What WILL The Election Mean For Employment Law?

With the general election just over 2 weeks away, we have a brief look at the three main parties’ manifestos with regards to how they might impact employment law.

Conservatives 

• National Living Wage to be increased to 60% of median earnings by 2020
• Ensure people working in the ‘gig’ economy are properly protected
• Listed companies to be requirement by law to nominate a director from the workforce
• Introduce a right for employees to request information relating to the future direction of the company.

Labour

• To end zero-hours contracts
• Introduce four extra public holidays each year
• Those in the public sector, maximum pay ratios of 20:1
• Increase in minimum wage to at least £10 per hour by 2020
• A ban on unpaid internships
• Extend rights of employees to all workers
• A guaranteed right for trade unions access to workplaces
• End the public sector pay cap
• Repeal the Trade Union Act
• Enforce all workers’ rights to trade union representation at work
• Abolish employment tribunal fees
• To provide all workers equal rights from day one, whether part-time or full-time, temporary or permanent
• A presumption that a worker is an employee unless the employer can prove otherwise.

Liberal Democrats

• An additional month’s paid paternity leave
• Stamp out abuse of zero-hours contracts
• Encourage employers to promote employee ownership
• 40% of board members being women in FTSE 350 companies.

Whoever wins the general election, it is clear that employment matters will continue to be a fast-paced and evolving area of law. The legal world can be a complicated place and disputes with employees can take up valuable management time and resources. They can prove expensive to resolve, and early advice is always the key. 

More information

For more information please contact Alex Pearce in our Employment Law Team on alex.pearce@pinneytalfourd.co.uk or call 01708 229444 for advice if you have any queries on the above article.

This article was written by Alex Pearce, our Employment Law Associate at Pinney Talfourd Solicitors. The contents of this article are for the purposes of general awareness only. They do not purport to constitute legal or professional advice. Specific legal advice should be taken on each individual matter. The law may have changed since this article was published. This article is based on the law as of May 2017.