2015 General Election

In this blog post, we will take a brief look at the 2015 general election manifestos of the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats & UKIP, in respect of their proposed changes to the employment law landscape, in the run up to the May election.

Conservatives pledge to:

  • Increase the NMW to £7 per hour in the near future.
  • Prohibit exclusivity clauses from zero hours contracts.
  • Require strike action to take place within 3 months after a ballot has taken place.
  • Require trade unions to give a minimum of 14 days’ notice of industrial action.
  • Introduce a cap on redundancy payments which are paid to public sector employees at £95,000.
Labour pledge to:
  • Guarantee a real, paid, starter job to every 18 to 24 year old who has been claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance for more than a year.
  • Guarantee a real, paid, starter job to every adult aged 25 and over who has been claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance for more than two years.
  • Ensure employees on a zero hours contract have a “regular contract” where they work regular hours during the first twelve weeks of employment.
  • Require every large firm that wins a major contract from the Government to provide apprenticeships and training to young people for highly-skilled jobs.
  • Introduce “new Technical Degrees” and  “gold standard Technical Baccalaureate for 16 to 19-year-olds”.
Liberal Democrats pledge to:
  • Ensure that all recruitment in the public sector would be anonymous, in order to prevent discrimination.
  • Consult on how to deal with employers who try to avoid any new restrictions on zero hours contracts.
  • Create a single national minimum wage for 16 to 17-year-olds in work and first year of apprentices.
  • Allow fathers an additional four weeks’ paternity leave.
UKIP pledge to:
  • Enforce the minimum wage and reverse the Government cuts in the number of minimum wage inspectors in both England and Wales.
  • Seek to amend some EU directives, such as the Working Time Directive, because they actively restrict the British work ethos and therefore our economy, but UKIP will protect workers’ rights.
  • UKIP believe that zero-hours contracts suit many people, and so they will not seek to ban them, however, they take a very dim view of their abuse and will introduce a legally binding Code of Conduct.