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Angela Rayner, deputy leader of the Labor Party, has announced that the Labor government will increase statutory sick pay and ensure that employers pay sick pay from the first day off work.
Speaking at a trade union conference in Liverpool, Rayner confirmed that if the party wins next year’s general election it will tackle the UK’s statutory sick pay levels, which are currently the lowest of any OECD country.
“The next Labor government will strengthen and increase statutory sick pay, making it available to all workers by removing the earnings floor (which excludes those on the lowest wages), and abolishing the waiting period that currently means workers can only claim from the fourth day disease,” she said at the TUC event.
The announcement is part of Labour’s wider “New Deal for Working People”, which includes measures such as extending statutory maternity and paternity leave, banning firing and rehiring, introducing new “rights to leave” and overturning anti-union legislation from 2016 and earlier this year. .
Amanda Walters, director of the Center for Progressive Change, welcomed the news. “With economic inactivity caused by illness now at record levels, a significant adjustment to sick pay could help prevent workers with long-term health conditions from losing their jobs,” she said.
The deterioration in the health of the UK population has led to rising rates of short-term sickness absence and health-related inactivity among the working-age population.
Official figures released on Tuesday showed a record 2.6 million people were out of work or looking for work due to long-term health conditions in the last three months.
Raynor was appointed shadow promotion secretary last week in a reshuffle under leader Sir Keir Starmer, meaning planning and housing are now part of her remit.
She said: “Labour has a plan to tackle the housing crisis by building more homes that are affordable and prioritize local people – and yes, that means more council housing.” “Conservative The party is no longer the party of home ownership. This is Labour.”
The party said plans under its general election manifesto would increase the stamp duty paid by foreign buyers on British properties, while also restricting the sale of new-build properties to overseas investors.
The party is also developing plans to force landowners to sell plots at a fraction of the potential market price when councils buy them through compulsory purchase orders, in a bid to reduce the cost of building homes in England.
“Good jobs and families are the foundation of good lives and communities. A Labor government will provide these foundations and build on them, while also empowering communities and local leaders to create a strong, sustainable economy,” Rayner told the meeting represent.
Some unions criticized Labor for watering down some of its employment reform package at its most recent national policy forum in July. The party has watered down its 2021 pledge to create a single “worker” identity for all but the truly self-employed.
The party agreed it would consult on the policy once in government to consider how a “simpler framework” distinguishing between workers and genuine self-employed people “could properly reflect the breadth of the UK employment relationship”.
But Reyna, a former official at public sector union Unison, said the party would also “work hand in hand with the unions because we will work with business to build real partnerships based on respectful cooperation and negotiation”.
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