Tag: parental leave

Reform UK signals plans to roll back key employment rights and worker protection

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A speaker gesturing passionately at a podium, promoting electoral reform, with a large banner in the background that reads 'Vote Reform'.

Solidarity is a non‑party‑political trade union. We are not affiliated to any political party and we don’t maintain a political fund. Our responsibility is to keep members informed when political proposals—by any party—could affect your rights, your security, or your working conditions.

Overview

Recent public statements from Reform UK’s leadership outline a programme of sweeping deregulation. These proposals include repealing new employment rights, removing protections for renters, and reversing measures designed to strengthen job security.

Union leaders across sectors have raised concerns that these plans would significantly weaken workers’ rights and shift power further towards employers.

What Reform UK says it intends to remove

Based on their own statements, Reform UK is proposing to:

  • Scrap new employment‑rights rules
  • Remove new protections for renters
  • Repeal regulations designed to improve job security
  • Roll back environmental and industrial regulations they describe as “daft” or burdensome

Their argument is that these rules “kill jobs” and “hinder growth,” and that removing them would reduce inflation and lower bills.

Rights and protections at risk

Union leaders have warned that the following rights could be lost if these proposals were implemented:

1. Ban on fire‑and‑rehire practices

New laws preventing employers from dismissing staff and rehiring them on worse terms could be scrapped.

2. Protections against exploitative zero‑hour contracts

Rules designed to curb the most abusive forms of insecure work may be removed.

3. Stronger unfair‑dismissal protections

Recent improvements that extend protection from unfair dismissal could be rolled back.

4. Parental leave and sick‑pay rights

Opposition parties and unions warn that hard‑won rights in these areas may be weakened or removed.

5. Local government pension security

Reform UK has said it would block new entrants to local government pension schemes and consolidate them into a sovereign wealth fund—raising concerns about long‑term retirement security.

6. Housing protections for renters

Rolling back new rental protections would affect millions of working people who rely on secure, safe housing.

Why this matters for members

If enacted, these proposals could affect:

  • Your job security
  • Your protection from unfair dismissal
  • Your rights around sick pay and parental leave
  • Your ability to avoid exploitative contracts
  • Your pension prospects
  • Your housing stability

These are not abstract issues—they shape the daily lives of working people.

Solidarity’s position

Solidarity does not support or oppose political parties.
Our duty is to:

  • Inform members about political proposals that may affect their rights
  • Defend and advance workplace protections
  • Ensure members understand the implications of changes being proposed

We will continue to monitor developments and provide clear, factual updates.

By Maria Camara

Motherhood and the Wage Gap: A Union Call to Action

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New national data make one thing plain: the income shock women face after having a child is not an accident, it is the predictable result of policy decisions that leave new parents without a liveable income. Five years after childbirth many mothers are still earning substantially less than they did before pregnancy; those forced to rely on statutory maternity pay receive support that keeps them below the National Living Wage and pushes whole households toward debt and early returns to work.

  • Average post-birth earnings drop: Mothers earn markedly less in the years following childbirth, a disparity that persists and compounds over time.
  • Statutory maternity pay is inadequate: The structure of statutory support—high initial coverage for a short period followed by a low flat rate unless employers top up—leaves a huge gap between income and basic living costs.
  • Practical shortfall for families: Many families face an annual shortfall measured in thousands of pounds, driving debt, squeezing day-to-day budgets and forcing premature returns to paid work.

What the numbers tell us

These facts point to a clear moral and political choice: we underinvest in parenting and accept the long-term penalisation of mothers.

How this harms workers, families and union power

  • Economic insecurity becomes structural. Low statutory pay and rare employer top-ups convert a temporary life event into a long-term earnings penalty, reducing lifetime pay and pension entitlements.
  • Career progression stalls. Part-time work, disrupted hours and reduced access to senior roles follow childbirth for too many parents, entrenching gendered job segregation and weakening collective bargaining power.
  • Inequality is concentrated among the weakest. Workers without enhanced contracts—often in lower-paid, female-dominated sectors—experience the largest shortfalls and least flexibility, deepening class as well as gender inequality.

This is avoidable. The current distribution of risk reflects policy and employer priorities, not inevitability.

What unions must demand now

  • Uplift statutory parental pay to a living standard. Statutory rates must at minimum match a living wage so leave does not become a poverty trap.
  • Mandatory employer transparency on parental pay. Public reporting will expose who provides meaningful support and create pressure for improvement.
  • Stronger return-to-work protections and enforcement. Guaranteed hours, protected career progression and clear flexible-working pathways on return prevent motherhood from becoming a career sentence.
  • Collective bargaining for enhanced parental packages. Where legislation lags, union agreements must secure paid leave top-ups, phased returns and protection of pensions and progression.

Practical campaigning lines for unions

  • Campaign message: Parenting is work; pay it properly.
  • Target sectors: Retail, hospitality, care and administration—sectors where enhanced pay is rare and the penalty bites hardest.
  • Tactical asks: include transparency clauses in bargaining, legal-review triggers for parental-pay buyouts, and guaranteed return-to-work clauses in member contracts.
  • Mobilisation: centre campaigning on member stories combined with clear economic figures to build bargaining leverage and public sympathy.

Closing call to action

The motherhood penalty is not inevitable. Unions have the tools to make it contestable: collective bargaining, public campaigns and the power to hold employers and government to account. All unions should place improved statutory pay, employer transparency and enforceable return-to-work protections at the centre of our bargaining agenda this year. Every mother denied a decent income today is a worker from whom we must extract justice tomorrow.

By Maria Camara