Labour’s ‘Plan to Make Work Pay’: five changes you need to know about

The election of a new Labour government is set to bring huge changes to workers’ rights in the UK. Labour have published their "Plan to Make Work Pay – A New Deal for Working People", and in their election manifesto they committed to putting this plan in place in full.

There are a few points in the plan that could have a big impact on care businesses – and the scale and speed of the change means you’ll need to be prepared to see the benefits of these changes. So, the Employment Law experts at Citation have taken a look at five changes that might affect care businesses the most.

1.       Day one rights: unfair dismissal rights from the get-go

The Labour government will remove the service requirement to make the right to claim unfair dismissal a day one right, which employees have to currently wait two years to earn.

2.       The Fair Work Agency: a single enforcement body for employment rights

Labour will introduce a new single enforcement body, likely called the Fair Work Agency, which will bring all labour market enforcement within one organisation and will include union and TUC representation.

3.       Zero-hours contracts: an end to one-sided flexibility

Labour have committed to ensuring all jobs provide a baseline level of security and predictability and will ban “exploitative zero-hours contract. They’ll also introduce new measures to make sure all workers get reasonable notice of changes to shifts or working hours.

4.       Extended tribunal time limits: from three months to six months.

The government plan to increase the time limit for bringing an employment tribunal claim from three months to six months, to help certain groups of people who might struggle to get advice and support in time to make their claim.

5.       Pay reforms: changes to National Minimum Wage and Statutory Sick Pay

The current age bands for National Minimum Wage will be removed, and the lower earnings limit on SSP will be removed to make it available to all workers, as well as removing the current three-day waiting period, so it will be payable from the first day of sickness absence.

Want to know more about the rest of the proposed changes? Download the full Citation guide here, covering 30 key proposals set out in Labour’s plans.

Citation – by your side.

There’s a lot of change in store this year – so now’s the right time to make sure you’re keeping up with it. As a WMCA partner, we’re a trusted provider in the industry – so you can have faith that we know how to help you manage the challenges unique to your care

setting.

Check out the full Citation guide to key election takeaways, or for more support on all things HR, just give us a call on 0345 844 1111 and quote ‘WMCA’ to access your preferential rates.