Submitted by
Holly Nesbitt | on Mon, 06/24/2024 - 14:01 | In
Government Labour Government
| Current Position | Labour Changes |
| Unfair dismissal, sick pay and parental leave require qualifying service. | Remove qualifying service requirements |
| Stautuory sick pay only paid to those with a minimum level of earnings for a maximum of 28 weeks. A three day waiting period applies before SSP can be paid. | Make it available for all workers and remove the waiting period. Rate to represent fair earnings replacement. |
| Employers can use zero-hours contract. | Zero-hours contracts will be banished. |
| Employers can sack people who don’t agree to changes to their employment terms and then re-hire them on the new terms (“fire and re-hire”). | Replace the (expected to be introduced on 18 July) statutory Code of Practice on Dismissal and Re-engagement introduced by the current Government with a stronger one and change the law to prevent workers being dismissed for not agreeing to a worse contract. |
| Employees have the full set of employment rights, subject to certain qualifying periods; “casual workers” have a lot less. | Everyone will have access to the full set of employment rights. |
| Under contract law, there is no requirement for a written contract in commercial arrangements. | Give self-employed contractors the right to a written contract. |
| National Minimum and Living Wage is currently divided into different age bands. | Remove age bandings used in current system. |
Conservative Government
| Current Position | Conservative Changes |
| National Living Wage (NLW) is payable to those aged 21 and above and the current rate is £11.44 per hour. | Increase NLW to around £13 per hour by the end of the next Parliament (maximum five years). |
| Fit notes can be certified by GPs and healthcare professionals — nurses, occupational therapists, pharmacists, and physiotherapists — provided they work in a general practice or hospital setting. | Overhaul the fit note process so that people are not signed off sick by default, including a triage process for employees who are seeking a fit note and directing them down an appropriate pathway. |
| Apprenticeships are available to anyone over the age of 16. | Create 100,000 more apprenticeships in England every year by the end of the next Parliament (maximum five years). |
Liberal Democrat Government
| Current Position | Liberal Democrat Changes |
| Employment status is divided into worker and employee. | Establish a new “dependent contractor” employment status in between employment and self-employment, with entitlements to basic rights such as minimum earnings, sick pay and holiday entitlement. |
| National Minimum Wage (NMW) rates are separated into bands that relate to age or apprentice status. | Introduce a new band of NMW for care workers, at a rate of NMW + £2 per hour, scrap the separate apprentice rate, and introduce a rate for those on zero-hours contracts set at 20% higher than NMW at times of normal demand to compensate for the uncertainty of fluctuating hours of work. |
| Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) only paid to those earning over the lower earnings limit (currently £123 per week) and only after three “waiting days”. | Remove the lower earnings limit requirement and the waiting days, so that SSP is paid from the first day of absence. The rate of SSP would also be aligned with the NMW rate. |
| Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), Statutory Shared Parental Pay (ShPP) and Statutory Paternity Pay are currently paid at a rate of £184.03 per week. | Double the rate of SMP and ShPP to £350 per week. Increase paternity pay to 90% of earnings, capped for high earners. |
| Eligible employees have access to up to one week’s carer’s leave per rolling 12-month period. | Introduce paid carer’s leave. |
| Employers can use zero-hours contracts on an ongoing basis, although this will be limited by the Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Act 2023, which will give eligible workers and agency workers the right to request more predictable terms and conditions of work. This does not yet have a date for when it will come into force. | Introduce the right to request a fixed-hours contract after 12 months for “zero-hours” and agency workers, which is not to be unreasonably refused. |
| There is no right for employees to request shares in listed companies. | Give staff in listed companies with more than 250 employees a right to request shares. |
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