Skills
The party has pledged to scrap university tuition fees and reintroduce student grants. It wants interns and trainees to receive the national minimum wage.
Employment regulation
The Greens want to improve legislation to make it an offence to harass or discriminate against people at work on the grounds of race, sex, family status or responsibilities, disability, sexual orientation, religious belief, age, political opinion or physical appearance. This includes CVs being anonymised.
They want to introduce a legal right for those employed at least 35 hours a week to at least 28 days paid holiday, in addition to public holidays. And to remove employers’ ability to ask employees to sign opt-outs to the European Working Time Directive. The party would legislate to reduce average weekly working hours to 35.
The Greens will offer tax incentives to employers that provide workplace support such as childcare, job-sharing, flexible working, counselling and family planning. They would also give employees the right to time off for education, public service and voluntary work.
Additionally, the Greens would ban zero-hours contracts.
Wages
The party plans to increase NMW to £10 an hour by 2020 for everyone aged 16 and over, abolishing age-based differential rates.
It wants to cap bankers’ bonuses and place a 50% income tax rate on people earning more than £100,000 a year.
The Greens also intend to introduce a citizens’ income, which it defines as “an unconditional, non-withdrawable income payable to each individual as a right of citizenship”. This will not be subject to means testing, or being in employment or actively seeking work. It will replace tax-free allowances and most social security benefits.
Pensions
The party would give all pensioners a non-means tested £170 a week pension.
Family-friendly policies
The Green party would overhaul the current systems of maternity, paternity and shared parental leave, replacing them with a new model. This would allow each parent to take one month of post-natal leave immediately after the birth of a child, followed by an additional 22 months of paid leave to be shared between two parents. Both leave periods will be paid at a minimum 90% of salary.
It also wants to extend free care entitlements for three- and four-year-olds.
Immigration
The Greens would progressively reduce UK immigration controls, and instead focus on ensuring people are less inclined to migrate. Party leader Natalie Bennett has said migrants should be allowed to work and be “given decent benefits equivalent to those of everyone else”.
EU
The party would hold a referendum on Britain’s EU membership, and wants reforms to hand powers back to local communities.
Further reading
The HR policy guide: Conservative Party
The HR policy guide: Labour Party
