The General Election is imminent and we’ve been following developments to understand what may be in store for employment law after 5 July 2024. In this article, we provide a snapshot of the extent of the employment reform contained in the manifestos of the main political parties, grouped into key issues, and share a detailed summary of the manifesto commitments for each of those issues. In short, we’ve read the manifestos so you don’t have to.
The high-level snapshot is set out below and the manifesto summary can be found here.
It is worth noting that as employment law is devolved to the Northern Irish legislature, the employment law reforms proposed by each party will only apply to England, Scotland and Wales. Separate legislation will be needed in Northern Ireland if there is a political desire to align Northern Irish law.
Lastly, while it’s not over until the votes have been counted, current polling strongly suggests that Labour is expecting to be the winning party.
We have therefore considered the Labour employment law proposals in more detail here.
Manifesto Comparisons – our view of the level of employment reform proposed
Key:
Significant reform: ✓✓
Minor reform: ✓
No reform[1]: X
[1] Manifesto is silent on the matter.
[2] Potentially although the extent is unknown – depends what Reform mean by “scrap” employment laws.
[3] Although note a recent consultation re tribunal fees here.