The Employment Rights Bill has now been laid down in parliament. It includes 28 new measures aimed at protecting workers rights and the Government has said it is “the biggest upgrade to rights at work for a generation”.
The most significant changes are:
- Unfair dismissal will become a ‘day one’ right – the existing two-year qualifying period for protections from unfair dismissal will be removed. The government will consult on a new statutory probation period, currently proposed to be up to 9 months, that will allow for a proper assessment of an employee’s suitability to a role as well as reassuring employees that they have rights from day one, enabling businesses to take chances on hires while giving more people confidence to re-enter the job market or change careers, improving their living standards.
- End ‘exploitative’ zero-hours contracts – those on zero and low hours contracts will gain the right to a guaranteed hours contract if they work regular hours over a defined period.
- Family friendly rights – rights to paternity, unpaid parental and bereavement leave will start from day one.
- Statutory sick pay – the current three-day waiting period and the lower earnings limit will be removed allowing many more employees to benefit from this payment.
- Flexible Working – this will become a default right for all, unless the employer is able to refuse the request on one of a number of prescribed grounds and that refusal is reasonable. Employers have been promised clear guidance on how best to deal with those requests.
- Pregnant women and new mothers – have been promised stronger dismissal protections.
- A new Fair Work Agency – this will bring together different government enforcement bodies, enforce holiday pay for the first time and strengthen statutory sick pay. It will create a stronger, recognisable single organisation that people know where to go for help – with better support for employers who want to comply with the law and tough action on the minority who deliberately flout it.
- Unions – will see rights and protections strengthened with a number of ‘anti-union’ laws repealed.
The Government will also publish a ‘Next Steps’ document to outline reforms that, subject to consultation, it will look to implement in the future such as:
- a ‘right to switch off’, preventing employees from being contacted out of hours, except in exceptional circumstances; and
- a move towards a single status of worker and transition towards a simpler two-part framework for employment status.
We will provide further updates over the coming weeks and months as details and deadlines for implementation of these changes become clearer. What is certain, is that Labour intends to reshape the employment law landscape for the foreseeable future and this will lead to significant changes in how many employers run operations.