A TORY Peer insists Labour’s flagship workers’ rights package must be changed to protect people from being sacked or disciplined for online posts.
Baron Young, who founded the Free Speech Union, says any messages more than a year old shouldn’t be used to reprimand employees and “cancel” people.
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Bosses would have to be able to prove that “tangible” harm had been caused rather than “reputational” damage which is too vague.
The Employment Rights Bill is currently in the House of Lords and will be debated when Parliament returns after the party conferences.
The Peer is compiling a report on how laws affecting free speech should be changed or abandoned.
The dossier should be published before the end of the year and could be adopted as party policy after that, he added.
He said changes “would make it unlawful for companies to discipline, fire, penalise employees for things they’ve said online unless, first of all, they’re less than a year old.
“So there’s a one-year statute of limitations on what the offence archaeologists can dig into to try and find reasons to cancel you.
“In addition, the employer would have to show that the comment in question has caused tangible harm to the company.
Lord Young of Acton was made a peer by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch in December.
He previously founded a network of free schools, and has been a newspaper columnist for more than 20 years.
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