Election manifestos 2024: the ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ of employment rights

Blog posts

28 Jun 2024

Kate Alexander, Research Fellow

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High inflation and the rising price of essentials have made living costs one of the major social problems during the Sunak government, and is the top issue for voters in this election. Improving financial wellbeing will require the new government to make sure that workers are earning enough to make ends meet. While wage growth is strong and inflation is reducing, measures to tackle job insecurity, low wages and to improve employee rights and protections will be of key interest to many voters. This blog explores what party manifestos tell us about the current direction of travel around these issues by identifying which policy levers are ‘in’ and which are ‘out’ in 2024

What to expect from the new administration

Reviewing the Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green Party manifestos, Reform’s ‘contract’, and Labour’s New Deal for Working People, shows elements of consensus around employment reform, a difference in strategy between the left and the right, and some areas that are less likely to be addressed by the next UK government.

In

■    A higher minimum wage is very much in, with all parties aside from Reform pledging a minimum wage increase. The Conservatives plan to continue raising the National Living Wage (NLW) annually to equal two-thirds of the median wage, meaning an estimated rise to £13. Labour and the Liberal Democrats plan to review how the NLW is calculated to account for living costs, with Labour also removing age bandings to make the NLW universal. The Greens meanwhile would raise the NLW to £15. In addition to this, the Greens would tackle income insecurity by introducing a 10:1 pay ratio, and the Liberal Democrats would introduce a higher minimum wage for those on zero-hour contracts to offset income insecurity.

■    Ending unwanted zero hours contracts is another in policy at this election. Labour plans to ban ‘exploitative zero hours contracts’ although the jury is out on whether this means banning all zero hours contracts as they are exploitative, or banning those deemed to be exploitative. The Liberal Democrats would give workers a right to request a fixed hours contract. The Conservatives have already introduced legislation giving those on zero hours contracts a right to request a predictable contract after 26 weeks. This signals some consensus around the need to regulate zero hours contracts, but how this plays out remains to be seen.

■    Day one rights are in, at least on the left. Labour, the Liberal Democrats, and the Greens plan to end qualifying periods to access rights including sick pay, parental leave and protection from unfair dismissal. The Greens would extend this to gig and agency workers.

■    Enforcement of workers rights are also in on the left, with Labour, the Liberal Democrats and Greens promising to improve compliance with workers’ rights through better enforcement mechanisms. The introduction of a Single Enforcement Body is the chic enforcement policy of this election, with all three of these parties planning to incorporate the three separate bodies responsible for enforcing minimum wage law, anti-slavery law and protection for agency workers and other workers vulnerable to illegal employment practices, into one new agency. The Greens and the Liberal Democrats also touch on improving individual mechanisms to challenge employers through the courts, through moving the burden of proof from workers to employers (Liberal Democrats) or abolishing tribunal fees (Greens).

■    Banning ‘fire and rehire’ is in with the Labour party, unless the business needs to make changes to contracts to avoid genuine risks.

■    Trade unions rights are in, and union reps will be back in the workplace with Labour setting out an industrial relations strategy that moves away from the repressive approach of recent Conservative governments and towards ‘good faith negotiation and bargaining’. Specifically, Labour plans to give trade unions rights to access workplaces, require employers to inform staff of their right to join a union, reduce requirements needed for union recognition, and repeal the Trade Union Act 2016 to scrap ballot turnout requirements for industrial action. These policies are echoed by the Greens who would also repeal the Trade Union Act 2016 and extend trade union rights to gig workers. These changes would improve workers’ access to collective bargaining to improve their pay and conditions and would have a major impact on employment rights.

■    Cutting taxes to raise incomes is in on the right. A key offer to workers from the Conservatives and Reform is cutting taxes to raise incomes. The Conservatives pledge to cut National Insurance and self-employment tax, and Reform would support low-income workers by lifting the income tax threshold to £20,000. 

Out

■    Reclassifying the status of gig economy workers as a priority seems to be out. Gig work and other forms of irregular employment are currently hard to classify, and the existing system makes it difficult for workers and employers to understand how individuals should be classified. It looks less likely that the issue of single worker status will be resolved in the next parliament. Despite being a major recommendation of the Taylor review and part of the 2018 Good Work Charter, the Conservatives do not mention gig worker classification in their manifesto. Labour has also rolled back on previous plans to introduce a single worker status for all but the genuinely self-employed and acknowledged the need for further consultations and more detailed policy design. It is unclear where this will leave improvements in legal protections for gig workers in the meantime.

■    Shorter working weeks are only mentioned by the Green party who say they will move towards a four-day working week. This indicates that despite a push to bring the policy into the public eye the four-day week remains out for most political parties.

Reviewing the manifestos reveals a clear space between parties on the left and right in terms of their proposals for improving financial wellbeing for workers. Both the Conservative manifesto and Reform’s ‘Contract’ focus on tax changes over alterations to employment law. Change in the realm of employment law is coming from the left, with the Labour party laying out plans to explicitly tackle insecure and low paid work by introducing a New Deal for Working People within the first 100 days of government, and the Liberal Democrats and the Greens dedicating sections of their manifesto to fair work.

As far as there is consensus among all parties this is around improving regulations, with little push for deregulation of employment policy. In part this is due to the relative silence on employment rights in the Conservative and Reform manifestos, but this in itself likely reflects the public mood on these issues. With Labour predicted to win a majority next week we can expect reforms to employment rights to be on trend this autumn, and the government may well be pushing at an open door. 

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