The Government has recently made a number of amendments to the Employment Rights Bill, which are explored below. Whilst the amendments provide further clarity, there is still a way to go in terms of finalising the bill and what will ultimately be included. The Bill will now be considered at the House of Lords, as it has finished its third reading in the House of Commons.
Zero-hour contracts and agency workers
One of the main developments relates to agency workers and zero-hour contracts. The Employment Rights Bill includes the introduction of a right to guaranteed hours in a bid to tackle the one-sided flexibility in zero-hour contracts. Following the recent amendments to the Bill, agency workers will be included in the right to be offered guaranteed hours if they are on zero-hour or low-hour contracts. In addition, they will also be included in the right to reasonable notice of shifts and entitled to compensation in the event that their shifts are changed last minute. The agency and end user will both be responsible for this reasonable notice.
There will also be a new provision that allows a collective agreement to remove the rights to guaranteed hours and reasonable notice of shifts for workers and agency workers. In other words, the employer and trade union can agree to exclude the new rights of guaranteed hours and reasonable notice of shifts and replace these with something else, if these new terms are incorporated into the contract.
Collective redundancy
The Bill originally proposed to remove the requirement for collective consultation to be triggered if 20 or more redundancies are taking place at “one establishment” so that the threshold applied across all workplaces/ the whole of the business. Following consultation, the Government has changed its position on this and the obligation to collectively consult will be triggered where there are either:
- 20 or more redundancies “at one establishment” within a 90-day period or
- the number of redundancies meets a “threshold number” (to be specified in regulations but which will be higher than 20) – so employers will need to count redundancies across all sites/workplaces.
The Government has also brought forward an amendment to the Bill which will double the maximum period of the protective award for failing to adhere to collective consultation requirements from 90 to 180 days. This is in favour of employees, and it is hoped that this will encourage employers to comply with collective redundancy procedures by substantially increasing the risk of non-compliance. It has also been decided by the Government that interim relief will not be made available to employees who bring claims for these protective awards or who make unfair dismissal claims in a fire and rehire scenario.
Collective Rights
Some amendments have also been made in relation to trade unions and industrial relations which include strengthening protections against unfair practices during the statutory recognition process, removing the ten-year requirement for unions to ballot their members on the maintenance of a political fund, simplifying the current information requirements for industrial action ballots and notices, extending the expiry of a trade union’s mandate for industrial action from six to twelve months and providing for digital rights of access to the workplace for collective bargaining purposes.
Statutory Sick Pay
The Bill also proposes that statutory sick pay (SSP) will not only be payable from Day 1, but that those who earn below the lower earnings limit, which is currently £123 per week, will be eligible for sick pay. A new amendment and related regulations will provide for this, and the Government have now confirmed that sick pay will be paid at the lower of the prescribed rate which is currently £116.75 per week (to increase to £118.75 in April 2025) or 80% of average weekly earnings.
Right to Switch Off
It has been reported that the Government intends to abandon the right to switch off. The principle of this is that workers would be able to ignore any work-related calls or emails outside of working hours, allowing them the opportunity to completely switch off from work. This right was not included in the Employment Rights Bill and has also not been added at the consultation stages of the bill. According to reports, the Government is expected to confirm its removal shortly.