A New Deal for Working People

A New Deal for Working People

The Labour Party has a long and proud history of being the Party not just of working people but for working people.

From day one, a Labour government will strengthen workers’ rights and make Britain work for working for people.

Everyone deserves a job they can live on and build a life on, no matter who they are or what job they do. Our ambition to ensure a fair day’s pay for a day’s work is core to our values.

We all deserve high-quality, secure, rewarding jobs.

That is why Labour in power will secure a New Deal for Working People.

Boosting people’s income is not just the right thing for them – it is the right thing for our economy. Better pay would end the self-defeating low wage, low investment, and low productivity cycle that the country has been trapped in for the last decade. It will also help to tackle the cost of living crisis by ensuring everyone is paid enough to live on.

Labour will strengthen the protections afforded to all workers by banning zero-hours contracts, outlawing bogus self-employment; and ending qualifying periods for basic rights, which leave working people waiting up to two years for basic protections.

This will include unfair dismissal, sick pay, and parental leave, giving working people under Labour rights at work from day one.

Labour’s mission is to create more and better jobs that are closer to home, so people have the real choices that they have been denied for far too long.

Our country remains riven by inequalities which Labour is focused on fixing – to ensure the working people who create our nation’s wealth get their fair share of it. Rather than stacking the odds against working parents, Labour will deliver stronger family-friendly rights.

Restrictions on union activity are holding back living standards and the economy. We will update trade union legislation so it is fit for a modern economy and empower working people to collectively secure fair pay, terms and conditions.

The Conservatives have failed our country, but Labour’s approach offers people real help right now and a vision for the future of work where working people enjoy dignity, gain security, receive respect, and are supported to prosper.

We are ambitious for our country’s future.

Together we’ll build a Britain that works for working people.

Decent Work

Labour will raise wages for workers and end in-work poverty

Labour in government will change the Low Pay Commission’s remit so that the minimum wage will for the first time reflect the need for working people’s pay to at least cover the cost of living. Finally, the national living wage will live up to its name.

Young adult workers are still getting a raw deal on pay. Their bills aren’t any cheaper, but they have to make ends meet with less. That’s just not fair. Labour will take steps to ensure our genuine national living wage applies to every adult worker and is properly enforced.

Labour will deliver a social security system that provides a safety net for all

Labour will raise Statutory Sick Pay and make it available all workers, including the self-employed and those on low wages currently cut out by the lower earnings limit for eligibility.

We will replace Universal Credit with a social security system that allows low-income earners on benefits to keep more of their take-home pay, and which offers a safety net for all.

Labour will use public procurement to support good work

Labour will use procurement to promote high standards. We will use the public purse to support the businesses that strengthen local jobs and supply chains. To this end, Labour will make, buy, and sell more in Britain to raise standards, awarding more public contracts to British businesses and bringing the jobs of the future to the UK.

Labour will establish Fair Pay Agreements across the economy

Labour will empower workers to act collectively to negotiate higher wages and more security at work through the roll-out of Fair Pay Agreements, starting in social care. Fair Pay Agreements will establish minimum terms and conditions, which would be binding on all employers and workers in the sector. This will effectively form a ‘floor’ across industries, giving working people a real voice, as well as preventing exploitative employers undercutting the many excellent employers in a sector.

Secure Work

Labour will give all workers day one rights on the job

Labour will strengthen the protections afforded to all workers by scrapping the qualifying time for basic rights, such as unfair dismissal, sick pay, and parental leave.

We will tackle bogus self-employment and ensure the rights and protections for those who are genuinely self-employed will be enhanced.

Labour will ban zero hours contracts and outlaw fire and rehire

Labour will ban zero hours contracts to ensure all jobs provide a baseline level of security, and ensure all workers get reasonable notice of any change in shifts or working time.

Labour opposes fire and rehire and a Labour Government will act to end it.

Labour will make flexible working a day one right

Labour will ensure all workers have the opportunity to benefit from flexible working. The right to flexible working for all workers will be a default from day one, with employers required to accommodate this as far as is reasonable.

Labour will bring about stronger family-friendly rights

Labour is committed to extending statutory maternity and paternity leave, introducing the right to bereavement leave and strengthening protections for pregnant women by making it unlawful to dismiss a woman who is pregnant for six months after her return, except in specific circumstances.

A Labour Government would also urgently review the failed shared Parental Leave system, with reforms to incentivise sharing of leave.

Safe Work

Labour will bring in the ‘right to switch off’ and work autonomously

Labour will bring in the ‘right to switch off’ and introduce new rights to protect workers from remote surveillance. Rights and protections must keep pace with the changing nature of work and technological advancements.

Labour will update trade union legislation so it is fit for a modern economy

Labour is committed to repealing anti-trade union legislation which removes workers’ rights, including the Trade Union Act 2016, in order to remove unnecessary restrictions on trade union activity.

Labour will also strengthen trade unions’ right of entry to workplaces to organise, meet and represent their members, allow trade unions to use secure electronic and workplace ballots and simplify the law around union recognition.

Labour will strengthen the law to enforce workplace rights

Labour will establish and properly fund a single enforcement body to enforce workers’ rights. The new body will be given extensive powers to inspect workplaces and bring prosecutions and civil proceedings on workers’ behalf relating to health and safety, minimum wage, worker exploitation, and discriminatory practices.

Labour will put mental health on a par with physical health in our workplaces

Labour will review the law on health and safety at work to revise outdated legislation and make it fit for now and the future. We will review provision for stress, mental health, the impact of new technology.

Labour will raise awareness of neurodiversity in the workplace and across wider society.

Fair Work

Labour will tackle workplace harassment

Labour will require employers to create and maintain workplaces and working conditions free from harassment.

Labour will give those with caring responsibilities greater protections

Labour will strengthen the rights of workers to respond to family emergencies with paid family and carers’ leave, the right to have flexible working.

Labour will act to close gender, ethnicity and disability pay gaps

Labour will enforce the requirement to report and eliminate pay gaps with employers required to devise and implement plans to eradicate these inequalities. The publication of ethnicity pay gaps will be made mandatory for firms with more than 250 staff, to mirror gender pay gap reporting,

Labour will tackle socio-economic discrimination at work

Labour will address socio-economic inequalities in the workplace by enacting the socio-economic duty in the Equality Act 2010. This will require the Government and public sector to deliver better outcomes for lower income people, and to make narrowing and eliminating inequality a priority.