CIPD Chief Examiner Stephen Taylor reviews how General Elections promote legislative change.
Cynicism about promised legislative change in the world of work is widespread in the UK right now. A General Election date has been set for 4 July 2024. In HR, there is an appetite to stay ahead of the column inches, preparing for potential upcoming developments. But just how conscious must we be of election pledges?
With the General Election countdown on, I have put these promises to the test. Over the past five decades, a total of 14 General Elections have been held. But what parts of the winning parties' manifestos came to fruition? Does employment law change really gain priority status once in power?
Far-reaching reform of employment rights
I started my analysis in 1970, a General Election won by the Conservative Party. The party subsequently brought forward far-reaching reforms of employment regulation in the form of the Industrial Relations Act 1973. The Act introduced both the law of unfair dismissal and effectively established our employment tribunal system. Other measures in that Act in respect of trade union reform and the regulation of industrial action proved less long-lasting, but no one could complain that the plans were not all set out clearly in the manifesto. An Industrial Relations Bill was promised, including 'the right to appeal against unjust dismissal' and this was delivered a few years later.
There were two general elections in 1974, both won (if only just) by the Labour Party. From an employment law perspective, the consequences were far reaching as this government introduced paid maternity leave, as well as our current sex and race discrimination laws. It retained the tribunals and unfair dismissal regulations of its predecessor but repealed other sections of the Industrial Relations Act. It also established the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS). Most of this was clearly set out in its 1974 election manifestos which promised to repeal the 1973 Act, to introduce 'a charter for women' and to establish ACAS.
The only significant reform that was later introduced and not prefigured in the manifesto was the introduction of law to deter race discrimination both in work and in society more generally.
Move to collective regulation
The subsequent four general elections (in 1979, 1983, 1987 and 1992) were won by the Conservative Party. These years saw less by way of an extension of individual employment rights. The earlier measures were retained, but few new rights introduced.
The focus was on collective employment regulation and measures to regulate aspects of trade union activity industrial act, for example; postal ballots, peaceful picketing, cooling off periods, banning closed shop arrangements and secondary industrial action requiring the election of union leaders. Over 15 years, this programme was introduced through six major employment acts. Many opposed these measures, but it could not be said that they were not all set out in some detail in successive Conservative Party manifestos. There were no hidden agendas. The government stood for election on this platform, won and enacted their proposals.
The only significant, long-lasting piece of employment legislation enacted by these governments, and not mentioned at all in any manifesto, was the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 which extended employment rights considerably. No hint of this appears in the 1992 Conservative manifesto.
Spectrum of rights broadens
The Labour Party then won the general elections of 1997, 2001 and 2005, during which time employment rights across a wide spectrum were extended in all kinds of far-reaching ways. The establishment of the National Minimum Wage was a prominent example, and the intention to do this was very clearly set out in the 1997 Labour manifesto along with a lengthy justification for the plan. Here too it was made clear that there would be no repeal of the industrial relations legislation introduced by the Conservatives.
There were few concrete commitments in respect of employment law made in the 2001 manifesto beyond a general aspiration to continue in the same vein. What was missing from these two manifestos was any indication of several other significant developments that subsequently occurred, notably the Working Time Regulations, measures to regulate discrimination at work on grounds of sexual orientation, religion or belief and age, and the major extensions of family-friendly employment rights. These were not mentioned because they were, in the main, the product of European Law and not matters over which the UK Government had full control.
In 1997 the Labour Party manifesto stated broad support for the European Union's 'Social Chapter' but gave no detail at all about what this would entail in practice as far as UK employment regulation was concerned. Little more was promised in 2005, that manifesto largely boasting about what had been done previously, while reaffirming a commitment to increase the National Minimum Wage and further promote equality at work as well as 'social partnership' between unions and employers.
De-regulation sets in
In 2010 the Conservative manifesto contained no proposals on employment law beyond a general commitment to de-regulate where possible. The party, of course, ended up serving for five years in coalition with the Liberal Democrats, and it was their employment law agenda which was largely implemented in practice.
The Liberal Democrat 2010 manifesto was focused on deregulation and committed to extending flexible working rights and introducing some form of an auditing system to tackle ongoing inequality in pay between men and women. Here too the most significant measures were prefigured in a governing party's manifesto.
There were however two big omissions. Neither of the coalition parties said anything in their manifestos about increasing to two years the length of service required to claim unfair dismissal, and neither said anything about introducing employment tribunal fees.
Fulfilled promises
After the 2015 election the Conservatives were back in power without a coalition for a period and during this time the most significant piece of new employment law was the Trade Union Act 2016 which brought in stricter rules in respect of balloting thresholds ahead of industrial action. Full details appeared in the party's manifesto, along with a commitment to introduce gender pay gap reporting, increases to the National Minimum Wage and the introduction of some unpaid leave for volunteers.
In 2017 there was more of the same from the Conservatives in their manifesto. The now renamed National Living Wage would rise, while gender pay gap reporting was again promised. They were a touch vaguer on flexible working, shared parental leave and the rights of gig economy workers, but reference was made to the Taylor Review of employment rights that was about to report. In these areas the government subsequently fulfilled its promises, as was the case with the proposal to subject executive pay packages to binding votes of shareholders.
Latest commitments
Which brings us to the Conservative manifesto of 2019. What did it say about employment law? There were four clear commitments in the form of making 'flexible working the default' when requests were made by employees, extending protection for redundancy to women returning from maternity leave, improving rights of parents of babies in neo-natal care and more unpaid leave for carers. There was also a commitment made to give workers the right to request more predictable contracts. All these measures have now been enacted. The one that has not, at least in any particularly meaningful way, was the proposal to 'create a single enforcement body to crack down on any employer abusing employment law'.
Conclusion
My conclusion is that we can be positive and proactive in considering politicians promises at election time, in respect of employment law.
There have been omissions on occasion, but by-and-large the party manifesto policies have gone on to be enacted over the past 55 years. Sometimes there is an absence of detail. Moreover, of course, in respect of EU employment law, UK politicians had limited influence. New employment rights often had an EU origin during our decades of membership, and many were far reaching, but these were not the creation of UK politicians. For the most part our political parties simply set out their plans in their manifestos and go on to deliver them.
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