Polling day is looming – Thursday, 12th December will allow the country to decide which political party will lead the UK through not just Brexit but the next 5-year term.
This opportunity to vote is not a celebratory contest to choose which party leader you like – but an opportunity to look closely at the policies they are proposing in their party manifestos.
For employers, all political parties are promising substantial changes within the world of work.
So what changes are looming?
The Conservative manifesto is a little light on specific detail in comparison to Labour and the Lib Dems, however the party did publish the Good Work Plan 12 months ago which set out their planned changes for employment legislation. Many of those changes are already scheduled to take effect from April 2020 and will definitely have an impact on employers in the UK. In their manifesto, the Conservatives talk about immigration rights being important and implementing a scoring system similar to the Australian system, which will impact highly on many UK business who rely on foreign workers. All three main parties are promising to introduce a crackdown on companies who abuse employment rights; the Lib Dems and Conservatives propose implementing government bodies to crackdown on employment law abuse. However, Labour are going to drive their changes and proposals through greater Trade Union controls and power.
Labour have been very specific about the changes they are proposing – they include introducing sectoral collective bargaining by unions to establish minimum rates of pay, rapidly establishing £10 as the minimum hourly rate of pay for everyone over the age of 16, a public sector pay increase of 5%, making all rest breaks paid, a ban on zero hour contracts, 4 new bank holidays (with pay), increases to both maternity pay and paternity leave entitlement and the list goes on.
A full list of employment proposals can be found on each party’s website.
Whichever way you vote on Thursday 12th December 2019, it is worth remembering that these manifesto proposals tend to amount to long term goals and aspirations presented by each party in order to get you to vote for them. Getting them through Parliament to become law is often an altogether more challenging task and therefore it’s not uncommon for some never to see the light of day.
If you are an employer and want to know how EML can support you with any of the impending changes, including the changes already scheduled to take effect from April 2020, please contact us on 01942 727200.