Labour Party's plans for workers' rights

The Labour Party’s plans for reforming employment law are contained in a document called Labour’s Plan to Make Work Pay and represent a radical change to various employment rights.

Labour’s Plan to Make Work Pay proposes a raft of changes. Many will require consultation before appearing in legislative form. The changes which require primary legislation appear in the Employment Rights Bill. Summarised below are the changes which do not appear in the Bill.

Single status

Labour believes the 3-tier system of employment status (employee, worker and the self-employed) has contributed to the rise of bogus self-employment, with some employers exploiting the complexity of the UK’s framework to deny people their legal rights.

Therefore it will consult on removing the current distinction between employees and workers so that all workers are afforded the same basic rights and protections, e.g. sick pay, holiday pay, parental leave, protection against unfair dismissal, etc.

Redundancy

Labour will strengthen redundancy rights and protections, for example, by ensuring the right to redundancy consultation is determined by the number of people impacted across the business rather than in one workplace. This would effectively reverse the Woolworths case, by triggering collective redundancy consultation based on the total number of redundancies across a business rather than within a single workplace.

TUPE and whistleblowing

The existing set of rights and protections for workers subject to TUPE processes will be strengthened.

The Conservatives started a consultation on amending TUPE to clarify that it only applies to employees. Its fate is uncertain to say the least. Should Labour’s plan to abolish the distinction between employees and workers (see above) this would have a significant effect on the operation and coverage of TUPE.

Labour will also strengthen protection for whistleblowers, including by updating protection for women who report sexual harassment at work. This may encompass further regulation of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). 

Parental and carers’ leave

The parental leave system will be reviewed within the first year of forming a government. 

Labour will examine whether it should build on carers’ leave by making it paid.

Right to switch off

Labour will bring in the ‘right to switch off’, following similar models to those that are already in place in Ireland or Belgium, giving workers and employers the opportunity to have constructive conversations and work together on bespoke workplace policies or contractual terms that benefit both parties. This sounds more like a code of practice approach rather than a distinct legislative right.

Equality at work

Among the areas that Labour will target are the following:

  • putting in place measures to ensure that outsourcing of services cannot be used by employers to avoid paying equal pay, including for work of equal value, to women
  • strengthening Equality Impact Assessments for public sector bodies
  • enacting the socioeconomic duty under s. 1 of the Equality Act (this imposes a duty on public authorities, when making strategic decisions, to pay due regard to reducing inequalities because of socio-economic disadvantage)
  • requiring large employers with more than 250 employees to produce Menopause Action Plans

Enforcement

All 3-month employment tribunal limitation periods will change to 6 months.

Employees will be able collectively to raise grievances about conduct in their place of work to ACAS.

Safer workplaces

While many know that there is a minimum legal temperature below which employees cannot be forced to work (16C), there never has been a legal maximum. Labour will ‘commit to modernising health and safety guidance with reference to extreme temperatures, preventative action and steps to ensure safety at work’.

Labour will require employers to create and maintain workplaces and working conditions free from harassment, including by third parties. Labour will strengthen the legal duty for employers to take all reasonable steps to stop sexual harassment before it starts. Does this mean beefing up the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023, the provisions of which are due to come into force in October 2024?