With just over three weeks until the General Election, the parties are getting ready to pack a punch. It seems that workers' rights are high on the political agenda and likely to feature in all the main manifestos, official versions of which are (at the time of writing this post) yet to be released.
Prime Minister May has set out 11 key employment-related pledges and, not only has she guaranteed that all workers' rights currently offered under EU law will be maintained in spite of Brexit, she has also committed to building on these entitlements. Amongst other things she has pledged that the national living wage will rise "in line with average earnings by 2022". Her "new deal for workers" is also likely to include a statutory right to a year's unpaid leave to care for a relative, two weeks' statutory bereavement leave in the event of the death of a child, "better rights for workers in the gig economy", and a commitment that workers' pensions will be given new protections from "irresponsible behaviour" by bosses.
The Labour Party and the Greens are committed to increasing the minimum wage to £10 per hour. Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats have pledged to end the 1 per cent pay cap on public-sector pay and to ensure that these workers receive pay rises in line with inflation if they win the election. Indeed Labour's manifesto is due to boast a 20-point plan, including a pledge to scrap employment tribunal fees, banning zero hours contracts, repealing the Trade Union Act 2016 and introducing four new UK-wide bank holidays. And there's also a focus on family friendly rights, with both Labour and the Liberal Democrats having made commitments to extend paternity leave entitlement.
Following the recent introduction of gender pay gap reporting, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats have both said that they would bring in mandatory reporting on ethnicity gaps for organisations with 250 employees or more.
What seems to be apparent from the pledges is that there is in fact a significant overlap between the parties' positions on worker rights. Whatever happens at the General Election on 8 June, we can expect to see some significant developments in employment law over the course of the next term.
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