Employment Opportunities Bill — Second Reading — Removal of Restrictions on Foreign Nationals Working — Allow Opt-Out from Minimum Wage — 17 Jun 2011 at 13:42

The majority of MPs voted against removing restrictions on working applied to foreign nationals lawfully resident in the UK and against allowing people to opt out from an entitlement to the national minimum wage. The majority of MPs also voted against a review of the impact of the national minimum wage.

MPs were considering the Employment Opportunities Bill^[1]. The motion rejected by the majority of MPs was:

• That the Bill be now read a Second time.

The rejection of this motion meant the Bill was dropped and made no further progress towards becoming law.

The Bill sought to:

• reduce restrictions on foreign nationals lawfully resident in the UK that prevent them from working, unless they have been refused leave to remain or are in detention
• enable those entitled to the minimum wage to opt out from that entitlement
• remove the entitlement to the minimum wage from those who are receiving a training wage, if they had entered into a written contract of employment offering them a training wage and training from the employer in skills relevant to the employment
• require the Low Pay Commission to institute an enquiry into the impact of the national minimum wage on job creation and access to employment in areas of high unemployment, and to consider whether to reduce the minimum wage in those areas if it is found to have had a negative effect. It would further require the Secretary of State to act on recommendations by the Commission to reduce the minimum wage.

(The above summary is taken from Parliament's webpage on the Bill)

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• [1] Parliament's webpage on the Employment Opportunities Bill

Debate in Parliament | Source |