General Election 2015

 

 

A Critical Review of the Alternative Policies

Employment Law

With the general election rapidly approaching on 7 May 2015 we have produced this paper to summarise the key policy statements and pledges relating to employment law that have been made by the main national political parties in their respective manifestos.

The choice presented to us by the tabloids seems to be to vote for someone who eats a bacon sandwich like Homer Simpson or someone who approaches a hot dog as he might a roasted pheasant – with a knife and fork. Do you vote for someone who looks like Gromet (Wallace’s friend) or someone with a big red spoon-face. That’s not to forget the minority parties consisting of ‘the most dangerous woman in Britain’, a ‘bug-eyed loon’ and ‘the other bloke’. Strangely for us, we’re refusing to engage in this approach, and instead, to help you with your choice we’ve summarised below the employment law implications of your vote.

This report is entitled a “Critical Review of the Alternative Policies” (reflecting the nation’s apparent cynical view of pre-election promises by political parties!!) in an effort to give an overview of what the parties are actually saying, along with an analysis of the potential challenges that each party might face in implementing some of the policies if they get into power.

Today we look at the conservative manifesto (If you would find it slightly more palatable you can watch the DCES Videocast instead):

Conservative Party

The Conservative Party’s main aim (as referred to in its manifesto) is to achieve full employment in Britain, by backing “British businesses: cutting red tape, lowering taxes on jobs and enterprise, getting young people into work, boosting apprenticeships”. It’s true to say that as far as employment law is concerned, the current Government has made a number of significant changes during its period in office and the pace is unlikely to slow down if the Conservatives win a majority in May. Its key policies in relation to employment law are set out below:

National Minimum Wage and Living Wage

The Conservative Party has said that it wants to support ongoing increases to the National Minimum Wage in the next Parliament by:

• Accepting the recommendations of the Low Pay Commission to increase the National Minimum Wage from £6.50 at the moment to £6.70 this autumn with the goal of an ongoing increase to over £8 an hour by the end of the decade.
• Increasing the tax-free personal allowance to £12,500 so anyone earning less than £12,500 will not pay income tax, so that by the end of 2020, “people who work for 30 hours a week on the increased National Minimum Wage will no longer pay any Income Tax at all”. The Conservative Party has also pledged to pass a new law in the first Budget after the general election so that the personal allowance automatically rises in line with the National Minimum Wage.
• Taking tougher action on employers who do not pay the National Minimum Wage by allowing inspection teams to reinvest more of the money raised by fines levied on employers

The Conservative Party has also confirmed that it supports the Living Wage and will encourage businesses to pay it, if they can afford it. Rather embarrassingly, during a Radio 1 interview on 22 April 2015, David Cameron was not able to remember what the Living Wage was, stating “It’s different in different parts of the country … I don’t have the figures in my head.” At the moment, it is currently £9.15 per hour in London and £7.85 an hour in the rest of the country.

Zero Hours Contracts

The Conservative Party’s manifesto states that it will “eradicate exclusivity in zero hours contracts”. You will probably have found it hard to miss the significant amount of media coverage concerning zero hours contracts and their apparent abuse by some employers, both during the election campaign and beforehand.

For those of you who might be unclear about what zero hours contracts are; although there is no strict legal definition, they are generally considered to be contracts that allow employers to employ workers with no guarantee of work, so that they work only when they are needed and their pay depends on how many hours they work.

The Conservative Party has focussed its attention on banning “exclusivity clauses” in zero hours contracts. Exclusivity clauses are seen as an attempt to prevent workers from working for another employer or from doing so without their employer’s consent. If banned, this would mean that a zero hours worker could work for another employer if they wanted to and the original employer could not prevent this from happening.

Trade Unions and Industrial Action

The Conservative Party manifesto states that it will introduce the following reforms:

• A tougher threshold for strike action in the health, transport, fire and education sectors, which would require a minimum turnout of 40% of all those entitled to take part in strike ballots, in addition to a majority vote by all those who turn out to vote.
• Ensuring strike action cannot be called “on the basis of ballots conducted years before.” Previously, a three-month time limit had been suggested but this is not mentioned in the manifesto.
• Repealing the ban on employers from using agency workers to cover striking employees.
• Tackling the intimidation of non-striking workers.
• Introducing legislation to ensure a transparent opt-in for union subscriptions by trade unions.
• Tightening the rules around “facility time” (paid time off) for union representatives.

The proposals to tackle what the Conservative Party calls “disruptive and undemocratic strike action” is arguably controversial given that the rules surrounding industrial action are already complex, highly regulated and often heavily litigated. The unions are likely to put up a strong challenge to these proposals should the Conservatives gain power.

Paid Volunteering Leave

Another Conservative Party headline grabber was David Cameron’s announcement that the Conservatives will make volunteering for three days a year a workplace entitlement for people working in large companies (employers with at least 250 employees) and the public sector. It is estimated that this entitlement would be available to 15 million employees which would create up to an extra 360 million volunteering hours each year.

Apprenticeships

The Conservatives have pledged to create an extra three million apprenticeships over the next five years if they win the election. On 9 April 2015, David Cameron announced 16,000 new apprenticeships to be trained over the next five years as part of a deal agreed with leading employers.

Equality

The Conservative Party manifesto states that the jobless rate for disabled people is too high, despite 140,000 disabled people finding work last year. As such, the Conservatives will aim to halve the disability employment gap by transforming policy, practice and public attitudes, although the manifesto itself does not provide any detail about how they will do this in practice.

The Conservatives also want to see “full, genuine gender equality” and will aim to promote this equality by requiring companies with more than 250 employees to publish the difference between the average pay of their male and female employees.

Fitness to Work

The Conservatives have pledged to help people with long-term yet treatable conditions, such as obesity or drug or alcohol addictions, back into work by ensuring they receive the right medical treatment. The manifesto goes on to say that if they refuse a recommended treatment, their benefits may be reduced. The Conservatives will also provide significant new support to people with mental health problems who claim out-of-work benefits or are being supported by Fit for Work.

Public Sector Termination Payments

The Conservative Party has pledged to “end taxpayer-funded six-figure payoffs for the best paid public sector workers”. Although the manifesto does not go into any further detail, the Conservatives have previously said that it will introduce new legislation to cap public sector enhanced redundancy payments to £95,000.

If the Conservatives win the election, they are also expected to introduce a law which will require the repayment of public sector exit payments in certain circumstances, for example where a former public sector employee is re-employed in the public sector within one year of their exit.

Tomorrow we consider the Labour party pledges.