In November 2007, the UK's Labour government announced plans for new legislation on employment, work-life balance, pensions and training in the Queen's Speech that traditionally marks the opening of each new parliamentary session. Employers' groups and trade unions reacted positively to the measures announced, although the Confederation of British Industry warned that the government should be wary of the implications of increasing the number of workers eligible to request flexible working too quickly.
The opening of each new session of the UK parliament is marked by the Queen's Speech, written by the government and delivered by the monarch, which sets out sets out the government's legislative and policy priorities for the coming year. The main employment-related measures in the Queen's Speech on 6 November 2007 – the first since Gordon Brown became prime minister – are summarised below.
Employment Bill
An Employment Bill (145Kb PDF) announced in the speech and published on 7 December 2007 seeks to ‘increase protection for vulnerable workers and lighten the load for law-abiding businesses’. The principal measures of the bill aim to:
- implement the findings of a recent review of dispute resolution (UK0701059I) by replacing the current statutory workplace procedures, introduced in 2004 (UK0408102F), with a package of measures designed to ‘encourage early or informal resolution’. This change forms part of a wider initiative to implement the review, which aims to help resolve disputes at an earlier stage and improve the way employment tribunals work. Under the proposals, the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) will revise its statutory code of practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures, and tribunals will be able to adjust awards where parties have unreasonably failed to follow the code;
- clarify and strengthen the enforcement framework for the national minimum wage (NMW) (UK9904196F) and for the standards regulating employment agencies. The aim is to provide greater support to vulnerable workers, promote compliance and help ensure a ‘level playing field for compliant businesses’. Notably, the maximum penalty for underpayment of the NMW or employment agency offences will be increased;
- ensure compliance with the judgement of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in February 2007 with regard to the Aslef versus UK case (EU0705029I) and introduce clearer rights for trade unions to determine their membership. The ECHR ruled that trade unions can expel members on the basis of their membership of a political party (a far-right party, in this case).
Work–life balance
In 2003, the government introduced a right to request flexible working for parents of children under the age of six years, or 18 years in the case of a disabled child (UK0304104F). The scope of this provision was extended to include carers of adults from April 2007 (UK0702019I). The government is now considering moves to further extend this ‘right to request’ – presumably to parents of older children on the grounds that ‘helping parents, and carers, remain within the workforce through better balancing their work and home commitments is good for families and business’.
Pensions
A Pensions Bill will include the following measures:
- an obligation on employers to enrol all eligible workers automatically into an employment-related pension scheme, unless they opt out. This should ‘tackle the current behavioural barriers to pension saving’;
- the introduction of a minimum employer contribution to employees’ pensions, which ‘would improve incentives to save and increase pension participation’;
- the introduction of new ‘low-cost personal accounts’, giving those without access to a good-quality pension scheme – in particular, low to moderate earners – the opportunity to save; it is estimated that some seven million people are currently not saving enough for their retirement.
Education and training
An Education and Skills Bill will introduce a requirement to remain in education or training beyond the current statutory leaving age of 16 years. By 2013, all 17 year-olds – and by 2015, all 18 year-olds – would be required to participate in some form of education or training. The bill will also introduce new measures pertaining to adult skills, thus implementing the recommendations of the Leitch Review of Skills (UK0612049I).
Social partner reactions
John Cridland, deputy director-general of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), welcomed ‘the government’s plan to review when and how the right to request flexible working will be extended to parents of older children’. However, he warned that the government ‘should beware of increasing numbers eligible to request too far too fast…as this could jeopardise the future flexibility of those currently eligible’. On education and training, Mr Cridland commented:
Too many young people leave school without basic literacy, numeracy and employability skills, so employers accept the need to raise the age for compulsory learning.
In relation to the Pensions Bill, he stated:
We look forward to working closely with all political parties to ensure the new personal accounts deliver the step change in retirement saving that is urgently needed.
Meanwhile, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) welcomed the content of the Employment Bill, in addition to the review of the right to request flexible working, hoping that the latter measure will increase coverage ‘significantly’. The TUC also responded positively to the proposed increase in the statutory education participation age.
Mark Carley, SPIRE Associates/IRRU, University of Warwick