05 June 2017

By Alan Bogg, Professor of Labour Law, the University of Oxford

Workers' rights and wage inequality have become a key political battleground this General Election following public outrage over the stagnation of real wage and the increasing gap between the haves and have nots. A TUC analysis released last summer showed that real wages fell by a massive 10.4% between 2007 and 2015 – the largest decline in the EU, matched only by Greece. But while average workers were feeling the squeeze, their bosses were flying high. FTSE 100 CEOs collected a 10% pay rise between 2014 and 2015 and now earn 183 times that of the average worker, according to the High Pay Centre.

Here at the Institute of Employment Rights, we have been busy comparing party manifestos for their workers' rights policies, and have now launched a new table that allows you to see the differences between the three major parties' deals for workers at a glance.

But if you're looking for something a little easier to digest, we've also broken the issues down into bitesize pieces below.

With six days to go until the General Election, we present six choices on workers' rights when you need to make when you decide who gets your vote.

01 June 2017

The Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP), Plaid Cymru, The Green Party and UKIP were all given a platform at last night's BBC Debate, but they didn't get the opportunity to share their plans for workers' rights.

Here, we provide a summary of the deals each party offers workers.

By Alex Just, employment law specialist, IER

01 June 2017

There has been a Conservative Prime Minister in Number 10 since the Coalition government formed in 2010. Although Theresa May has attempted to rebrand the Tories as “the party of workers”, its track record on employment law has largely revolved around weakening protections at work and attempting to neuter the trade union movement.

01 June 2017

Workers' rights have become a key political battleground at this year's election following exposes of dire conditions at some major chains like Sports Direct, and high-profile legal challenges against "gig" employers like Uber. As a result, all of the major parties have made workers' rights pledges in their 2017 manifestos. The Labour Party's is the most radical and wide-ranging, promising to meet international labour standards set out by the International Labour Organization. But what would their proposals mean for the everyday worker?