2017 GENERAL ELECTION: A BRIEF SUMMARY OF SOME OF THE KEY POLICY STATEMENTS RELATING TO EMPLOYMENT LAW IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR BY THE THREE MAIN POLITICAL PARTIES
EU rights post-Brexit
The Conservative Party would maintain the same rights after Brexit.
The Labour Party would abolish the Great Repeal Bill and introduce an EU Rights and Protections Bill (guarantee existing protections under EU law)
The Liberal Democrats oppose a hard Brexit, commit to making the final Brexit deal subject to a referendum and defend existing social rights and equality laws.
National living wage (NLW)
The Conservatives would continue to increase NLW in line with the current target (60% of median earnings by 2020). No mention of increases for other rates of National Minimum Wage (NMW).
Labour would raise NMW for all workers aged 18 or over to the level of NLW. (expected to be £10 an hour by 2020). They wouldi Increase prosecutions for those who do not pay NMW.
The Liberal Democrats would encourage the creation of a “good employer” kite mark and establish an independent review into how to set a NLW. Larger employers to have to publish data on the number of workers earning less than NLW.
The gig economy and zero hour contracts
The Conservative manifesto makes no mention of zero hours contracts. It refers to the ongoing independent review of the changing labour market and pledges to “act to ensure that the interests of employees on traditional contracts, the self-employed and those people working in the ‘gig’ economy are all properly protected”.
Labour would ban zero hours contracts and introduce laws to ensure that workers who work “regular hours” for more than 12 weeks have the opportunity to switch to a “regular contract”. They would give all workers equal rights from day one and extend employment rights to all workers not just employees. On employment status Labour proposals include placing a burden on employers to prove that a worker is not an employee. They would give joint responsibility to ‘end users’ for ensuring the rights of agency workers are protected and they would outlaw novel employment structures that aim to limit worker rights.
The Liberal Democrats would stop the abuse of zero hours contracts and create a right for workers to request a fixed term contract. They would also modernise employment rights to make them “fit for the age of the gig economy“, building on the forthcoming independent review of the changing labour market (referred to above).
Work and families
The Conservatives would introduce a right to:
- request unpaid time off for training for all employees.
- unpaid time off for workers whose family members require full-time care. (likely to be between 13 and 52 weeks off work)
- child bereavement leave (no certainty on how much or whether this is paid).
The Conservatives also propose implementing measures (no details) to help women and carers acquire the skills/experience needed to return to the workplace.
Labour would:
- increase the scope of the 30 hours of free childcare to include two-year-olds and will consult on extending it to one-year olds.
- issue subsidies to ensure access to free childcare regardless of working patterns.
- Introduce four new bank holidays.
- Introduce mandatory workplace risk assessments for pregnant women and review the workplace support offered to women that have suffered miscarriages.
- Increase the rate of paternity pay and double paid paternity leave to four weeks
- Extend the period of maternity pay to 12 months.
- Introduce laws on bereavement
The Liberal Democrats would:
- make flexible working, paternity and shared parental leave (SPL) “day one” rights.
- introduce an additional one month “use it or lose it” period of SPL for fathers, to encourage greater take up among men.
- extend the 15-hours a week free childcare provision to all two year olds and to children of all working families from the end of paid maternity/paternity/shared parental leave. Long-term goal would be to increase this to 30 hours.
Employment Tribunal fees
There is no mention of reforming employment tribunal fees in the Conservative manifesto.
Labour would abolish employment tribunal fees and extend the time period for claimants lodging a maternity discrimination claim from three to six months
The Liberal Democrats would abolish employment tribunal fees.
Equality and vulnerable workers
The Conservatives would give protection under the Equality Act 2010 to those with mental health conditions that are “episodic and fluctuating” and would require employers to provide first aid training and needs-assessments for mental health. They propose NI incentives for employers who take on vulnerable workers. They also pledge to get a million more disabled people into work over the next ten years by using flexible working and the digital economy to generate opportunities. They would continue with existing initiatives to improve the number of female directors on boards
Labour would make it easier for disabled workers to challenge discrimination at work by changes to the Equality Act 2010. The pledge to protect woman against unfair redundancy and provide better protection for transgender people. They would introduce gender auditing and improve the ethnic diversity of UK boards.
The Liberal Democrats would improve boardroom diversity, pushing for at least 40% female boards in FTSE 350 companies. They would also implement the Parker review recommendations into ethnic minority boardroom representation. The Liberal Democrats would also encourage name-blind recruitment processes in the private sector, guarantee the freedom to wear religious or cultural dress, extend discrimination law to protect gender identity and expression and outlaw caste discrimination.
Closing pay gaps
The Conservatives would require large employers to publish more data on the pay gap between men and women (no details provided). They would introduce a mandatory reporting requirement for large employers on the pay disparities between people from different ethnic backgrounds.
Labour’s plans to increase pay transparency and equality by setting up an independent body to ensure compliance with the gender pay gap reporting obligations. It would also look to close the ethnicity pay gap by introducing pay audit requirements on large employers.
The Liberal Democrats would build on the gender pay gap reporting scheme in the private sector and include a requirement to monitor/publish data on gender, BAME, and LGBT+ employment levels and pay gaps.
Some of the other Conservative pledges
- Increase the Immigration Skills Charge from £1000 to £2,000 (revenue being used to invest in higher level skills training for domestic workers).
- Require listed companies to implement measures to improve employee representation at board level. A listed company will not however be required to appoint a worker directly to its board of directors.
- a right for employees to request information relating to the future direction of the company. This may conceivably include requests for information about significant reorganisations and disposals.
- increase the powers of the Pensions Regulator to issue punitive fines. It will consider the introduction of a criminal offence for directors who deliberately or recklessly put at risk the ability of a pension scheme to meet its obligations.
- make executive pay packages subject to annual votes by shareholders and investigate the use of share buybacks to inflate executive pay.
Some of the other Labour pledges
- Introduce new laws to prevent the exploitation of migrant workers and to stop overseas-only recruitment practices.
- Several pledges in respect of apprenticeships. They include setting a target to double the number of completed apprenticeships at NVQ level 3 by 2022 and providing greater flexibility to employers in how they use the levy e.g. pre-apprenticeship programmes.
- Repeal the Trade Union Act 2016 and introduce “sectoral collective bargaining”. Give all workers the right to receive union representation and guarantee all unions access to the workplace to speak to current and recruit new members. Labour also propose the introduction of electronic balloting for industrial action and would launch a public inquiry into blacklisting.
- Reform TUPE to protect worker’s rights
- Introduce a “right to own” policy that will make employees the “buyer of first refusal when the company they work for is up for sale”.
- Abolish unpaid internships.
- Reinstate liability on employers for third party harassment.
