Labour's manifesto committed to the implement of 'Labour's Plan to Make Work Pay: Delivering a New deal for Working People' in full, introducing legislation within 100 days of coming to power. It also referred to a few new initiatives.
So what do we have to look forward to over the course of the next governmental term? There is a lot! For a detailed explanation of all the proposed measures please refer to our bulletin on the topic, but here's a quick overview:
Endling "one-sided flexibility"
- Banning 'exploitative' zero hours contracts
- Everyone to have a right to a contract reflecting the number of hours they regularly work based on a 12-week reference period.
- Ending "fire and rehire"
- Basic individual day one rights for all workers, though probationary periods "with fair and transparent rules and processes" will be allowed.
- Introducing a single status of worker.
- Self-employed individuals will have the right to a written contract.
- Strengthening redundancy rights by ensuring that the right to consultation is determined by the number of people impacted across the business rather than in the individual workplace.
- Strengthening protection for whistleblowers.
Family friendly
- Flexible working to become the default from day one for all workers, except where not reasonably feasible.
- Parental leave to become a day one right and the parental leave system to be reviewed.
- Strengthening maternity protections so it will be unlawful to dismiss a woman for six months after her return except in specific circumstances.
- Reviewing the provision of carer's leave and examining the benefits of introducing paid carers' leave.
- Introducing the right to bereavement leave for all workers.
- Bringing in the "right to switch off".
- Taking action to protect good jobs and safeguard against discrimination where AI is involved.
- Promoting best practice in safeguarding against the invasion of privacy through surveillance.
Fair pay
- Minimum wage to be a real living wage, taking into account the cost of living. Age bands to be removed.
- Single Enforcement body and HMRC will have the necessary powers to ensure that the genuine living wage is properly enforced.
- Strengthening statutory sick pay by removing the lower earnings limit to make it available to all workers and removing the waiting period.
- All hospitality workers to receive their tips in full.
- Unpaid internships to be banned.
- Introducing a New Deal for Social Care Workers and establishing a new Fair Pay Agreement (FPA) in the adult social care sector. The FPA design will be widely consulted on and Labour will assess to what extent FPAs can be rolled out to other sectors.
Voice at work
- Repealing the Trade Union Act 2016 and the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023.
- Ensuring that workers in precarious and gig economy sectors have a right to organise through trade unions.
- Introducing a new duty on employers to inform all new employees of their right to join a union.
- Creating new rights and protections for trade union representatives.
- Updating current rules on blacklisting.
Equality
- Tackling the gender pay gap by requiring large firms to develop, publish and implement action plans to close their gender pay gaps and ensure that outsourced workers are included in gender pay gap reporting.
- Making the publication of ethnicity and disability pay gaps mandatory for employers with more than 250 staff.
- Requiring employers with more than 250 staff to produce Menopause Action Plans.
- Ensuring that workers with terminal illnesses are treated with respect and supported at work.
- Enacting the socioeconomic duty under the Equality Act 2010.
- Introducing a Race Equality Act to give Black, Asian and other ethnic minority people the right to equal pay as well as rooting out other racial inequality.
- Introducing a right to equal pay for disabled people and supporting them to work by improving employment support.
- Protecting LGBT+ and disabled people by making all existing strands of hate crime an aggravated offence.
- Modernising, simplifying and reforming existing gender recognition laws.
- Continuing to support the single-sex exceptions in the Equality Act 2010.
Rights at work and enforcement
- Putting in place a single enforcement body for workers' rights.
- Bringing employment tribunals up to date by further digitising them and increasing the time limit within which employees are able to bring a tribunal claim from three to six months.
- Enabling employees to raise collective grievances to Acas about conduct in their place of work.
- Modernising health and safety guidance and supporting worker wellbeing and long term physical and mental health.
- Strengthening the legal duty for employers to take all reasonable steps to stop sexual harassment before it starts and extending the definition to include harassment by third parties.
- Bringing about "the biggest wave of insourcing of public services in a generation".
- Introducing a new National Procurement Plan.
- Reinstating and strengthening the last Labour government's two-tier code to end unfair two-tiered workforces.
Immigration
- Reforming the points-based immigration system.
- Ensuring that employers who abuse the visa system and/or breach employment law will be barred from hiring workers from abroad.
- Strengthening the Migrant Advisory Committee and establishing a framework for joint working with skills bodies across the UK, the Industrial Strategy Council and the Department for Work and Pensions.
Supporting people into work
- Bringing Jobcentre Plus and the National Careers Service together to provide a national jobs and careers service.
- Devolving funding so that local areas can shape a joined-up work, health and skills offer for local people.
- Reforming the Work Capability Assessment.
- Establishing a youth guarantee of access to training, apprenticeship or support to find work for all 18-to-21-year-olds.
Skills and training
- Establishing a new body, Skills England to bring together business, training providers and unions with national and local government to ensure that the country has the highly trained workforce needed.
- Devolving adult skills funding to Combined Authorities, empowering local leaders to have greater control of skills development in their areas.
- Reforming the Apprenticeships Levy and creating a flexible Growth and Skills Levey, with Skills England consulting on eligible courses to ensure qualifications offer value for money.
