The Labour Party today unveiled a series of reforms, which include a promise to increase maternity pay to a full year, to transform the workplace for women.

Labour’s pledge also includes plans to create a new Workers’ Protection Agency working in partnership with HMRC with powers to fine organisations that fail to report their gender pay.

Dawn Butler, Labour’s Shadow Secretary for Women and Equalities, has called the plan a “step-change in how women are treated at work”.

Labour’s plan to increase statutory maternity pay from 9 to 12 months aims to allows all working mothers or parents to spend a full year with their new born babies before going back to work.

Meanwhile, Labour is also pledging to give all workers the right to choose working hours that suit them from day one of the job; require large employers to introduce a menopause workplace policy to break the stigma associated with the menopause; tackle sexual harassment in the workplace; and enshrine the role of equalities reps in law so they have time and support to protect workers from discrimination.

Recruitment & Employment Confederation Director of Policy and Campaigns Tom Hadley commented, “Family-friendly policies and flexibility for workers are the right priorities. We need to make a lot more progress on these issues than we have to date. The best policy changes in our labour market happen when government works with business on policies that benefit workers and help businesses at the same time.”

On the Labour proposal for a Workers Protection Agency, Hadley commented, “We would need to see more details to properly judge this proposal. Whoever forms the next government, we need an enforcement structure that delivers fairness and a level playing field. This will best serve the interests of compliant businesses as well as individual workers. Professional bodies with a clear mission to improve compliance and standards should be seen as genuine partners in enforcing laws that affect workers.”

In September 2019 Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn pledged to introduce the biggest ever extension to workers’ rights and create a ministry and government agency should he become prime minister.