General Election: Impact on H&S and Employment
Added on: 31/05/2017
The Conservative Party, the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats have each released their manifestos and set out their policy statements and pledges. We take a look at how these might effect health & safety and employment
The Labour Party
Labour has pledged to work with the Health and Safety Executive Committee to introduce mandatory workplace risk assessments for pregnant women and review the support offered to women in work who have suffered miscarriages.
They will also:
- Stop zero hours contracts to ensure that each worker receives a guaranteed number of hours per week
- Plan to put in place legislation against short hours contracts to ensure that those who work regular hours for more than 12 weeks would have the opportunity to switch to a regular contract
- Give all ‘workers’ the employment rights which are currently only afforded to employees.
- Increase the national minimum wage for workers over 18 years old to the National Living Wage.
- Provide an additional four bank holidays per year which would be added on to the statutory holiday entitlement for UK workers
Labour would support working families by expanding the provision of free childcare to include all two year olds. They would also issue subsidies in addition to the free hour entitlements to ensure that everyone can access the free childcare irrespective of working pattern. A consultation on childcare for one year olds is also proposed.
Further, Labour has pledged to increase the rate of paternity pay and double paid paternity leave to four weeks and also to extend maternity pay to 12 months. Labour has also pledged to introduce legislation on statutory bereavement leave.
Under Labour, there would be no employment tribunal fees and the time to lodge a maternity discrimination claim would be increased from three to six months.
The party emphasises the importance of apprenticeships and various measures are proposed, including introducing new targets to make apprenticeships more accessible including to those with disabilities, veterans and women.
If elected, Labour would enhance the Equality Act 2010 to make it easier for disabled workers to challenge discrimination at work and would strengthen protection for women against unfair redundancy.
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats have pledged to make flexible working, paternity leave and shared parental leave rights acquired on ‘day one’. They would introduce an additional one month period of shared parental leave for fathers to encourage greater uptake amongst men.
They will also:
- eliminate abuse of zero hours contracts and introduce a right for workers to request a fixed-term contract.
- extend the 15 hours per week free childcare provision to all two year olds and the children of all working families from the end of maternity/ paternity/ shared parental leave
- make employment rights “fit for the age of the gig economy”.
- encourage the creation of a “good employer” kite mark and would put in place an independent review into how a living wage should be set.
In respect of tribunal fees, the Liberal Democrats would abolish the fees and would bring together relevant enforcement agencies to strengthen enforcement of existing employment contracts.
The Conservative Party
The Conservatives would amend health and safety regulations so that employers would be required to provide first aid training and needs-assessment for mental health as well as physical health. The manifesto suggests that employers would be provided with incentives (one year’s relief from employer’s National Insurance contributions) to employ certain vulnerable workers.
They will also:
- increase of the National Living Wage in line with the current target which is for the rate to reach 60% of median earnings by 2020
- introduce a new statutory right to request unpaid time off for training for all employees
- introduce a new statutory right to unpaid time off to those with family members requiring full time care
The independent review under modern employment practices will continue and, after the review has been concluded, the Conservatives state that they will ensure that the interests of employees on traditional employment contracts, the self employed and those working in the ‘gig’ economy are protected.
A right to child bereavement leave would also be introduced; however, the manifesto does not provide details on how much leave would be provided. The manifesto also proposes measures to help women and carers acquire skills and experience required to return to work after taking time out to care for children or an elderly relative. No specific details are provided.
In respect of discrimination legislation, the Equality Act 2010 would be extended to include discrimination against those suffering from “episodic and fluctuating” mental health conditions.
