Implications of a Labour government on employment law:

With the upcoming general election to be held in January 2025, it is important to highlight the changes that the Labour Government would have in place for employment law and workers rights.

Labour has declared its intention to strengthen employment rights by addressing issues of salary, job security, inequality, and discrimination. A few of the points Labour aims to change are:

• Banning zero-hour contracts: This will ensure that workers who have been working regular hours for at least 12 weeks or more will be entitled to the right of a regular contract. ‘One sided’ job flexibility will come to an end to provide workers with a baseline level of security and predictability.
• Employment status: A new system to ensure all workers are aware of their rights with the comfort and protection at work. Certain employers are currently able to exploit their workers by incorrectly putting them in a category with fewer rights.
• Strengthening rights and protections: Labour set put to strengthen the existing rights and protections for pregnant workers, whistle-blowers, workers made redundant and workers who wish to make unfair dismissal claims.
• The right to ‘switch off’: There will be a new right to ‘switch off’ to ensure that workers homes do not become 24/7 offices. This will mean that workers will have the right to not be contacted by their employer outside of working hours.

Alongside these changes, Labour will be focussing on inequality and discrimination as a main area of reform with a focus on sexual harassment. In their Green Paper, Labour addresses the issue of workplace harassment with 1 in 2 women and 7 out of 10 LGBT+ workers experiencing sexual harassment at the workplace. In terms of care, Labour wants to strengthen the rights of workers to be able to respond to family emergencies with paid family and carers’ leave.

These changes, if achieved, would create a fundamental change within employment law. This would give employees and workers more rights from day one alongside creating a safer and fairer workplace by tacking discrimination and inequalities.

This article was written with the assistance of Ellie Thorpe.