Labour Party pledges new equal pay legislation in manifesto

The Labour Party Manifesto was published on 13 June 2024.

Commitments in relation to employment law reform are set out within two key sections:

• Kickstart economic growth - which sets out Labour's aim to deliver economic stability and grow the economy for a "decade of national renewal"; and
• Break down barriers to opportunity - which includes commitments in relation to diversity, equity and inclusion.

Although the manifesto is inevitably very high level, there are new commitments to deliver equal pay for Black, Asian and ethnic minority people through a Race Equity Act, "to introduce the full right to equal pay" for disabled people, and to enact the socio-economic duty under the Equality Act 2010.

No further details are provided yet but this indicates a clear intention to reform the Equality Act by broadening the equal pay protection currently granted on grounds of sex, to race and disability, and to extend protection for discrimination on grounds of socio-economic status; and a potential new bill specifically focusing on race equality.

Although the introduction of pay reporting in relation to ethnicity and disability was trailed in "Labour's Plan to Make Work Pay: Delivering A New Deal For Working People" (republished 24 May 2024) the commitment to legislate to introduce a right to equal pay on grounds of race and disability is new. Our earlier insight summarises Labour's Plan to Make Work Pay; that document contains more detail on Labour's employment law reform programme than the manifesto.

Summary of employment law proposals in Labour's manifesto

Kickstart economic growth "a decade of national renewal"

Key commitments in relation to employment law include:

• introduce legislation within 100 days.
• consult fully with businesses, workers, and civil society on how to put our plans into practice before legislation is passed.
• ban exploitative zero hours contracts.
• end fire and rehire.
• introduce basic rights from day one to parental leave, sick pay, and protection from unfair dismissal.
• strengthen the collective voice of workers, including through their trade unions.
• create a Single Enforcement Body to ensure employment rights are upheld, and
• make sure the minimum wage is a genuine living wage.

Break down barriers to opportunity

Commitments in relation to D&I include:

• enact the socio-economic duty in the Equality Act 2010.
• strengthen rights to equal pay and protections from maternity and menopause discrimination and sexual harassment.
• take action to reduce the gender pay gap, building on the legacy of Barbara Castle's Equal Pay Act.
• introduce a landmark Race Equality Act, to enshrine in law the full right to equal pay for Black, Asian, and other ethnic minority people, strengthen protections against dual discrimination and root out other racial inequalities.
• reverse the Conservatives' decision to downgrade the monitoring of antisemitic and Islamophobic hate.
• champion the rights of disabled people and to the principle of working with them, so that their views and voices will be at the heart of all we do.
• introduce the full right to equal pay for disabled people.
• build on gender pay gap reporting, introduce disability and ethnicity pay gap reporting for large employers.
• support disabled people to work by improving employment support and access to reasonable adjustments.
• protect LGBT+ and disabled people by making all existing strands of hate crime an aggravated offence.
• modernise, simplify, and reform the intrusive and outdated gender recognition law to a new process; remove indignities for trans people who deserve recognition and acceptance; whilst retaining the need for a diagnosis of gender dysphoria from a specialist doctor, enabling access to the healthcare pathway; continue to support the implementation of the current single-sex exceptions.