General Election 2015
A Critical Review of the Alternative Policies
Employment Law
With the general election upon us, we continue our look in detail at the main national political parties in their respective manifestos. Today in the final part of our Critical Review of the Alternative Policies we analyse the Liberal Democrat, UKIP and the Green Party manifestos (If you would find it slightly more palatable you can watch the DCES Videocast instead):
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats have stated in their manifesto that they want to see “more jobs in our economy, with steadily higher wages and better employment rights”.
The Liberal Democrats’ policies in relation to employment law are set out below:
Employment Tribunal Reform
The Liberal Democrats made a very brief reference in the manifesto pledging to review “employment tribunal fees to ensure they are not a barrier”. This pledge was clarified further in April when Jo Swinson MP, the Employment and Equalities Minister said that the Liberal Democrats would “review the level of tribunal fees to ensure that they do not prohibit people from making bona fide claims”.
It would appear that the Liberal Democrats would probably consider reducing the employment tribunal fees, as opposed to banning them entirely, although (as with the Labour Party) the precise nature of what the possible changes could be remains unclear for now.
National Minimum Wage and the Living Wage
The Liberal Democrats have pledged to ask the Low Pay Commission to consider ways of increasing the National Minimum Wage (without damaging employment opportunities) although they do not appear to have committed to a particular level of the National Minimum Wages in the manifesto itself.
The Liberal Democrats have also committed to improve enforcement action against employers who avoid paying the National Minimum Wage by incorrectly classifying employees as workers or self-employed.
As far as the Living Wage is concerned, the Liberal Democrats have said that they will undertake an independent review to consult on setting a “fair” Living Wage across all sectors. In addition the Liberal Democrats have pledged to pay this Living Wage in all central government departments from April 2016 onwards and encourage other public sector employers to do the same.
Zero Hours Contracts
The Liberal Democrat manifesto says that they “understand that flexible employment contracts – including Zero Hours contracts – can work well for employees and businesses”. However, the Liberal Democrats have committed to stamp out the abuse of flexible employment contracts, by creating a formal right to request a fixed contract, as well as consulting on introducing a right to make regular patterns of work contractual after a period of time.
Work and Families
The Liberal Democrat manifesto states that they want to encourage employers to provide more flexible working. In particular, the Liberal Democrats have pledged to expand the recently introduced shared parental leave regime by offering an additional month of paternity leave to fathers on a “use it or lose it” basis (i.e. the additional paternity leave would not be able to be transferred to the mother if it was not used by the father).
In addition, the Liberal Democrats would make paternity and shared parental leave rights available to employees from the first day of their employment, instead of the current requirement for employees to have a minimum period of employment before being eligible.
Equality
The Liberal Democrats have pledged to enact the remaining provisions in the Equality Act 2010 which are not in force at the moment. In addition, the Liberal Democrats will require companies with more than 250 employees to publish details of the average pay of their male and female workers and require employers to publish the number of people being paid less than the Living Wage and the ratio between top and median pay.
The Liberal Democrats have also pledged to create more diversity in business leadership, by encouraging a move towards woman making up 30% of board members and at least one board members being a black, Asian or minority ethnic person. There is also a commitment to encouraging employers to shortlist any qualified disabled candidate and providing advice on adaptations to the workplace in order to help a greater number of disabled people to work.
Other Employment Law Reforms
The Liberal Democrats have also set out plans to:
- Support a major expansion of high quality and advanced apprenticeships by doubling the number of businesses that hire apprentices.
- Create a new Workers’ Rights Agency to streamline the work of the national minimum wage enforcement section of HMRC, the Working Time Directive section of the Health and Safety Executive, the Employment Agency Standards inspectorate and the Gangmasters Licensing authority.
- Double the number of employer inspections to ensure statutory employment legislation is being complied with in relation to migrant workers.
- Protect the rights of trade union members to have their subscriptions deducted from their salary automatically and to encourage wider participation in trade union ballots through electronic voting.
UK Independence Party
The UK Independence Party (UKIP) published its manifesto on 15 April 2015. The introduction to the employment section of the manifesto states: “Being in the European Union is damaging the prospects for British workers.
Uncontrolled mass immigration has driven down wages and for many jobs, the minimum wage is now the maximum wage. Meanwhile, fewer new jobs are being created because of excess EU regulations. British workers will fare much better when we are out of the EU.”
The principle aim of UKIP, as expressed in the introduction of their manifesto is “for a Britain released from the shackles of the interfering EU”.
UKIP’s policies in relation to employment law are set out below:
Zero Hours Contracts
The manifesto says “UKIP recognises that zero hours contracts suit many people, we will not ban them”. However, UKIP has pledged to introduce a legally binding Code of Conduct with 4 key provisions:
- Businesses who employ 50 people or more must give workers on zero hours contracts a full or part-time contract after one year, if they request it.
- A ban on exclusivity clauses in zero hours contracts.
- Workers must be given at least 12 hours advance notice of work. Once this notice has been given, they must be paid for the work, regardless of whether they are given any work. Employers will not be able to turn away a worker who is expected to turn up for work, if no work is available.
- UKIP will not allow the NHS or third parties to employ home care workers on zero hours contracts. It will ensure these workers receive the national minimum wage, by being paid for the entire time they are on duty and not being expected to travel in their own time.
National Minimum Wage
UKIP have pledged to raise the personal tax-free allowance to £13,000 which will mean people on the National Minimum Wage will not pay any income tax. In addition, UKIP will reverse the cuts in the number of National Minimum Wage enforcement inspectors.
Europe
UKIP’s policy is to leave the European Union and restrict immigration in a number of ways, including allowing British businesses to choose to employ British citizens first ending the availability of EU relocation grants for migrants to come and work in Britain.
UKIP have also stated that it will remove Britain from the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights and repeal the Human Rights Act 1998.
Agency Workers
The UKIP manifesto states that agency workers have been penalised due to the increased use of zero hours contracts by employers as a way of escaping the requirements of the EU’s Temporary Agency Workers Directive which gives agency workers the same workplace rights as employees Under UKIP’s proposals, the Temporary Agency Workers Directive would no longer apply to agency workers as the UK would no longer by subject to European laws as a result of leaving the EU.
Green Party
The Green Party released their manifesto on 14 April 2015.
Its key employment policies are:
Zero Hours Contracts
The Green Party states it will end exploitative zero hours contracts but the manifesto does not provide any further details about how this will be undertaken.
National Minimum Wage
The Green Party will “make the national minimum wage a living wage for all” by increasing the National Minimum Wage to £10 per hour by 2020 and an increase to £8.10 an hour and £9.40 in London in 2015.
Working Time
The Green Party has pledged to phase in a 35 hour week in an effort to “combat unemployment by sharing available work out more equitably”.
Equality
The Green Party has pledged to make equal pay for men and women a reality and to introduce a maximum pay ratio of 10:1 between the highest paid and lowest paid in every organisation.
Employment Tribunal Reform
The Green Party has pledged to reduce employment tribunal fees so that tribunals are accessible to workers.
Trade Unions
The Green Party has stated that it will revive the role of democratic trade unions, including the right to belong to a union and employer recognition of this, and the right to take industrial action, including strikes and peaceful picketing.
Workers’ Rights
Workers will be given a greater say in the running of companies by including employee-elected directors in medium and large companies.
Having completed our analyses of the manifestos, all that is left is for us to wish you good luck in the polling station and we look forward to seeing what the governing party actually does in reality (or should that be ‘parties’?)…
Read more about the General election 2015: implications for employment law here.
