General Election 2019 – Party Manifestos on Employment Law and Industrial Relations – Part 3
Author: Christopher Smith
THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATS
Welcome to Part 3 in our series of blogs summarising each political party’s pledges on matters effecting employment. Today we are looking at the Liberal Democrat’s manifesto.
Set out from page 21, The Lib Dems’ key employment pledges are:
Establish an independent review on a genuine Living Wage across all sectors.
Establish a new Worker Protection Enforcement Authority to protect those in precarious work. ‘Precarious work’ is not defined.
Allow flexible working requests from the first day of employment instead of the current 26 weeks qualifying service.
Change employment rights for the ‘gig economy’. This includes the following:
Establishing a new ‘dependent contractor’ employment status. This would be a combination between employment and self-employment, with entitlements to basic rights such as minimum earnings levels, sick pay and holiday entitlement.
Reviewing the tax and National Insurance status of employees, dependent contractors and freelancers to ensure comparable treatment.
Increasing minimum wage by 20% for people on zero-hour contracts at times of normal demand to compensate for the uncertainty of fluctuating hours of work.
Giving a right to request a fixed-hours contract after 12 months for ‘zero hours’ and agency workers, not to be unreasonably refused.
Reviewing rules relating to pensions (no details provided).
Shift the burden of proof in employment tribunals regarding employment status from the individual to the employer.
Strengthen trade union powers, including the right of access to workplaces.
Give staff in listed companies with more than 250 employees a right to request shares, to be held in trust for the benefit of employees.
Require all UK-listed companies and all private companies with more than 250 employees to have at least one employee representative on their boards.
Require all large companies to have a formal statement of corporate purpose, including considerations such as employee welfare.
Increase statutory paternity leave from the current two weeks up to six weeks and ensure that parental leave is a day-one right.
Require organisations to publish parental leave and pay policies.
Require large companies with more than 250 employees to monitor and publish data on gender, BAME, and LGBT+ employment levels and pay gaps.
Extend the use of name-blind recruitment processes in the public sector and encourage their use in the private sector.
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