Labour's third term agenda

We look ahead to the employment agenda for Labour's third term.

The range of workplace promises outlined in Labour's manifesto includes a commitment to 'deliver… in full' the policies comprising the Warwick Agreement, which include measures to give temporary workers the same pay and rights as permanent staff.

Elsewhere, the manifesto restates promises made in the 2005 Budget and the December 2004 Pre-budget report, including a raise in the national minimum wage to £5.05 from October 2005 and to £5.35 from October 2006.

Labour's business manifesto expands on previously stated commitments to close the UK's skills gap with competitors in the EU, and to boost the manufacturing sector. It also states that a third-term Labour Government would campaign for a 'yes' vote in the expected EU referendum, and would use its EU and G8 presidencies to press for regulatory reform.

Our table presents details of Labour's avowed stance on the critical issues.

  • Labour election manifesto and Labour business manifesto (PDF format)  Read the full text of Labour's manifesto documents, as published on the party's official website.

  • Full employment and working in modern Britain: The TULO guide to the Warwick Agreement and Labour's manifesto commitments    Read guidance from the Trade Union and Labour Party Liaison Organisation (TULO) on the implications of the Warwick Agreement, as published on TULO's Unions Together website.

    Also

    Employees may be compelled to save into pensions  Work and pensions secretary David Blunkett has refused to rule out legislation compelling employees to save into private pensions. HR & Compliance Centre reports.

    CBI calls on Blair to make courageous decisions  Michael Millar reports, from personneltoday.com.

    Labour MPs back in parliament but where's the power?   Writing on personneltoday.com, Mike Berry presents an overview of the 2005 election fortunes of those MPs with ministerial responsibilities for employment matters.

    Warwick and the kingmakers   Read the IRS Employment Review report on the 2004 TUC Congress, at which union leaders welcomed the Warwick agreement, covering Labour's commitments on issues from paid holidays to pensions for same-sex partners.

    Personnel Today readers' vote is split and HR professionals prove enthusiastic voters  Personnel Today research conducted in the week prior to polling indicated an even split in the HR community between the two main parties, with 34% planning to vote for Labour, and 34% backing the Conservatives.

    Budget 2005: the implications for HR and Government to consult on family-friendly working    Read HR & Compliance Centre's coverage of the March 2005 Budget and the December 2004 pre-Budget report, which outline a number of Labour's key employment initiatives for a projected third term.

    Budget 2005: a question of 'vote now, pay later'?    Adam Geldman presents a detailed analysis of the 2005 Budget. From IRS Employment Review.

    Work and pensions: the five-year plan   The Government's forthcoming five-year plan for work and pensions will create the blueprint for employment policy if Labour wins the general election.

    Labour's key employment policies for the third term

    Childcare/work-life balance

  • Parents can share parental leave of nine months by April 2007. Firm target to extend this to 12 months by 2009. Maternity pay to rise by £1,400.

  • Launch 10-year strategy to expand the availability of affordable, 'wraparound' childcare.

  • Consultation on extension of right to request flexible working to parents of older children.

  • The manifesto proposes to extend an employee's right to four weeks' paid holiday 'by making it additional to bank holiday entitlement', although it is not specified if this means workers would receive holiday pay for bank holidays.

    • Skills

  • An additional £65 million to be spent on Employer Training Pilots over the next 12 months.

  • Sector Skills Councils will be launched to cover each sector of the economy.
  • Launch a national manufacturing 'skills academy' to tackle UK skills gaps.
  • Launch a national programme in partnership with employers to provide: time off for workers not educated to GCSE standard.
  • Launch a review of how interaction between manufacturers and the 'creative' industries can raise productivity, to be undertaken by Design Council chairman George Cox.

  • Consultation with business on how the Research & Development tax credit can better support innovation, with a discussion paper due in Summer 2005.

  • Roll out Pathways to Work pilot scheme for the sick and disabled to one third of the country. Reform incapacity benefits.

  • Increase apprenticeships by 50,000, to 300,000. Launch new 'creative apprenticeships' to focus on areas such as computer graphic design and post-production work.

    • Europe

  • Campaign for a 'yes' vote in the expected EU referendum.

  • UK will use its EU and G8 presidencies to press for regulatory reform and deliver better regulation.

     

    • Economy

  • Maintain an inflation target of 2.0%.

  • Continue to meet Gordon Brown's 'golden rule'on government borrowing.

     

    • Corporate taxation

  • End tax avoidance schemes that seek to sidestep the rules that deal with rewards paid to employees in the form of shares and other securities.

  • Maintain 'a competitive' tax regime and reduce regulatory burden. All new regulations to be subject to a 'competitiveness test'.

    • Public sector efficiency

  • Cut £21.5bn from Whitehall spend by slashing 84,150 jobs.

  • Commitment to cutting Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) staff levels by 1,500 by 2007/08.

    Agency workers

  • The Government is believed to have agreed to drop its opposition to the European Agency Workers Directive - which would give temporary workers the same pay and rights as permanent staff - in exchange for union support in the election. This is said to be part of the Prime Minister's agreement with the Warwick Policy Forum - a 56-point deal agreed in July 2004. The manifesto states that Labour 'has agreed a set of policies for the workplace (the Warwick Agreement) and we will deliver them in full'.

    Pensions

  • A third term would see the 'design of a pension system that has the basic state pension at its core', to give 'special help to the poorest' and 'provide incentives to save for hard-working families whatever their wealth or income', signalling a possible move away from the current system of means-testing.

  • The new pension arrangement would be funded in part by savings from moving more people off benefits and into work.

  • Enforced introduction of automatic enrolment (with an opt-out option for employees) in some workplace pension schemes.

  • Creation of a £3 million 'challenge fund' to 'generate more workplace advice by specially trained trade union representatives'.

    Corporate manslaughter

  • Legislation on corporate manslaughter was a Labour manifesto promise in 2001, but has been persistently delayed. The Government is consulting on a draft Bill creating a new offence of corporate manslaughter, which would allow organisations to be prosecuted for management failures that lead to the deaths of employees and others.

    Women in the workplace

  • DTI-funded Equal Pay Experts Panel to be launched.

  • Year-long Women and Work inquiry, looking at all issues of gender equality, including promotion, pay levels and sexual discrimination, to issue report in Autumn 2005.

  • Establish a new Women's Enterprise Panel, comprising 'successful female entrepreneurs to look at the options for a Women's Business Council to champion female entrepreneurship'.

    • Agricultural workers

  • Maintain the Agricultural Wages Board, as promised in the Warwick agreement (see Agency workers, above).

     

    • Migrant workers

  • Points system for economic migrants to filter out those deemed most useful to the economy. Employers to be fined £2,000 for using illegal workers.