The lead up to the 2024 General Election was bleak for the world of work. Vacancies were high, an economy plagued by skills gaps meant employers were struggling to fill them, yet unemployment was scaling above forecasts. With the Conservative threat of National Service to kick-start early careers and a re-write of the Equality Act behind us, what can we expect from our newly formed Labour government? In this post, I’ll unpick some of the promises made pre-election and look at where we will be holding Keir Starmer’s cabinet to account over the next 5 years.
The 100 day promise
In a first step toward modernising the world of work, Labour have vowed to introduce new legislation in Parliament with 100 days of entering government. This means they have no time to waste. Keir Starmer has already delayed the Summer recess, meaning MPs will have an extended period before their August break.
Under Labour’s Plan to Make Work Pay, the party promised to:
- deliver a genuine living wage through changes to the National Minimum Wage, including the removal of existing age bands.
- make work secure through technological advancements and improvements to flexible working for all.
- support working people by updating trade union legislation and promoting cooperation between between employers, trade unions and government.
- banning exploitative zero hour contracts to ensure all workers have a ‘baseline level of security and predictability’ and a contract that reflects the hours they work.
- end ‘fire and rehire’ and ‘fire and replace’ abuses, preventing employers from being able to make employees redundant and bring them back in on lesser terms and conditions.
Whilst Labour’s 411 majority will make it a whole lot easier to pass new legislation, they have also vowed to fully consult with businesses and workers on the proposed legislation changes.
There is no mandatory action for employers at this stage, but it can help to be prepared or even ahead of the changes. We are likely to hear more during the King’s Speech on 17th July. This is when King Charles will set out the new government’s legislative programme and priorities.
Until then, let’s take a closer look at what some of Labour’s manifesto commitments might mean for you…
If you work (or want to) in the public sector
Over the next 5 years, Labour have promised some significant increases to public sector jobs, with the following recruitment figures mentioned in their manifesto:
- Recruit 6,500 more teachers
- Recruit 8,500 more mental health staff for the NHS
- Recruit 13,000 more police and community support officers
It doesn’t take much sifting around to evidence the need for all of the above, but it’s also clear that this is more than just a numbers game. With existing teachers feeling limited by the lack of hybrid options against a backdrop of challenging behaviour and stalled pay growth, the retention crisis facing the teaching profession is equally as challenging as being able to attract new talent. The same goes for police and NHS professions, where public sector pay and community facing roles have faced some of the greatest retention challenges in the post-pandemic era.
Furthermore, Labour have shared plans for a New Deal for Social Care Workers, in recognition of the recruitment and retention crisis facing adult social care. The priority will be improving working conditions for social workers and designing a Fair Pay Agreement, as well as greater opportunities for training and progression. It’s likely we will see some outputs here that can be replicated in other industries, so it will be one I’ll be watching closely.
If your employment status is uncertain
This is huge. In the UK, workers are on a plethora of contracts. I’ve already mentioned Labour’s commitment to eradicate exploitative zero hours contracts. These are casual arrangements under the ‘worker’ category, where workers are ‘on-call’ and not guaranteed working hours.
More broadly than this, Labour want to address the UK’s current three-tier system of employment status. Within this, an individual’s categorisation of either ’employee’, ‘worker’ or ‘self-employed’ determines the rights and protections they are entitled to at work. There are many benefits to this system, and I’ve enjoyed working with employers and workers to maximise these. However, it has also created opportunities for exploitation, it’s confusing for workers and employers alike, and needs to change.
The UK government are due to consult on a proposed two-part framework for employment status. If this works, it has the potential to create new opportunities for greater economic security, fairer employment, and improved workplace cultures.
If you’re balancing work and family
As someone who has supported businesses to improve their family friendly policies and as a working parent myself, it was reassuring to see Labour’s commitment to improving family friendly rights in their manifesto. Proposed changes include ensuring the right to parental leave from day one of employment, strengthening protections for new parents.
We can expect to see a review of parental leave within Labour’s first year in government. It would be great to see Labour take an intersectional approach to this review, considering steps to remove barriers to work for single parents and parents with disabilities. In addition, the government will consider introducing paid carers’ leave, balancing the needs of employers and those who are balancing work and care needs.
Longer term, we’re likely to see an increase in flexi-time and contracts that genuinely accommodate the flexible needs of family and work life. This might mean more term-time working where feasible, for example. It’s important to consider that, where rights and the default baseline around flexibility might change, there will still need to be considerations to individual business needs. We may start to see some significant differences across industries, even if just in the short term.
While we are on the topic of balancing work and family, let’s not ignore the significance of Rachel Reeves’ appointment. It’s only taken 800 years for a woman to take on the role of chancellor of the exchequer. As frustrating as that is, I’m genuinely excited for what’s next. Rachel Reeves has already said it’s her duty to drive progress for women, to close the gender pay gap, and deliver an economic policy focused on equality for women. I’ll certainly be watching.
If you want to be paid equitably
This one is particularly close to my heart. The new Labour government have committed to close the gender pay gap (employers however need not wait!). Beyond this, they will mandate ethnicity and disability pay gaps for employers with 250+ employees. This is worth repeating: the UK government will mandate ethnicity and disability pay gaps. This is so long overdue and I’m so for it.
It may soon be mandatory for larger companies to report on gender, ethnicity and disability pay gaps, but the benefit of doing so extends to small and medium size businesses. It’s a simple process that enables employers to identify and address barriers to pay equity, unlocking talent and building brand reputation in the process. Get in touch if you want to talk through how this might work for your business.
If you’re a woman in mid-life
Menopause. Action. Plans. This is another one that will become mandatory for larger employers of 250+ employees. Two-thirds of women with menopausal symptoms have said their working life has been negatively affected by the menopause, with 1 in 10 menopausal women leaving the workforce altogether. Only 10% of employers have formal support in place for women experiencing menopause. To tackle this, Labour will ensure employers produce Menopause Action Plans to support women at work who are dealing with symptoms of the menopause.
There is something that’s really important here, so I will call it out early: this is not a tick-box exercise. I still see employers, of all industries and sizes, carrying out reasonable adjustment assessments with a complete lack of awareness and commitment. When done badly, support processes can hinder rather than help. Training, support, and engagement are so important. Providing any kind of adjustments at work, whether it be part of a reasonable adjustments plan, wellness action plan, menopause action plan or otherwise, need to be person-centred and business-considered.
If you want fairer rights at work
It doesn’t matter which side you sit, but UK employee relations has long needed an overhaul. Since long before I started my career in HR, I’m sure. I’ve seen too many examples of poor relations between employers, employees and trade unions. I’ve never believed it has to be this way. So, with open arms and baited breath, I welcome the following from Labour, as I think they will benefit everyone:
- granting basic employment rights from day one, driving up workplace standards, including protection against unfair dismissal and the right to sick pay.
- introducing the ‘right to switch off’ after working hours.
- establishing a Single Enforcement Body, with trade union and TUC representation, to enforce workers’ rights and take action against workplace exploitation.
- digitising aspects of the employment tribunal process, making changes to timeframes, and developing the overall standard to ease the burden on civil courts and benefit all parties.
- strengthening redundancy and TUPE rights.
- banning unpaid internships.
- ensuring hospitality workers receive their tips in full.
- enabling employees to raise collective grievances to ACAS.
If you’re an employer, read on for what this means for you.
If you’re an employer
Depending on your industry, all of the above may have an impact on how you manage your business over the coming months and years. This is likely to impact budgets, policies and in the longer term, culture. Where changes aren’t imminent, being prepared can help.
For small businesses without existing HR expertise, this is a good time to start thinking about how you will ensure compliance with evolving employment legislation and best practice. This might include developing or recruiting internal expertise, or building external partnerships that suit your ways of working and future growth plans. For businesses with internal HR expertise, it’s important to recognise the key role these individuals will play in stretching across external partnerships and business planning as the HR profession continues to both influence and respond to these ambitious reforms.
What I’m saying is, good HR people are really important right now.
The longer term plan
Sustainable change doesn’t happen overnight (or even in 100 nights), so the plan does stretch beyond immediate legislation proposals. Labour want to bring in new long-term partnerships with businesses and trade unions. They will also examine existing outsourced public sector services as part of a huge drive to insource public services. Any future outsourcing will come with a social value mandate, which means providers will need to evidence areas such as fair pay, trade union access, and local job creation. The aim here is to both show lessons learned from past mistakes and clean up from some of the public sector outsourcing favoured by the previous Conservative government.
As someone who has worked across private, public and non-profit sectors, including within Education and Employability, I see the need for every one of these changes and I am looking forward to seeing the positive impact on the UK employment. There’s no doubt I will be consulting, researching, and writing on many of these reforms, so watch this space!
Stevie Barnes is an independent HR Consultant, with 17 years experience working across industries and borders. Find out more about Stevie here. To stay up to date with future posts, follow the company page on LinkedIn – and don’t forget to share the page with anyone you think will find the content useful!