The highly anticipated new Employment Rights Bill (“the Bill”) has finally been published and we take a look at the key changes proposed by the government.
- Unfair Dismissal – the current two-year qualifying period will be removed, enabling employees to bring unfair dismissal claims from day one. It is anticipated that this will be subject to a statutory probationary period (discussed below) applicable to new recruits, enabling employers to dispense with following a full process during that period. Nonetheless, it is anticipated this change will give an estimated 9 million employees unfair dismissal rights.
- Statutory Probation Period – the length of the new statutory probationary period is subject to further consultation but, whilst it had been anticipated that it would be for a six-month period, it is rumoured the government are considering a nine-month period. Watch this space!
- Paternity Leave, Parental Leave and Bereavement Leave – the statutory right to take paternity leave and parental leave will be become a “day one” right and bereavement leave will be extended to include anyone who has suffered a bereavement. The details of the relationship with the deceased is currently unclear. The period of leave for losing a child will remain at two weeks and the period of leave for any other bereavement will be one week.
- Statutory Sick Pay – the three day waiting period will be removed so statutory sick pay will be paid from the first day of sickness and the lower earnings limit will be removed. Instead, statutory sick pay will be set by the Secretary of State as a percentage of pay. The percentage is yet to be confirmed.
- Flexible working – despite all the recent publicity and speculation in the media around a four day working week, and the government’s pledge in their manifesto to make “flexible working the default from day one for all workers, except where it is not reasonably feasible”, the Bill merely introduces a need for the employer to state the grounds for refusing the request and to explain why they consider it reasonable to refuse on one of the existing grounds for refusal.
- Enhanced protections for pregnant women and new mothers – the Bill proposes to strengthen existing protection afforded to pregnant employees and mothers returning from maternity leave. The detail in the Bill is vague but it is anticipated that protection against dismissal will be extended to a period of six months following a mothers return from maternity leave.
- Zero Hour Contracts – it is proposed that an employer must offer guaranteed hours to a worker, reflecting the number of hours worked during the previous reference period, that they give the worker a right to reasonable notice of a shift, and that the worker has a right to reasonable notice of cancellation of a shift or change to a shift.
- Fire and Rehire – it is proposed that the dismissal of an employee for refusing a contract variation will become one of the automatically unfair grounds to dismiss. There will be very limited circumstances in which it will be fair to dismiss by way of fire and rehire.
- Protection from Third Party Sexual Harassment – in addition to the new legislation coming into force on 26 October 2024 imposing a new preventative duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent harassment of employees, including harassment from third parties, in the workplace, the Bill proposes to introduce a new duty on employers to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of its staff by third parties.
- Gender Pay Gap / Menopause – the Bill proposes to increase the obligations for those employers with 250+ employees requiring them to develop and publish an action plan on gender pay reporting, showing steps being taken with regard to gender equality. Employers are also required to support employees going through the menopause and develop and publish an action plan in respect of the same.
- Collective Redundancy Consultation – the Bill seeks to clarify that the collective consultation obligations kick in where there are 20 or more redundancies across the whole business. I.e. separate shops and establishments should not be treated separately.
- Written Statement of Particulars of Employment – a written statement will need to include the right for a worker to join a trade union.
Whilst we don’t have a date yet, when the changes will come into force, it is likely to be in 2025. As such, in anticipation of the changes, it is sensible to start preparing for them now and we would recommend as a starting point a review of your contracts, policies and procedures and subsequently putting adequate training in place to ensure your managers understand the changes, the significance of some of these changes, and you have an action plan in place.
There is still a way to go before the Bill is enacted into legislation, meaning further changes could be made, but it is likely that the new legislation will look similar to that outlined in the Bill. Stay tuned for further updates as and when we have them!
If you have any queries regarding this or any other employment matter, please do not hesitate to contact a member of the team.
