructure to boost energy security and drive down prices. 

We can do this by pressing on with the new nuclear power station at Sizewell C; by implementing regulation to unlock £2bn of investment in the Rough facility to provide the UK with much needed energy security and ultimately store hydrogen and to support thousands of jobs creating the UK’s largest carbon capture facility at Morecambe. 

We are committed to investing over £4bn in green infrastructure, but the right regulatory framework—some of which is urgently needed—is essential to making this investment a reality. While investment decisions are often described as purely commercial, regulatory standards play a crucial role. Just as strong regulation supports improvements in workers' rights—something we fully support—clear and consistent regulation is also needed to unlock investment in the UK’s energy security.

A more engaged, secure workforce, with the regulatory frameworks that allow companies to invest, are the necessary ingredients which will create the recipe needed for growth. We look forward to working with Government, trade unions, and industry peers to ensure the aspirations of the Employment Rights Bill are fully realised.

This article has been adapted from an original editorial published in The Mirror - originally printed 12th March.