A slew of new workers’ rights and employment policies were announced at this week’s Labour Party conference, from a new ‘genuine living wage’ based on the cost of living, to a single status of worker. Here we outline 10 Labour employment pledges.
1. Genuine living wage
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves and shadow deputy prime minister Angela Rayner announced plans to change the Low Pay Commission’s remit to ensure that the national minimum wage takes into account the real cost of living. Currently, the national minimum wage and national living wage are uprated each year based on inflation, and the national living wage for workers aged 23 and over is set to reach 66% of median earnings by 2024.
2. Implement a single status of worker and extend workers’ rights
Labour employment pledges
Labour Party equality reforms would ‘transform’ workers’ rights
Under its New Deal for Working People, a Labour government would create a single ‘worker’ status within its first term and attempt to end “bogus” self-employment that unscrupulous employers sometimes use to circumvent workers’ rights. It will also increase statutory sick pay, currently £109.40 per week for up to 28 weeks, and extend this to self-employed people.
3. Stronger enforcement
To help ensure workers’ rights are upheld, Labour has pledged to introduce a single enforcement body – something that was recommended in the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices in 2017 – and to implement strong sanctions for employers that break the rules.
4. Tackle inequality and pay gaps
Shadow women and equalities minister Anneliese Dodds announced a landmark Race Equality Act that she said would “break down barriers to opportunity and root out inequality wherever we see it”. Labour would also bring forth mandatory disability pay gap reporting and protect the right to equal pay by enshrining the ‘single source test’ in UK law.
Reeves said former TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady has been asked to examine how a Labour government could “go further and faster” to end the gender pay gap.
5. Bolster the role of trade unions
Rayner said a Labour government would boost collective bargaining to improve workers’ pay, terms and conditions. It would do this via the rollout of sectorial collective bargaining across the economy, simplify the processes for union recognition and ensure trade unions have reasonable access to workplaces.
6. Repeal the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 and Trade Union Act 2016
The party said it would repeal the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023, which requires employers in certain essential sectors to operate a minimum service level during industrial action and has been widely opposed by trade unions.
It has also pledged to repeal the Trade Union Act 2016, which introduced longer notice periods for industrial action, higher ballot thresholds for public services and a six-month expiry deadline for ballot mandates.
7. Encourage NHS staff to work paid overtime
In order to tackle growing NHS waiting lists, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer proposed a plan to boost capacity by getting the NHS “working round the clock”. He suggested that staff would be paid properly to work overtime in order to facilitate more appointments and treatments.
8. Ban ‘fire and rehire’
A Labour government would ban the practice of “firing and rehiring” workers on contracts with less favourable terms and conditions, Rayner said.
9. Sector-based jobs plans
Shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said a sector deal for the automotive industry would create 80,000 jobs. It would be the first of several sector-based plans under a Labour government.
10. Protect frontline workers
Conference delegates backed a motion put forward by retail workers’ union Usdaw that seeks to ensure that the importance of retail sector job security is reflected in Labour’s industrial strategy and that legal protections for frontline workers are delivered as soon as possible.
Jane Jones, Usdaw president, told delegates: “I am proud to be a retail worker. There are three million of us, working hard every day and serving our communities, while doing our best to make ends meet. We do essential work, in tough conditions, but too often our jobs are treated as disposable; by employers, administrators, and the government.”
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