Labour's Plan to Make Work Pay Insights from employers

The paper brings together IoD data and insights across key areas of proposed reform in the Labour Party’s plan, ‘Make Work Pay: Delivering A New Deal for Working People’. It puts forward policy recommendations relating to the new government’s proposals around dismissal and re-engagement, zero hours contracts, employment status, the right to switch off, day one employment rights, equity, diversity, and inclusion reporting, and Statutory Sick Pay (SSP).

Key measures proposed include:

• Strengthen the upcoming statutory code on dismissal and re-engagement to ensure that the practice is only used in circumstances where an organisation faces a serious and credible risk to its viability.
• Ensure that employers remain able to use zero hours contracts where they cannot guarantee a minimum number of hours of work due to fluctuating demand.
• Support employers and employees to develop bespoke workplace policies on the right to switch off.
• Commit to retaining probationary periods to reduce the risk to employers, particularly SMEs, of taking on new staff.
• Introduce a rebate scheme, targeted at SMEs, to mitigate the impact of any SSP reform on the businesses least likely to be able to shoulder the additional cost.
• Focus on measures to prevent miscategorisation of employees under the existing employment status framework, rather than on reducing flexibility by merging employee and worker statuses.