What next for employment law? Brabners looks at the key trends in the political manifestos

Joseph Shelston, Employment
Law Partner at Brabners.

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Provided By: Brabners

In just over one week, the polls will open for voting in what is expected to be one of the hardest-fought and hardest to call elections of recent decades.

Despite the huge uncertainty on the outcome, there are some surprisingly common themes when it comes to what the main parties see as key employment issues, says Joseph Shelston, Employment Law Partner at commercial law firm Brabners.

Employment issues have increasingly come to the foreground as the parties have tried to position themselves as being both good for business and a recovering economy and also the champion of the exploited and underpaid. Whatever the future government turns out to be we can expect to see a focus on job creation, increases to national minimum wage and living wage, the number of hours of free childcare expanded, additional paternity leave and a likely ban on exploitative zero hours contracts.

One new concept which has been presented to the electorate by the Conservatives is a proposal that workers who work for a “big company” (more than 250 employees) or within the public sector will be entitled to Volunteering Leave for three days per year, on full pay. Paid Volunteering Leave would be paid for by the employer. This idea will promote engagement between businesses and the not for profit sector and could be very popular with staff but obviously has an impact on productivity and costs to UK employers.

The country’s relationship with the European Union also looms large and leaves many big unknowns in terms of the future of employment law. Many key laws and regulations are based on EU directives and a decision to leave the EU could lead to wide scale revision of the UK’s employment law legislation.

Brabners HR Forum

Following the general election, Brabners is hosting a HR Forum which will look at the key employment law changes and whether zero hours contracts are likely to survive.

Brabners HR Forum is a networking group aimed at HR and operations managers, together with anyone who is responsible for managing people in their organisation.

Employment law specialists from the firm will consider the many unanswered questions in this unsettled time for employment law and offer strategic guidance for employers, business owners and HR professionals tasked with handling the changes.

The HR forum takes place between 08.00-09.45 on the following dates:

Tuesday May 12 at Horton House, Exchange Flags, Liverpool

Wednesday May 13 at 55 King Street, Manchester

To register to attend, email events@brabners.com.