An HR manifesto for the next general election

Make health care benefits tax free

4.2 million employees in the UK are receiving some form of medical/health cover from their employers. These range from the ‘wish we could all have a scheme like that’ all-inclusive health insurance to the cash plan kind of cover you can get from a business like Simply Health.

What we find astonishing is that despite taking 4.2 million people out of the NHS system (7.3 million if you include dependents who are covered) and the savings that must bring to the health service, these benefits are still taxed as a benefit in kind with employer NI contributions being due on payments too.

We believe all health cover for employees should be given without any tax implications for staff. Every employer who provides medical cover should be celebrated and thanked by the Government.

Gender identity

Find me an HR team who wouldn’t like some legal clarification on gender identity. The Equality Act of 2010 and other legislation just doesn’t give us enough understanding of what is expected and how to balance different, and sometimes competing, employee rights. This is such an important topic for so many and critical to ensuring we can all hit the right note when implementing policies and strategy around Inclusion. More guidance please.

Employment Status/Contracts

1. Zero hour contracts

Save our zero hour contracts! Not only are these a life saver for many small and medium sized businesses but those on them often love them too. They create a personal flexibility and over the years Jaluch has used zero hour contracts to employ students, leavers from the business who are forging a new career path, and people who are between careers. We have never forced a zero hours contract on anyone and by and large they just work so well for all parties.

Scrapping this flexibility is a hammer to crack a nut. If some employers are abusing them, then create legislation to deal with that, rather than scrap zero hour contracts for all.

2. I just want to be self employed!

Confusion reigns supreme when it comes to employment status. While some guidance exists, the issue remains complex, impacting a growing number of workers. We need clearer employment status tests – these were promised to us in 2018 but were then put on hold.

March 2024 research from IPSE suggests 55% of contractors said they had rejected an offer of work in the past 12 months due to it being deemed ‘inside IR35’ by the client.

Of those accepting contracts, the CIPD estimates that up to 15% of self-employed individuals are misclassified, potentially denied their rightful benefits.

Having different legislation for employment rights and tax status adds to the confusion for employers too as an employer might be compliant with tax regulations but fall short on employee rights. More clarity please.

Creating one employment tax

Have you ever tried explaining what NI is to someone new to UK working? Why we have that as well as personal taxation?

We need to work towards creating one employment tax. If ever there was something that didn’t make sense it is having two taxes covering one job. It’s old fashioned and costs money to administer as well as being impossible to explain. As far as we know the money raised doesn’t even go to the NHS but into one big tax pot, so let’s work towards one employment tax system.

EAP Guidance

Give employers guidance on what we might reasonably expect in terms of the qualifications and training of those manning EAP (employee assistance programme) helplines. This is an exploding area of support many employers pay for/provide but who actually knows what we should be checking or asking for in respect of the training of those giving advice to our employees.

Help us to keep our employees safe and supported by ensuring there are some minimum standards of qualification and knowledge otherwise we will all be failing in our duty of care to our employees.

Employment Tribunal Compensation

Employment Tribunal compensation awards and claims management. If you employ two people or 20,000 people and lose a discrimination claim (e.g. age discrimination) the level of compensation does not take into consideration how many people you employ or the cash resource within the business. Compensation is calculated according to a formula including VENTO bands and these are the same for every employer.

In terms of claims management (including grievances) smaller businesses simply do not have the time or internal resource to do what larger employers can do. We believe that our smaller and medium sized clients are disproportionately affected by employment law (claims management and compensation awards) despite smaller businesses in the UK employing around half of the UK working adult population. One small claim could put an entire business out of business and creates a massive ongoing stress and anxiety for independent business owners.

We don’t want to create a situation where employees are not able to bring valid claims but the burden on small and medium sized business owners is currently too great and disproportionate.

Perhaps some corporate HR people would like to have a say on this topic too?

So that’s our starter for 10 for what we in HR (in the UK) would love to see political parties focussing on as we approach a general election. We don’t care which party gets in, we’re just keeping our fingers crossed for some sensible and fair decision making that works for both employers and employees.

But now it’s time for you to have your say! What would you add to the manifesto? Let us know if the comments below👇

If you’d like to talk to us about anything covered in this article, HR support or training get in touch, we’d love to hear from you!