Andy Burnham has advocated for better working conditions long before he became Prime Minister. Now that “Manchesterism" has arrived at Number 10, employers should be paying close attention to where his ambitions meet (and go beyond) the Employment Rights Act 2025 reforms.
Burnham became Labour leader on 17 July and Prime Minister on 20 July 2026. In his first speech as PM, he called this "a circuit-breaker moment for Britain" and spoke of bringing forward "the biggest changes in the last forty years". Andy’s track record for employment reform stretches back to his first term as Mayor of Greater Manchester in 2017, where he introduced the Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter, on which he doubled down in his 2024 Mayor Manifesto.
The Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter is a voluntary membership and assessment scheme introduced in 2020 under Burnham's leadership at the Greater Manchester Combined Authority. The Charter commits employers to go beyond statutory minimum requirements in some areas. It now has 161 members, including all ten Greater Manchester councils, and major private sector names such as KPMG, Lloyds Banking Group and the Co-Operative Bank. Members to the Charter must meet an extensive list of requirements and provide evidence of compliance with its seven criteria for “good employment”.
So what does Andy’s premiership mean for employers? Below, we walk through each of the Charter's seven criteria for good...
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