Family-friendly policies are at the centre of the election battle; Alison Wallace, head of employment practice at Steptoe & Johnson looks at what the three main parties have to offer.

The Conservatives
Working families: The Conservatives propose more flexible statutory maternity pay (SMP), giving mothers a choice of whether to receive SMP over nine months, or to receive a higher amount paid over six months. This will match Labour’s pledge to raise SMP, while allowing mothers to receive higher payments and return to work earlier. The scheme would start in 2008. Mothers would get 90% of average earnings for the first six weeks and then have the choice of £102.80 a week for 33 weeks or £169.62 over 20 weeks.

Labour
Working families: Labour would extend paid maternity leave to nine months from April 2007, giving working mothers an extra £1,400, with a goal of 12 months’ paid leave by the end of the next Parliament. The proposals involve giving mothers the right to transfer a proportion of their maternity leave and pay to fathers, to give parents more choice about caring for their children in the first year of life. They will also look at extending the right to request flexible working to carers, as well as to parents of older children.

Holidays: Workers would be entitled to paid time off on bank holidays in addition to their existing right to four weeks’ paid holiday under the Working Time Regulations 1998.

Equality: The Labour manifesto promises to take action to narrow the pay and promotion gap between men and women, promote employment for ethnic and faith minorities and combat discrimination on the grounds of race and ethnicity across a range of services.

Employers will not be able to force employees to retire before the age of 65 unless it can be objectively justified. Employees over the age of 65 will be able to ask to be allowed to carry on working. After five years a Labour government would review whether mandatory retirement ages should be retained.

Pensions: Labour plan to put in place pension arrangements which will address “the needs of the future.” The reformed system would aim to tackle poverty, provide everyone with the opportunity to build an adequate retirement income and be affordable, fair and simple to understand.

Smoking in the workplace: A Labour government would introduce legislation making it unlawful to smoke in all enclosed public places and workplaces, other than licensed premises. All restaurants and bars or pubs which prepare and serve food will have to be smoke-free, and smoking will be banned in the bar area of other licensed premises in order to protect the employees.

Liberal democrats
Working families: The Liberal Democrats would give new mothers an extra £68 a week in a “maternity income guarantee” for the first six months after the birth of their first child. This would give new mothers a guaranteed income of £170 a week, rather than £102 as at present. They would look at the possibility of extending this to nine months from 2007, as finances allow.

They have also stated that they plan to make work-places more responsive to the needs of young families, by promoting a culture of good work/life balance. This would encourage home-working, part-time working and self-employment by raising the status of such work and ensuring that these types of workers are awarded the same rights and protection as full-time permanent workers.

Home and agency working: They want to ensure that home and agency working is not used as a means of denying workers’ rights and protections. Requirements on working conditions should be applied to homes that are also a workplace, and employer’s workplace insurance will be extended to cover homeworkers. Firms using homeworkers will need to register the premises with the local authority. Agency workers will be protected by making agencies responsible for recognising and upholding all rights not directly under the control of the employer.

Equality: A Liberal Democrat government would introduce a single Equality Act, which would:

• Outlaw all unfair discrimination (including race, gender, religion and belief, sexual orientation, disability, age and gender identity).
• Give public bodies a positive duty to tackle inequality and discrimination against lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender people, in the same way as they are required to promote race equality and tackle discrimination.
• End discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation in the provision of goods and services.
• Create an Equality and Human Rights Commission.
• End the exemption that allows religious organisations to sack, demote or fail to hire employees in non-proselytising posts on grounds of sexual orientation.

In addition it would end compulsory retirement ages and reform pensions so that people can retire gradually by paying into a fund at the same time as receiving a pension from it. They would give those over retirement age protection against unfair dismissal.

Workplace consultation: They would require all employers to consult with their workers, regardless of the number of employees they have. However, they would not impose a model of consultation, as they believe that businesses should be free to develop their own practices and structures. They would encourage larger firms to set up works councils.

Trade unions: They would retain the right to ballot for industrial action and for internal elections. They would give members the right to pay the political levy into a non-affiliated fund instead of a party-affiliated fund if preferred, but scrap the unnecessary and bureaucratic requirement to hold a ballot every ten years on maintaining a political fund.

They would allow the government, when supported by Parliament, to require both workforce and employers to submit to binding arbitration where the workforce in a vital area of the economy has voted for industrial action.

There is nothing much on pensions but apparently the Conservatives plan to abolish the new Statutory Discipline & Grievance procedures. Let’s wait and see.