General Election: Party Manifesto Updates
Alan Kitto
Within the last few days, the major UK political parties have all published manifestos outlining their proposed changes to employment legislation.
Labour published its Plan to Make Work Pay at the end of May, which included promises to:
Ensure the National Minimum Wage becomes a genuine living wage, and remove the age bands so all adult workers benefit equally.
Ban exploitative zero-hour worker contracts, although their manifesto doesn’t state that all zero-hour contracts will be banned, suggesting that those that are non-exploitative will be allowed.
Abolish the practice of ‘fire and re-hire’
Strengthen the role of trade unions within the workplace and the access they have to businesses for member recruitment
Pay statutory sick pay from day one of each period of sickness absence
Remove the two-year window for unfair dismissal claims although mention is made that dismissals within probationary periods will have special status.
Extend the period within which employment tribunal claims can be made to six months from three months.
Introduce a right to switch off from work to improve work-life balance
Labour’s manifesto mentions too, promises to:
Allow employees to have a contract that reflects the hours they regularly work, based on a twelve-week reference period
Insist employers with more than 250 employees to have a menopause action plan
Make collective redundancy consultation dependent on the number of redundancies across a business within a given period, as opposed to at a particular location
Make flexible working a default right for employees, unless there is a good business reason to refuse such requests
Conservatives have promised to:
Change the fit-note system so that fit-notes are no longer issued by GPs but by other healthcare professionals, likely with an occupational health background
Cut employee National Insurance to 6% from 2027
Liberal Democrats have promised to:
Increase the National Minimum Wage by 20% for those on zero-hour contracts
Pay statutory sick pay from day one of each period of sickness absence
Change the burden of proof in employment status claims, meaning employers will have to disprove rather than workers prove their status
Double Statutory Maternity Pay and Statutory Paternity Pay to be £350 per week
Introduce a ‘use it or lose it’ month for fathers and partners, paid at 90% of salary
Introduce specialist disability employment support, simplify the Access to Work scheme and introduce Adjustment Passports for those needing adjustments.
Require large employers to publish data on gender, ethnicity, disability, and LGBT+ employment levels, pay gaps and progression and publish five-year aspirational diversity targets