Labour has only been in government for a short while but on 17 July 2023, the King in his speech to Parliament, announced that an Employment Rights Bill will be introduced within their first 100 days of taking office, most likely in October 2024.
This shows their commitment to fulfil their pledges listed in their Plan to Make Work Pay: Delivering a New Deal for Working People and repeated in its Election Manifesto. That said not all pledges were identified in the speech, so the devil most likely will be in the detail when the bill is published. Some commentors believe that these are the most significant changes to be made to employment laws since 1975.
So far this is what we know that the bill will include:
- Making it a day 1 right to sick pay, parental leave and most significantly to bring a claim for unfair dismissal, although the latter will be subject to probationary periods to assess new hires. This is a significant change for employers and is sure to lead to an increase in employment tribunal claims. It will be interesting to see if the government provides further judicial resources to cope with the increased demand that will result given that the tribunal system it is already overburdened.
- Stopping the abuse of one-sided flexibility and exploitative zero hours contracts so that contracts reflect the number of hours workers regularly work and that all workers will get reasonable notice of any changes in shifts with proportionate compensation for any shifts cancelled or curtailed – this does not mean a blanket ban on zero hour contracts as some commentators have mistakenly asserted.
- Ending fire and rehire practices adopted by employers to change terms and conditions of employment by enhancing stronger remedies to stem abuse of this practice and a new statutory Code to provide guidance on what are acceptable practices. It however does not ban them outright, recognising that businesses sometimes need to make changes to contract terms to remain viable.
- Making it unlawful to dismiss a woman who is pregnant for six months after her return except in specific circumstances. It is unclear though whether this protection is limited to the period after a woman returns from maternity leave or extends further.
- Removing the lower earnings limit and waiting period for Statutory Sick pay.
- Making flexible working the default for all workers from day one and requiring employers to accommodate them as far as is reasonable.
- Setting up a single enforcement body to enforce workers’ rights, which will be known as the Fair Work Agency.
- Establishing a Fair Pay Agreement in the adult social care sector and following review, assessment of how and to what extent such agreements could benefit other sectors.
- Reinstating the School Support Staff Negotiating Body to establish national terms and conditions, career progression routes and fair pay rates.
- Increased powers for trade unions including:
- Repealing the law on minimum service levels in relation to industrial action.
- Simplifying the process for statutory recognition for trade unions.
- Giving a right to workers to access unions in the workplace.
A new Equality (Race and Disability) Bill will also be introduced that makes it law that ethnic minorities and people with disabilities have the right to equal pay and making access easier for them to bring pay discrimination claims. It will also be mandatory for employers with 250+ employees to do ethnicity and disability pay reporting to help close the ethnicity and disability pay gaps.
This blog was written by Anita Vadgama, Partner at didlaw.
