Coalition Employment Programme for Government

The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition has published its full ‘Programme for Government’.

The plans in relation to employment and discrimination law include proposals to phase out the default retirement age and extend the right to request flexible working to all employees.

The Coalition Government also states that it will:

• end the ‘gold-plating’ of EU rules
• introduce a ‘one-in, one-out’ rule so no new regulation is brought in without other regulation being cut by a greater amount
• introduce an annual limit on the number of non-EU economic migrants admitted into the UK to live and work and apply transitional controls for all new EU Member States in the future
• ensure no further sovereignty or powers are transferred to the EU and work to limit the application of the Working Time Directive
• impose ‘sunset clauses’ on regulations to ensure that the need for each regulation is regularly reviewed, and allow the public to challenge the worst regulations
• encourage shared parenting from the earliest stages of pregnancy by promoting flexible parental leave
• review employment and workplace laws to ensure maximum flexibility for both employers and employees
• promote equal pay generally, and gender equality on the boards of listed companies, but there is no commitment to introduce compulsory equal pay audits
• control public sector pay with measures such as requiring anyone paid more than the Prime Minister in the centrally-funded public sector to have their salary signed off by the Treasury
• tackle ‘unacceptable’ bonuses in the financial services sector.