General Election: employment law plans

Graham Richardson looks at the key proposed changes to employment law that the different major political parties have indicated in their election manifestos that they would intend to introduce were they to be in government following the general election.

As everyone should know by now, the general election of 7 May 2015 is nearly upon us. The Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties have all published their manifestos indicating the changes to employment law that they would intend to make should they be in power after the general election. The proposed policies are, in a number of cases, quite wide-ranging and demonstrate the different priorities of the major political parties.

A significant number of employment law changes have been proposed, some more fully fleshed out than others, and it is not practical in an article of this type to address them all in detail. However, we will list in bullet point form some of the key proposals that have been made in this area by the three major parties which may be relevant to local authorities and other public bodies, and will then go on to consider a few of these in more detail.

Proposed changes

Conservative Party

• Tightening up the rules on strike action;
• Scrapping the Human Rights Act and introducing a British Bill of Rights;
• Ending the use of exclusive zero hours contracts;
• Ending “taxpayer-funded six-figure payoffs” for the best paid public sector workers;
• Legislating to ensure that every public sector worker operating in a customer-facing role must speak fluent English;
• Making volunteering for three days a year a workplace entitlement for people working in the public sector and large companies;
• Accepting the recommendations of the Low Pay Commission that the National Minimum Wage should rise to £6.70 an hour this autumn, on course for a Minimum Wage over £8 by the end of the decade;
• Raising the tax free Personal Allowance “so that those working 30 hours on the Minimum Wage pay no Income Tax at all”;
• Giving families where all parents are working an entitlement to 30 hours per week of free childcare for 3 and 4 year olds;
• Taking steps to seek to get those suffering from long term but treatable conditions back to work;
• Creating 3 million new apprenticeships by 2020.

Labour Party

• Increasing the National Minimum Wage to more than £8 an hour by October 2019, with local authorities to be given a role in strengthening enforcement;
• Using procurement to promote the Living Wage;
• Abolishing the Government’s employment tribunal fees system;
• Increasing free childcare for working parents with 3 and 4 year olds to 25 hours a week;
• Doubling the amount of paid paternity leave from two to four weeks and increasing statutory paternity pay;
• Restricting the use of zero hours contracts;
• “Cracking down” on “rogue” recruitment agencies;
• Making it a criminal offence to undercut wages by exploiting migrant workers;
• Reviewing the rules on TUPE;
• Guaranteeing a paid job for all young people who have been out of work for a year and for all those over 25 and out of work for two years, requiring them to take the job or lose benefits;
• Guaranteeing apprenticeships for 18 year olds with the correct grades and requiring every firm that wins a large Government contract to provide apprenticeships.

Liberal Democrats

• Moving to “name blank recruitment” wherever possible in the public sector;
• Enacting the remaining unimplemented clauses of the Equality Act 2010;
• Reviewing Employment Tribunal fees to ensure that they are not a barrier;
• Stamping out abuse of zero hours contracts - creating a formal right to request a fixed contract and consulting on introducing a right to make regular patterns of work contractual after a period of time;
• Expansion of high quality and advanced apprenticeships, offering vocational education on a par with academic qualifications wherever possible;
• Establishing an independent review to consult on setting a “fair” Living Wage. Ensuring that the Living Wage is paid by all central government departments and their agencies from April 2016, and encouraging other public sector employers to do likewise;
•  Improving enforcement action in relation to the National Minimum Wage and instructing the Low Pay Commission to consider ways of increasing the National Minimum Wage;
• Expanding Shared Parental Leave with an additional “use it or lose it” month to encourage fathers to take time off with young children;
• Expanding free childcare for various categories of working parents;
• Consulting on introducing 5 days’ paid additional “care leave” a year for carers who qualify for the Carer’s Allowance;
• Introducing mandatory arbitration for strikes likely to cause widespread public disruption, enabling Government to defend workers’ right to strike while ensuring continued service in essential public services;
• Doubling the numbers of inspections on employers to check for compliance with employment legislation.

Some key proposals in more detail

The Conservative Party proposes to introduce a requirement that at least 50% of eligible trade union members must vote in order for strike action to be lawful, and in the case of the education, health, transport and fire services, there would be a further requirement that at least 40% of those eligible to vote supported the strike. The Conservatives also propose to introduce a time limit after a ballot for the strike action to take place (their manifesto does not state what that time limit would be, but previous indications had suggested 3 months). The Conservatives have stated that they would tackle intimidation of non-striking workers, and they have also pledged to lift the ban on using agency workers to cover striking employees. The manifesto also says that they would also legislate to ensure unions use a transparent opt-in process for union subscriptions, would tighten the rules on taxpayer-funded “facility time” and would reform the role of Certification Officer.

The Conservatives’ original proposals to change the rules on strike action were met with strong opposition from the unions, with the Unison general secretary claiming that the proposed measures would make it “virtually impossible for anyone in the public sector to go on strike”. Certainly they are significant proposals which would restrict the ability of the unions to organise strike action.

The Conservatives state that they would end taxpayer-funded six-figure payoffs for the best paid public sector workers. The manifesto does not go into further detail on this, but previous indications suggested that they intended to set a cap for public sector redundancy payoffs at £95,000, although public sector employees earning less than £27,000 a year would be exempt from the cap. This proposal appears to be designed to avoid the substantial “golden goodbyes” of public sector staff which have previously attracted adverse media coverage in some cases. 

The Conservatives have pledged to review how best to support those suffering from long-term yet treatable conditions (such as drug or alcohol addiction, or obesity) back into work. In addition to noting that those who might benefit from treatment should get the medical help they need, they state that if such a person refuses a recommended treatment, they would review whether that person’s benefits should be reduced.

The Labour Party have published a Workplace Manifesto (entitled “A Better Plan for Britain’s Workplaces”) as well as the main Labour Party Manifesto – their Workplace Manifesto goes into more detail on a number of their proposed workplace reforms. This article covers reforms proposed by the Labour Party in either manifesto.  

Labour have said that they would “ensure proper access to justice in the workplace by abolishing the Government’s employment tribunal fee system, as part of reforms to create a system that is quicker for employers and employees, and cheaper for the taxpayer.” While on the face of it this might be taken to suggest that Labour would abolish Employment Tribunal fees altogether, this is not expressly stated – what is made clear is that they would abolish the Government’s fee system, but they do not make clear what, if anything, they would implement in its place. They say that they would ask ACAS to oversee a process led by the CBI and the TUC to agree reforms to the system. Exactly what those reforms would be remains to be seen, should Labour be elected. 

Labour have also said they would seek to remove barriers for parents returning to work by providing working parents with 25 hours of free childcare for 3 and 4 year olds, and would ensure that primary schools guarantee access to wraparound childcare from 8am to 6pm.

The Labour Party have indicated that, if elected, they would double the amount of paid paternity leave from 2 to 4 weeks and increase statutory paternity pay to the equivalent of a full week’s work paid at the rate of the National Minimum Wage.

Labour have also proposed a number of changes to the law on zero hours contracts. If elected they have indicated that they would ensure that zero hours workers who work “regular hours” would be entitled to a “regular contract”. Labour’s Workplace Manifesto refers to regular hours being “measured over the first 12 weeks of employment”, while the main Labour Party Manifesto says “Those who work regular hours for more than 12 weeks will have a right to a regular contract”. They also propose that zero hours staff should be entitled to receive compensation when their shifts are cancelled at short notice, and have said that they would ban employers from being able to require zero hours staff to be available “at all hours”.

Labour have said that if they were in Government there would be “no automatic assumption that outsourcing was the right approach, instead taking a case-by-case approach based on the evidence”. They also comment that “when services are outsourced, we need to ensure accountability and fairness, and to avoid a race to the bottom on pay and conditions” and then pledge to review the rules on TUPE. It is unclear at this stage what this would mean for local authorities outsourcing services, but it appears that this is an area which Labour would intend to review.

The Liberal Democrat Party have set out in their manifesto plans to extend the free childcare entitlement of certain working parents. They wish to start by providing 15 hours a week of free childcare to the parents of all 2 year olds, and they will then prioritise 15 hours’ free childcare for all working parents with children aged between 9 months and 2 years. They have also indicated that they are committed to the “ambitious goal” of 20 hours’ free childcare a week for all parents with children aged between 2 and 4 years, and for all working parents from the end of paid parental leave (9 months) to 2 years.

The Liberal Democrats have also proposed to move to “name blank recruitment wherever possible in the public sector”. While their manifesto does not set out further detail on what this would involve, previous indications suggested that their intention has been to introduce a ‘name-blank’ application form, in an attempt to cut discrimination. This proposal was backed by party members at the Liberal Democrat conference. The reference to moving to name blank recruitment “wherever possible” suggests that the Liberal Democrats may not envisage that this change would be introduced for recruitment to every public sector role.

What next?

Given that May’s general election is likely to be closely fought, with one possible outcome being a new coalition Government, it is difficult to predict which of these proposals are most likely to become law, but whichever Government ends up in power, it is likely that the next few years will see further significant changes to employment legislation.

Graham Richardson is a Legal Director at Bond Dickinson LLP. He can be contacted on 0191 279 9456 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..