By Erin Johnson (Senior Communications Officer), Published
At 1,421 words long and clocking in at 12 minutes and 44 seconds, journalists suggested that today’s King’s Speech is the longest delivered at a State Opening of Parliament in over two decades.
The speech unveiled plans to nationalise the railways, a ban on conversion therapy, a race equality bill and legislation to reform the House of Lords and the creation of publicly-owned Great British Energy.
Bayes academics have responded to what some commentators suggest will be ‘the biggest upgrade to workers' rights in a generation’. Reading the government-written speech, the King said:
My Government is committed to making work pay and will legislate to introduce a new deal for working people to ban exploitative practices and enhance employment rights.
Dr John Forth, Reader in Human Resources Management at Bayes, said:
Having an explicit equal pay act does help to bolster norms around pay equality and may make more employers aware of the need to think actively about the issue. This may be a step forward toward eliminating the ethnic wage gap, but will this achieve enough?
“Our research found that ethnic minority employees are paid less than similar, white co-workers within the same workplaces. Ethnic pay gaps cannot simply be explained by looking at differences in personal characteristics or differences in where people work, and this is something that the Labour party needs to address in the days to come.”
Chris Rowley, Professor Emeritus of Human Resource Management, added:
“Labour’s vaunted pre-election promises in the area of work and employment are moving forwards as the ‘New Deal for Working People’, albeit with some nuances and roll back from earlier proclamations. The broad package has breadth and depth. It ranges from a crackdown on zero-hours contracts and fire and rehire practices to equal pay protections for minority ethnic and disabled workers and ending qualifying times for unfair dismissal, sick pay and parental leave rights. It also expands collective bargaining and flexible working rights. These are all worthy measures. However, not only is the ‘devil in the detail’, the level of enforcement capacity is crucial.
“No doubt this will lead to the normal business and management media maelstrom about alleged unaffordability and the ruinous ‘costs’ of such measures. In reply, we need to think about an over-arching macro purpose of such a package.
“It will prevent macho managers gaining competitive advantage by reducing labour costs in a ‘drive to the bottom’ through lower wages and misusing the gig economy and zero-hours contracts. The legislation will instead encourage competition based on quality, value added and innovation. That requires skills, investment and long term perspectives and thinking. It also takes labour out of the competition equation as all businesses will operate on the same level playing field. Previous strategies have failed to boost the UK’s abysmal post-2008 productivity record so we can only hope this finally makes a difference.”
Smoke-free generation
Les Mayhew, Professor of Statistics at Bayes Business School (formerly Cass), said: “While the new government has binned the term levelling up, stark health inequalities remain. That’s why it is incredibly important that ministers have resurrected Rishi Sunak’s smoke-free generation legislation.
“The U.K. is a world leader in health inequalities research, yet research demonstrates just how pernicious health inequalities in England are. Lung cancer deaths in different parts of the country accurately predict the number of years spent in good health. The latter was typically lowest in cities, including London, the north of England and the midlands – and is particularly noticeable in an arc linking Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and Hull.
“With an ageing population the pressure on policymakers to intervene in behaviours that can cut short working lives and increase pressure on the NHS and welfare bills will become irresistible. Our recent research (see below) adds to the evidence base for curtailing smoking altogether – even if the impact will not be enough to eradicate health inequalities by itself.”