A new TUC campaign launched today (Monday 26) contrasts employer attacks on new rights for people at work as red tape, with the popular support they enjoy among voters.

They call it red tape, but you call it a decent break is one of the TUC messages from the new poster and advert campaign highlighting new rights for employees to take four weeks paid holiday a year.

The other issues covered by the TUC campaign are:

• Better maternity provision with They call it red tape, you call it a new life
• The minimum wage with They call it red tape, you call them basics (with a picture of a pair of children's shoes).
• The right to take time off for a domestic emergency with They call it red tape, you call it an SOS

The posters are available for unions to display in workplaces, and the adverts are available for union journals. There is also a web site www.tuc.org.uk/redtape supporting the campaign which includes downloadable images and a briefing which rebuts the attack made by some employer organisations and some politicians on employee rights as red tape.

The website features TUC calculations that the claimed cost of 'burdens on business' pales into insignificance compared to the amount of unpaid overtime contributed by UK workers – who work the longest hours in Europe. This totals £23 billion a year – or more than £4,400 for every worker who puts in unpaid hours.

TUC General Secretary, John Monks, said: "Our aim is to put employee rights on the election agenda. We want voters to ask hard questions about where the parties stand, and particularly question those who dismiss modest improvements in rights at work as red tape.

"As Adair Turner, the former CBI Director-General, wrote in the Times last week, 'Arguments that Britain is being held back by the burden of labour market regulation are based on confused economic theory and contradicted by the facts.'

"There has been much improvement in workplace rights since the last election, but unions need to be vigilant to protect these advances, and need to seek better protection particularly to allow people to get better balance between work and rest of their lives."
They call it red tape, but you call it a decent break is one of the TUC messages from the new poster and advert campaign highlighting new rights for employees to take four weeks paid holiday a year.

The other issues covered by the TUC campaign are:

• Better maternity provision with They call it red tape, you call it a new life
• The minimum wage with They call it red tape, you call them basics (with a picture of a pair of children's shoes).
• The right to take time off for a domestic emergency with They call it red tape, you call it an SOS

The posters are available for unions to display in workplaces, and the adverts are available for union journals. There is also a web site www.tuc.org.uk/redtape supporting the campaign which includes downloadable images and a briefing which rebuts the attack made by some employer organisations and some politicians on employee rights as red tape.

The website features TUC calculations that the claimed cost of 'burdens on business' pales into insignificance compared to the amount of unpaid overtime contributed by UK workers – who work the longest hours in Europe. This totals £23 billion a year – or more than £4,400 for every worker who puts in unpaid hours.

TUC General Secretary, John Monks, said: "Our aim is to put employee rights on the election agenda. We want voters to ask hard questions about where the parties stand, and particularly question those who dismiss modest improvements in rights at work as red tape.

"As Adair Turner, the former CBI Director-General, wrote in the Times last week, 'Arguments that Britain is being held back by the burden of labour market regulation are based on confused economic theory and contradicted by the facts.'

"There has been much improvement in workplace rights since the last election, but unions need to be vigilant to protect these advances, and need to seek better protection particularly to allow people to get better balance between work and rest of their lives."