Industry 

• Repeal the Trade Unions Act 2016/Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 and subsequently put in place a new Act which would implement the following: 
  
  • Union recognition is only required when a minimum of 50% of eligible workers at that employer are members of said Union. 
  • Ballots and ballot motions must completely and accurately reflect the nature of the “agreed dispute”. Wording should be neutral in tone. 
  • Ballots must achieve a minimum of 50% in order for strike action to take place. 
  • If you are a member of a striking Union, you are considered on strike, even if you would rather not be. 
  • Unions and strikers are not able to prevent non-union workers from working when on strike and any detrimental treatment on the basis of Union membership should be treated as automatic gross misconduct in every employment contract. 
  • If multiple unions in one sector vote to strike, they will be legally required to happen concurrently. 
  • Ban employers from covering a striking worker’s role with people from outside the employer i.e. agency workers etc. 
  • Ban secondary picketing, including virtual picketing etc. 
    
    
• Increase R&D spending as a % of GDP from 1.8% to at least > 2.5%. 
  
  
• The establishment of 10 Free-Ports around the UK in order to drive growth in deprived areas. 
  
  
• Replicate NEPIC in every nation/region of the country. 
  
  
• Create a National Investment Bank with £100 billion of initial capital using public money to attract private investment for enterprise, infrastructure and innovation etc.  
  
  
• Work with major banks to fund the creation of a local banking sector (regional mutual banks), dedicated to meeting the needs of local small and medium-sized businesses. In addition, expand the British Business Bank to perform a more central role in the economy, to ensure that viable small and medium-sized businesses have access to capital: 
  
  • At least one regional mutual bank in every region i.e. Cornwall. 
    
    
• Strengthening diversity and equality of opportunity in industry, with mandatory annual reporting of gender pay gap, LGBTQ+, BAME, disability employment, pay policies, etc: 
  
  • Would only be applicable to companies with more than 250 employees. 
    
    
• Challenging the growing concentration of market power – including in energy, banking and the new ‘tech titans’ – with stronger antitrust laws, enhanced consumer protection, greater rights over data etc. 
  
  
• For startups, the party would create a new “startup allowance” to help those businesses specifically with their “living costs”, and would also support fast-growing businesses seeking to scale up. 
  
  
• Abolish the Apprenticeship Levy as an inefficient and distorting intervention to support skills investment and replace it with greater direct government spending on skills programmes co-designed with both the business community, local government  and other stakeholders. 

Employment 

• Zero hour contracts: 
  
  • Only to be used where flexibility is needed on the part of the employer: consensual agreement must be mandatory on the part of the employee. 
  • Punishments for not taking shifts must be scrapped: should be entirely on the individual if they wish to work or not. 
  • Short notice requests: an uplift in hourly rate based on the amount of notice given. (Minimum of two hours notice.) 
  • A 1% levy on businesses such as agencies and courier firms (Deliveroo etc.) that exploit the use of them. 
    
    
• Legislation for workers rights in the gig economy including minimum earning levels, sick pay, pension contributions, holiday entitlements etc. 
  
  
• Statutory Sick pay should be at least 50% of average earnings > £250 per week
  
  
• Shifting the burden of proof in employment tribunals regarding employment status from individual to employer: 
  
  • Only applicable to companies with less than 250 employees. 
    
    
• Workers on company boards: 
  
  • This would include the adoption of a dual board system as is used in Finland and Germany. It would have a management board which looks at the short-term operations of the company whilst the supervisory board would look at the long-term strategy of the company and will keep the management board in check. 50% of the supervisory board must be elected by all members of the company in a one person one vote secret ballot of everyone in the company that wishes to stand.
  • It would only apply to companies with more than 250 employees 
    
    
• Replace the Minimum Wage/National Living Wage: 
  
  • The Minimum Wage/National Living Wage will instead be replaced with the independent living wage set by the Living Wage Foundation. 
  • The independent living wage will be set from the age of 16 upwards. 
  • It would be applicable across all sectors (public, private, and third) and would be also applicable to private sector companies who procure contracts in the public sector. 
    
    
• Inclusive Ownership Fund – enabling employees part-owners of private companies: 
  
  • Companies would have to transfer at least 1% of their ownership into an IOF each year, up to a maximum of 10%. 
  • Dividend payouts would be made at a flat rate to all employees and would be capped at £1000 pa. 
  • It would only be made available to employees after they have spent at least a year in a company. 
  • The funds would be held and managed collectively and the shares would not be able to be sold or traded. 
  • Only applicable to companies with more than 250 employees. 
  • SME’s/public companies would be able to set up an IOF on a voluntary basis. 
    
    
• Collective bargaining: 
  
  • This would involve the employer and a group of employees negotiating the conditions they are employed under. In order to ensure all employees can access this we propose a new national framework for collective bargaining which will ensure negotiations on both a sector by sector and business by business level. This will allow businesses to remain flexible whilst giving workers more say over their working conditions. The deals themselves would be negotiated by collections of workers and trade unions. This would however allow employees to negotiate on areas such as wages, employee benefits, types of employment contracts such as whether employees have zero-hour contracts and working conditions. 
  • It would only apply to companies with more than 250 employees
    
    
• Allow employees six months leave to start up a business: 
  
  • This would copy Sweden by allowing the employees of a business a six-month period of leave if they want to start up a new business. It would only be available if the new business is not in direct competition with the business they are currently in. In this time the position that person is in within the business can’t change. Just as it works in Sweden, it would be available to employees after they have spent a year in a business, businesses can only reject this leave if the person is absolutely vital to the functioning of the business: 
  • It would only apply to companies with more than 250 employees. 
    
    
• Increase statutory paternity leave from the current two weeks up to six weeks and ensure that parental leave is a day-one right, and address continuing inequalities faced by same-sex couples: 
  
  • Extend maternity leave/pay to 52 weeks.
  • Increase the shared parental leave from 50 weeks up to 52 weeks. 
  • Increase shared parental pay from 37 weeks up to 52 weeks.