The Green Party and Reform Party manifestos…

Green Party

The Green party has pledged to:

• Repeal anti-union legislation and introduce a positive Charter of Workers’ Rights, containing a right to strike and a legal obligation on employers to recognise trade unions.
• Remove arbitrary ballot thresholds and requirements for postal ballots. Overturn bans on secondary picketing and industrial action for political objectives.
• A maximum 10:1 pay ratio for all private and public-sector organisations. Increase the national minimum wage to £15 an hour, regardless of age. Campaign for “safe sick pay”.
• Equal rights for all workers from their first day of employment, including platform workers, zero hours workers and those working in the “gig economy”. Bring platform workers under a single legal status of “worker”. Every worker to have the right to access their personal data and to appeal management decisions. Gig employers that repeatedly break employment law would be denied licences to operate.
• Move to a four-day working week.
• A just transition towards a green economy, led by workers and trade unions.
• All large and medium-sized companies to carry out equal pay audits and redress any inequalities. Extend pay-gap protections to all protected characteristics. Introduce a right to flexible working. Ensure disabled workers have the in-job support they need, as well as “proper pay and conditions”.
• Defend the Human Rights Act 1998 and continued access to the European Court of Human Rights. Protect the right to religious expression. Support gender self-identification for trans and non-binary people.
• Push for a precautionary regulatory approach to the development of AI, secure equitable access to the benefits of new technologies and address any bias or discrimination issues arising from the use of AI. Ensure that workers’ rights and interests are respected when AI leads to significant changes in working conditions.

Reform UK

Reform UK has published the following employment-related policies:

• Abolish IR35 rules to support sole traders.
• Repeal employment laws that “make it riskier to hire people”.
• Ban transgender ideology in primary and secondary schools and mandate public single sex facilities.
• Ban critical race theory in primary and secondary schools.
• Introduce tax relief for businesses that undertake apprenticeships.
• Leave the European Convention on Human Rights and introduce a British Bill of Rights.
• Re-negotiate the EU level playing field provisions in the EU Trade and Co-operation Agreement.
• Repeal the Equality Act 2010 and abolish all diversity, equity and inclusion roles.
• Introduce a comprehensive Free Speech Bill.

Michael Nadin is a partner and employment law specialist at DFA Law.  If you have any questions about the information set out above, or employment law in general, please contact Michael on 01604 609 566 or by email here