In May this year, Labour published “Labour’s Plan to Make Work Pay – Delivering a New Deal for Working People”. Their manifesto states it is their aim to implement this Plan in full.
Creating a single status of worker would be a major change in our laws and regulations and it is difficult to see how legislation could be put in place, even in draft, in 100 days. The Plan confirms that Labour intends to consult in detail so this will be a work in progress. Our current system of workers, employees and the self-employed is opaque and causes problems for both employers and workers/ employees/the self-employed, so a change to clarify the status of individuals and their rights would be welcome. The intention is to make flexible working a default right from day one for all workers “except where it is not reasonably feasible”. At the moment an employee has the day one right to apply to work flexibly, but it can be refused by employers. No criteria are given for what would make it “not reasonably feasible”, so again we assume this will be clarified in consultation.The right to switch off is something already in place in various European countries and is included to develop a better work life balance. Labour favour models already operating in Ireland or Belgium and are looking to apply something simila r to one of those in the UK. In the Plan they say they want to give workers and employers “…the opportunity to have constructive conversations and work together on bespoke workplace policies or contractual terms that benefit both parties.” As matters stand currently, most employee claims must be brought in the Employment Tribunal within 3 months of the event the claim relates to, such as a dismissal or a discriminatory act. Labour intends to increase this to 6 months, which is the time limit already applying to claims for statutory redundancy pay and equal pay claims. There are other proposals in the Plan not outlined above and please click here to read the Plan in full. What is clear is that if Labour puts into force all of the proposals in the Plan, there will be substantial changes in employment law which will take some time to implement.
The Plan included the following:-
Banning “exploitative” zero hours contracts Strengthening the current Code of Practice relating to “Fire and Rehire” Granting basic employment rights from day one of working Creating a single status of “worker” (rather than the current worker or employee) and strengthening the rights and protections for the self-employed Strengthening the rights of workers in the case of redundancy and under TUPE Expanding rights to flexible working and family friendly rights (parental, maternity, carers, bereavement) Introducing the right to “switch off” Ensure the National Minimum Wage is a real living wage Removing the lower earnings limit for Statutory Sick Pay so it covers more workers Increasing the time period within which an employee can bring a claim in the Employment Tribunal from 3 months to 6 months Making various changes to the law relating to strikes, Trade Union ballots and union recog- nition processes Labour intend to introduce new legislation within its first 100 days, but many of the above issues will need consultation between government, employers, Trade Unions, and workers. It may be that they will produce draft legislation for consultation, rather than “ready to go” changes in the law. Looking at some of the above in a bit more detail, Labour have not defined what an “exploitative” zero hours contract is, but it is clear that Labour don't intend to ban zero hours contracts. The Plan recognised that working flexibly has had benefits for both workers and employers. Granting basic employment rights from day one would include rights not to be unfairly dismissed, rights to statutory sick pay and parental leave. There is provision for probation periods to apply which would not be subject to the day one right, but no detail on how this would work.
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