With the imminent election a hot topic in the news and the official manifestos published for all to view, where do each of the political parties stand on employment issues? We’ve made a note of which policies are going to have the biggest effect on employment law.
Diversity and Inclusion
- Labour
Would introduce a civil enforcement system to ensure gender pay gap reporting is compliant.
- Conservatives
Plan to extend current pay gap reporting requirements and larger employers would be obliged to publish a ‘race pay gap’ alongside a gender pay gap. Also plan to look into ways to make civil service recruitment more diverse.
- Liberal Democrats
Have vowed to bring an extra one million women into the workforce by 2025. Have also planned to extend the current pay gap reporting requirements.
Employee wellbeing
- Labour
Pledged to extend paid paternity leave to a month and increase the rate from its current level of £140.98 a week. Would consult on the introduction of statutory bereavement leave.
- Conservatives
The Party has claimed to improve the take-up of shared parental leave and help employers offer more flexible working environments. Plans to remove the requirement for employees to have suffered from a mental health condition for at least 12 months before gaining protection under the Equality Act.
- Liberal Democrats
Have pledged to make flexible working and shared parental leave ‘day one’ rights and extend paid paternity leave to a month.
Workers’ rights
- Labour
Have put forward a 20-point plan to end the ‘rigged economy’ in the workplace. This pledges to scrap employment tribunal fees, give all workers equal rights from day one and ban zero hours contracts and unpaid internships.
- Conservatives
May has claimed they will deliver the biggest expansion of workers’ rights by any Conservative government including a year’s unpaid leave to care for a relative, pension protections and a guarantee that workers’ current rights will not change throughout Brexit.
- Liberal Democrats
Plan to scrap tribunal fees and stop the abuse of zero hour contracts. They also suggest they will advocate a German-style, two-tier system on company boards to encourage greater representation of workers.
Wages
- Labour
Has promised to increase the national living wage to ‘at least’ £10 per hour by 2020. Its manifesto confirms that this will would apply to all workers aged 18 and over, unlike the current national living wage that only applies to those aged 25 and over. Pledge to end the 1% pay cap on public-sector pay and introduce an ‘excessive pay levy’ on salaries above £330,000. There would also be a maximum pay ratio in public sector organisations of 20:1.
- Conservatives
Confirmed that the national living wage will rise ‘in line with average earnings by 2022’.
- Green Party
Will also ‘make the minimum wage a living wage for all’. They aim to make it £10 an hour by 2020.
Holidays
- Labour
Plan to introduce four new public holidays with the aim to bring England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland together to mark all four national patron saints’ days.
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