| | Conservatives | Labour | Liberal Democrats |
| Employment rights in general | - Create a single enforcement body to police abuses of employment laws.
- Extend the entitlement to leave for unpaid carers to 1 week.
| - Establish a new Ministry for Employment Rights.
- Establish a Workers’ Protection Agency to enforce workplace rights.
- Keep Employment Tribunals free and extend their powers.
- Introduce new Labour Courts.
- Strengthen redundancy and unfair dismissal rights.
- Strengthen protection for whistleblowers.
- Introduce 10 days’ paid leave for survivors of domestic abuse.
| - Establish a new Worker Protection Enforcement Authority to protect those in precarious work.
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| Employment status | - Give workers the right to request a more predictable contract.
| - Introduce a single status of worker for everyone, apart from the genuinely self-employed.
- All workers to be given full employment rights from Day 1 of their job.
- Ban zero hours contracts.
- Ban unpaid internships.
- Right to request a regular hours contract after 12 weeks.
- Require proper notice from employer for changes to working hours.
| - Introduce a new dependent contractor employment status which comes with basic employment rights such as sick pay and holiday pay.
- Shift the burden of proof regarding employment status from individual to employer.
- Review the tax and NICs status of employees, dependent contractors and freelancers.
- Give agency workers and zero hours workers the right to request a fixed hours contract after 12 months.
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| Independent contractors | - Review how the self-employed can be better supported, for example by improving their access to finance and credit, making the tax system easier to navigate and improving broadband.
- Review whether the reforms to the IR35 regime in the private sector are the right way forward.
| - Self-employed to be given additional rights e.g. free childcare and collective income protection insurance schemes.
- Tackle late payments to the self-employed, including by banning late payers from public procurement.
| - Review whether the reforms to the IR35 regime in the private sector are the right way forward.
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| Equality and diversity | - Publish a National Strategy for Disabled People before the end of 2020 which will look at ways to improve job opportunities and access for disabled people.
- Reduce the disability employment gap.
- Action to protect people from assault or harassment on grounds of sex, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion or disability.
| - Create a new Department for Women and Equalities and a new Race Equality Unit.
- Enable positive action for recruitment where greater diversity can be justified.
- Urgent review into the use of all-BAME shortlists in public sector roles.
- Develop a cross-party strategy on how to end under-representation in all aspects of public life and how to increase diversity at all levels.
- Introduce new right to disability leave to be recorded and treated separately to sick leave.
- Introduce a Code of Practice on reasonable adjustments, including timescales for implementation.
- Launch an inquiry into name-based discrimination and consider rolling out name-blind recruitment practices.
- Reintroduce employer’s liability for third party harassment.
- Require workplaces with 250+ employees to be certified by the Government on gender equality or face fines (to be lowered to 50+ employees by 2020).
- Require all large employers to have menopause policies.
| - Extend protection for gender reassignment to cover gender identity and expression.
- Recognition of non-binary gender identities.
- Ban caste discrimination.
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| Pay gap reporting / equal pay | | - Widen and strengthen existing gender pay gap legislation.
- Extend pay gap reporting to BAME workers.
- Extend pay gap reporting to disabled workers (in companies with 250+ workers).
- Impose fines on employers who do not take steps to close pay gaps.
- Make the state responsible for enforcing equal pay.
| - Extend pay gap reporting to BAME employees.
- Extend pay gap reporting to LGBT employees.
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| Working mothers | - Reform redundancy law so that employers cannot discriminate against women when they return from maternity leave.
| - Extend statutory maternity pay from 9 months to 12 months.
- Ban the dismissal of pregnant women without prior approval by a Government body.
| - Parental leave rights from Day 1 of employment.
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| Working fathers | - Promise to look at ways to made it easier for fathers to take paternity leave.
| - Extend statutory paternity leave from 2 to 4 weeks and increase statutory paternity pay.
| - Parental leave rights from Day 1 of employment.
- Extend statutory paternity leave from 2 to 6 weeks.
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| Other family-friendly | - New right for parents to take extended leave for neo-natal care.
- Promise to help create higher quality, affordable wrap around and school holiday childcare.
| - Review all family-friendly rights including rights to respond to family emergencies.
- New right to 30 hours per week of free pre-school education for all children aged between 2 and 4 years old.
- New right to statutory bereavement leave after the loss of a close family member.
| - Employers required to publish parental leave and pay policies.
- New right to 35 hours of free childcare for 48 weeks per year for working parents with children between the ages of 9 and 24 months.
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| Flexible working | - Encourage flexible working and consult on making it the default position unless the employer has a good reason.
| - Make the right to request flexible working a Day 1 right.
- Require all large employers to have flexible working policies.
| - Make the right to request flexible working a Day 1 right.
- Employers to be required to advertise jobs as open to flexible working unless good reason not to do so.
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| Pay | - Increase the National Living Wage to 2/3rds of average earnings and extend it to those aged 21 and over (current age limit is 25).
| - Rapidly introduce a Real Living Wage of at least £10 per hour for all workers aged 16 and over.
- Enforce payment for shift breaks and cancelled shifts.
- Maximum pay ratios of 20:1 in the public sector.
| - Consult on how to set a genuine Living Wage and pay that in the public sector.
- Setting a 20% higher minimum wage for those engaged on zero hours contracts.
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| Working hours | | - Introduce 4 new Bank Holidays.
- Keep Sunday trading restrictions in place.
- Set up a Working Time Commission to advise on raising minimum holiday entitlements and reducing weekly working time.
- Abolish the opt out of the EU Working Time Directive (thereby limiting the maximum working week to 48 hours).
- Within 10 years, reduce average working hours to 32 hours per week without pro-rating pay.
- Review practice of unpaid overtime.
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| Trade unions and collective bargaining | | - Repeal of the Trade Union Act 2016.
- Introduce compulsory sectoral collective bargaining on minimum standards for pay and working hours, which every employer in that sector must follow.
- Introduce electronic balloting.
- Strengthen trade unions’ right of access to workplaces for activity and recruitment.
- Greater protections for trade union representatives.
- Review and simplify the rules on union recognition.
| - Strengthen trade unions’ right of access to workplaces.
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| Corporate governance | - Improve incentives to tackle the problem of excessive executive pay and rewards for failure.
| - Introduce Exclusive Ownership Funds to give employees a collective stake of up to 10% in the company, with dividend payments of up to £500 per year per worker.
- Require 1/3rd of seats on a company board to be reserved for elected worker directors and given them a say in executive pay.
| - Employees in listed companies with 250+ employees would have the right to request shares in the company.
- Stengthen the role of workers in decision-making, including on remuneration committees.
- All UK-listed companies with 250+ employees to include at least 1 employee representative on the board.
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