Burnham Weighs 20 Unfinished Labour Reforms as Starmer Leaves Employment Agenda Incomplete
Updated
Updated · ICLG.com · Jul 20
Burnham Weighs 20 Unfinished Labour Reforms as Starmer Leaves Employment Agenda Incomplete
3 articles · Updated · ICLG.com · Jul 20
Summary
Andy Burnham takes office with key employment and equality reforms unresolved, forcing early choices on whether to finish, rewrite or drop parts of Keir Starmer’s workers’ rights programme.
Several measures still need secondary legislation or commencement, including zero-hours contract rules, fire-and-rehire curbs and a cut in unfair-dismissal qualification from 2 years to 6 months.
Equality proposals are also unfinished: Starmer left without enacting plans to extend equal-pay protections to ethnic minority and disabled workers or require ethnicity and disability pay-gap reporting for large employers.
VinciWorks scored Starmer’s government 58 out of 100 against 20 business and compliance pledges, saying major legislation passed but several flagship reforms remained stuck in consultation or draft form.
Businesses are now planning around a programme announced by one prime minister and inherited by another, with Burnham’s handling of the backlog seen as an early test of his pro-business, 'distinctively Labour' stance.