Delivering the new deal for working people

The New Deal for Working People (NDFWP) or ‘Labour’s Plan to Make Work Pay’ is one of the government’s more ambitious and wide-ranging policy sets. This paper assesses the NDFWP’s core elements, explores the policy programme on offer, and identifies key priorities for the coming months and years.

Key findings:

• New polling shows that the elements of the New Deal that respondents think will have the biggest impact on their lives include:

• Raising the minimum wage to a real living wage (£12 p/h outside of London, £13.15 inside London) – ranked as a number one priority by 39% of respondents.

• Tackling insecure contracts – ranked as a number one priority by 21% of respondents.

• A ‘Right to Switch Off’ – ranked as a number one priority by 20% of respondents.

• There is a strong amount of trust amongst the public in the government to deliver them.

• 76% of the public trust that the government will implement at least some of the policies in the NDFWP.

• Nearly a quarter (24%) trust that they will implement all of them.

• This represents a significant opportunity – a green light – for the government to transform work, across the UK, for the better.

• Of possible policies not included in the government’s current plans, the public would like to have seen (in order of popularity):

• Raising Statutory Sick Pay to levels consistent with similar countries.

• A shorter working week (32 hours for full-time workers with no loss in pay).

• Pay ratios (10:1).

• The ambitious scale of a new ‘single worker status’ to end bogus self-employment – and the need for accompanying reforms – means that the government should aim to deliver the policy as a matter of urgency.

• In addition to urgently raising the minimum wage to a real living wage, the government should also commit to raising statutory sick pay for all workers.

• The government should introduce a full ‘right to switch off’, giving workers the right to ignore out of hours contact from their employers.

• This would amend existing legislation to ensure that employers do not contact workers in the first instance and would allow workers to ignore communications from their employers outside of working hours.

• On working time, the government should look to establish a 32-hour working week as the new gold standard for the labour market, aiming for 32 hours to become standard full-time working hours in the public sector by 2030.

• As a milestone, the government should support a new round of public sector shorter working week trials, learning best practice from existing pilots in South Cambridgeshire and Scotland, while collecting an evidence base for future wider implementation.

• The government should add further detail to its plans for a National Care Service so that decent, attractive jobs are generated to meet the needs of our ageing population.

• The first step the government can take to improve conditions in the care sector is to ban zero-hour contracts. This would have a disproportionately positive effect on workers in the care sector: around a quarter of the workforce are on zero-hours contracts, including 54% of home care workers.