Implication for employment law following the victory by the Conservative Party

Following the victory by the Conservative Party on Friday 8 May in the General Election we have set out below the possible implications for employment legislation.

The main focus of the Conservative Party’s manifesto were as follows :

• Zero hours contracts – pledge to irradiate exclusivity in zero hours contracts and make such exclusivity clauses unenforceable.
• National minimum wage – pledge for real term increases in relation to national minimum wage and this includes increasing the national minimum wage to £6.70 by Autumn 2015 and to over £8.00 an hour by the end of 2020. In addition the tax free personal allowance will be increased to £12,500.00 so that any individual earning less than this amount will not pay income tax by the end of 2020.
• Working families – increasing the entitlement to free child care to 30 hours for all 3 and 4 year olds of working parents.
• Trade Unions and industrial action – including requiring a minimum turnout of 40% of those entitled to take part in strike ballots; making sure the strike action cannot be called upon on the basis of ballots which have been conducted a significant time before; a repeal of restrictions which prevent employers from using agency workers to cover striking employees; and dealing with the intimidation of non-striking workers.
• Bill of Rights – will be introduced to replace the Human Rights Act 1998 and to break the “formal link between British Courts and the European Court of Human Rights” and make the Supreme Court the ultimate decision maker on Human Rights matters.
• Fitness for work – assisting those individuals who suffer from long term (yet treatable) conditions into work by ensuring they receive the right medical treatment; and if they refuse this recommended treatment their benefits may be reduced.
• Paid volunteering leave – this will ensure payment for employees who volunteer for three days a year and who work in large companies of 250 employees (or more) or in the public sector.
• Maternity allowance – increasing the maternity allowance that can be claimed by self-employed mothers.

If you have any further queries about this or require any further assistance on employment law matters please contact Nick Smith on nsmith@mincoffs.co.uk or 0191 2127739.