The success of the Labour Party in the 2024 UK General Election led to a commitment to enact a comprehensive new set of employment rights as an early priority. The Employment Rights Bill is due to be enacted in Autumn 2025 and will create a raft of new areas of law to support workers’ rights. One novelty is that it will see the statutory establishment of a sectoral negotiating body around pay, terms and conditions for the adult social care sector.

Adult social care is often funded by the State and is a sector where terms and conditions of work are precarious and can be problematic to enforce. It is difficult for trade unions to organise and represent workers in the sector because many are self-employed through agencies, and many work for very small employers. Many are also peripatetic and struggle to have strong work groups where information about rights is shared between colleagues.

As a result, conditions in the sector have suffered. The new rights will establish a tripartite body that will include representatives of employers, workers (unions), and funders to come together to negotiate minimum terms and conditions that will apply across the sector. However, many details still need to be established.

Professor Simms has been working with a range of key stakeholders to bring her expertise around tripartite negotiation and collective bargaining to help shape the future of the body that will help set terms and conditions in this important sector. She has long worked with European Union bodies to support similar ambitions, and has more recently applied her expertise to similar challenges in Scotland.

One key challenge is developing effective mechanisms for coordinating employers in sectors dominated by many very small companies.  This is a key part of the decision-making ahead of the UK bodies, and she will continue to work with them and with the Resolution Foundation to develop workable proposals during the extended consultation period once the law is enacted.

For further information, please contact business-school-research@glasgow.ac.uk 

First published: 13 August 2025

<< Projects and activities - Policy work


Related links