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PROMISES TO CHANGE YOUR PLACE OF WORK OR LIFESTYLE AFTER 4TH JULY



With polling day (4TH July) around the corner, the main political parties have put their General Election promises on the table, including those that will introduce new and/or amended rights and responsibilities in employment, equality, family, immigration and welfare rights laws & regulations.

 

You will see below  a summary of what is being offered to you for your place of work and/or life style by the five  UK wide political parties There are  in total 68 UK wide commitments which cover equalities, payroll, sickness absences, work & family roles, training skills, individual status, welfare benefits, workplace visas and specialist support.

 

And of course this is not the full story.  Links appear below to each full manifesto -A to Z -on every other topic under the sun, not covered here, such as Agriculture, Crime, Defence, Education,  Environment,  Foreign Affairs, Technology, Trade, Transport and  World Peace.

 

Additionally, we  have not included directly the manifestos from the nationalist parties in Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales or minority UK wide parties. However, their links can also be found at the foot of this newsletter.

 

Whichever party is elected and/or carries influence in the event of a Hung Parliament, we will be busy throughout the UK after July 4th  updating our training on all these lifestyle  technical topics and allied personal development skills. We will keep you  up to date with breaking news and  what you might either have to change with your own employment policies and procedures or fully comply with as a member of staff, UK citizen, visa holder or recipient of welfare benefits.

 

Conservatives have made 21 commitments. They say they will:-

 

  • Take another 2p off National Insurance

  • Provide 30 hours of free childcare a week to working parents

  • Introduce a new Model of National Service to give young people the      skills and opportunities they need

  • Provide 100,000 high quality apprenticeships by curbing “rip-off”     university degrees

  • Introduce a new Advanced British Standard to enhance technical      learning as well as academic skills

  • Introduce controls on all “Equality, Diversity and Inclusion”      initiatives and spending

  • Maintain the National Living Wage in each year of the next     Parliament at two thirds of median earnings

  • Reform disability benefits so they are better targeted and reflect      peoples genuine needs, while delivering a step change in mental      health provision

  • Tighten up how the benefits system assesses capability for work.

  • Overhaul the ‘fit note’ system to move responsibility from GPs to      other healthcare professionals

  • Accelerate the rollout of Universal Credit to ensure it always pays      to work

  • Introduce tougher sanctions rules so people who refuse to take up      suitable jobs after 12 months on benefits can have cases closed      and their benefits removed entirely

  • Reform the Child Maintenance Service to prevent noncompliance      and new laws to help crack down on non-payment. And look at how      the Service can better support victims of domestic or economic      abuse.

  • Raise the Skilled Worker threshold and Family income requirement     with inflation automatically to make sure they don’t undercut UK     workers.

  • Take steps to ensure those coming to the UK do not place a burden      on the NHS, by requiring migrants to undergo a health check in      advance of travel and increasing their Immigration Health      Surcharge or requiring them to buy health insurance if they are      likely to be a burden on the NHS.

  • Increase all visa fees and remove the student discount to the      Immigration Health Surcharge to raise more money for public      services.

  • Introduce a binding, legal cap on migration, set on work and family     visas so public services are protected. The cap will fall every year     of the next Parliament and cannot be breached. Parliament will be     given an annual vote on the level of the cap so that the British     people can have confidence that immigration numbers will be     controlled.

  • Pass a new law to provide better treatment and support for severe     mental health needs in the first session of the next Parliament.

  • Introduce primary legislation to clarify that the protected     characteristic of sex in the Equality Act 2010 means biological sex.

  • Continue with the implementation of minimum service level      agreements (re industrial action)

  • Abolish national insurance for self-employed people by the end of     the next parliament

 

The full Conservative  manifesto covering every other A to Z topic can be found in this link:- https://manifesto.conservatives.com/

 

Greens have made five commitments. They say they will:-

 

  • Repeal  current anti-union legislation and its replacement with a      positive Charter of Workers’ Rights, with the right to strike at its      heart along with a legal obligation for all employers to recognise      trade unions.

  • Introduce a  maximum 10:1 pay ratios for all private- and public-      sector organisations.

  • Increase the minimum wage to £15 an hour, no matter your age,      with the costs to small businesses offset by reducing their National      Insurance payments.

  • Guarantee equal employment rights for all workers from their first      day of employment, including those working in the ‘gig economy’      and on zero-hours contracts. Gig employers that repeatedly break      employment, data protection or tax law will be denied licences to      operate.

  • Move UK to a four-day working week.

 

The full Green manifesto covering every other A to Z topic can be found in this link:- https://greenparty.org.uk/about/our-manifesto/

 

 

Labour have made  21  commitments. They say they will:-

 

  • Bring Jobcentre Plus and National Careers Service together to     provide a national service with a focus on getting people into work.

  • Create local plans to support more disabled people and those with      health conditions into work.

  • Tackle the backlog of Access to Work claims to give disabled people      the confidence to start working without fear of immediate  welfare      benefit reassessment

  • Establish a youth guarantee of access to training, an apprenticeship     or support to find work for all 18- to 21-year-olds.

  • Guarantee two weeks’ worth of work experience for every young      person

  • Ban exploitative zero hours contracts, ending fire and rehire      practices

  • Introduce basic rights from day one of employment covering     parental leave, sick pay and protection from unfair dismissal

  • Create a Single Enforcement Body to ensure employment rights are      upheld.

  • Change the remit of the Independent Low Pay Commission so that it      accounts for the cost of living in its recommendations.

  • Remove the discriminatory age bands currently within the minimum     wage regulations

  • Enact the socio-economic duty in the Equality Act 2010.

  • Strengthen rights to equal pay and protections from maternity &     menopause discrimination and sexual harassment

  • Reduce the gender pay gap and introduce a new Race Equality Act     with a full right to equal pay for Black, Asian and other ethnic     minority people.

  • Introduce a disability and ethnicity pay gap reporting duty for large     employers

  • Protect LGBT+ and disabled people by making all existing strands of     hate crime an aggravated offence

  • Deliver a full trans-inclusive ban on conversion practices while      protecting the  freedom for people to explore their sexual      orientation and gender identity

  • Modernise, simplify and reform gender recognition law to a new     process

  • Reform the points-based immigration system with appropriate      restrictions on visas but linking immigration and workplace skills      policy.

  • Not tolerate employers or recruitment agencies abusing the visa     system or breaching employment law. Employers who flout the rules     will be barred from hiring workers from abroad.

  • End the reliance on overseas workers in some parts of the economy      by bringing in workforce and training plans in sectors such as      health/social care and construction.

 

The full Labour manifesto covering every other A to Z topic can be found in this link:- https://labour.org.uk/change/

 

 

Liberal Democrats have made 14  commitments. They say they will:-

 

  • Establish a new ‘dependent contractor’ employment status in      between employment and self-employment, with entitlements to      basic rights such as minimum earnings levels, sick pay and holiday      entitlement

  • Increase minimum wage by 20% for people on zero-hour contracts     at times of normal demand to compensate them for the     uncertainty of fluctuating hours

  • Encourage employers to promote employee ownership by giving     staff in listed companies with more than 250 employees a right to     request shares

  • Change the burden of proof in employment tribunals so that the     employer has to disprove employment status

  • Improve SSP rights by introducing it from day 1, and removing the     lower earnings limit

  • Extend the use of name-blind recruitment processes.

  • Make parental leave and pay day 1 rights

  • Double SMP and SPP to £350pw

  • Introduce a ‘use it or lose it’ month for fathers and partners, paid     at 90% of salary

  • Introduce new Equality Act protected characteristics of ‘caring’ and     ‘care experience’ (that’ll be straightforward. Not.)

  • Require large employers to publish data on gender, ethnicity,     disability, and LGBT+ employment levels, pay gaps and progression,     and publish five-year aspirational diversity targets

  • Introduce specialist disability employment support

  • Simplify the Access to Work scheme

  • Introduce ‘Adjustment Passports’ to record the adjustments,     modifications and equipment a disabled person has received, and     ensure that Access to Work support and equipment stays with the     person if they change jobs.

 

The full Liberal Democrat manifesto covering every other A to Z topic can be found in this link:- https://www.libdems.org.uk/manifesto

 

 

Reform UK  have made seven commitments. They say they will:-

 

  • Freeze non-essential immigration with exceptions for those with     “essential skills our economy needs such as doctors, nurses and     successful business people, earning above the average salary”.

  • Restrict dependents on student visas and heavily restrict the      dependants those on student visas can bring, while also ensuring      that only international students with essential skills can remain in      the UK when their study ends.

  • Impose big penalties for companies employing illegal workers. They      claim that “local wages have been slashed because of cheap,      undocumented, illegal labour that undermines British workers” and      would impose significant penalties on companies and directors that      employ them.

  • Raise the income tax threshold to £20,000 to remove 7 million      people from “paying income tax and save all workers around      £1,500 a year” They would also raise the higher income tax rate      threshold to £70,000.

  • Slash tax for NHS workers  so that all frontline NHS and social care     staff pay zero basic rate tax for three years.

  • Require job seekers find employment within four months or accept      a job after two offers, or have their benefits withdrawn.

  • Launch a back to work drive and end remote assessments for     personal independence payments (PIP) and reform benefits to get     millions of 16- to 34-year-olds into work.  

The full manifesto which Reform UK call a “Contract” and covering every other A to Z topic can be found in this link: https://www.reformparty.uk/our-contract-contents

 

 

Nationalist and Minority UK Parties -manifesto links:-

 

ALBA Party (ALBA is Gaelic word for Scotland)- https://www.albaparty.org/where_we_stand

 

Alliance Party of Northern Ireland - https://www.allianceparty.org/our_policies

 

Democrat Unionist Party of Northern Ireland (DUP)- https://mydup.com/policies

 

Plaid Cymru(Party of Wales) -

 

Scottish National Party  -

 

Social Democratic and Labour Party(SDLP) -Northern Ireland- https://www.sdlp.ie/

 

Sinn Fein( We Ourselves)-Northern Ireland and Irish Republic  https://www.sinnfein.ie/policy-document-archive

 

Ulster Unionist Party (Northern Ireland) - https://www.uup.org/manifestos

 

 

End with a smile!

 

And if you want to end with a smile or indeed vote for them here is the 2024 election website of the Official Monster Raving Looney Party(OMRLP) who have 24 candidates in the election. They also have an A-to-Z policy guide and under “J” for Job Seekers, they say they will be made to stand two abreast in order to halve dole queues!  https://www.loonyparty.com/1208/8715/our-22-candidates-for-the-4th-july-2024-general-election/

 

 

Meanwhile back on Planet Earth and from Preston we stand ready to help you with all our technical, legal and personal development training courses!



 
 
 

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