CIPD and Prospect publish paper on improving workplaces

Prospect (trade union) and CIPD (professional body for HR and people development) have recently published a paper setting out recommendations aimed at improving the quality of the workplaces and supporting economic growth. It is suggested that these could be implemented immediately by whichever party wins the general election on 4 July 2024.

Key recommendations include:

• Establishing a “Workplace Commission” to bring together labour market institutions (such as trade unions) to support policy making across Government and consensus on key workplace issues;
• Developing an enforcement system to support and improve employer compliance. CIPD and Prospect suggest that this could be achieved by boosting Acas’s capacity, incentivising smaller firms to allow Acas to conduct a free annual HR “MOT” of their employment practices; and
• Raising awareness of employment rights, increasing workforce engagement and extending trade union membership and recognition where supported by significant numbers of employees.

The paper estimates the cost of these proposals (in the region of £350m a year) would not need to be met through additional Government spending, but could be funded through relatively minor changes to existing spending programmes.

Although one could say that these proposals are rather sound, it would be interesting to see to what extent the new Government ends up implementing them, if at all.