The new Labour Government have just announced the new Employment Rights Bill, which includes 28 individual employment reforms. As well as these reforms, the Bill includes plans for employment legislation which is intended to be implemented in the future.
The new Bill includes:
- Day One right to protection from unfair dismissal. The existing two-year qualifying period for will be removed and workers will have a right to these protections from the very start of employment.
- Ending zero and low hours contracts and ensuring workers will gain the right to a contract with guaranteed hours if they work regular hours over a defined period, to give workers more security of earnings. Workers will still be allowed to remain on zero-hour contracts if they wish too.
- Ending “fire and rehire” practices.
- Introducing Day One rights to paternity leave, unpaid parental leave and bereavement leave.
- Strengthening protections for pregnant women and new mothers, including protection from dismissal while pregnant, on maternity leave and within six months of returning to work.
- Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) to be paid from the first day of illness absence; thus removing the three-day waiting period for SSP.
- Requiring larger employers to create plans to address gender pay gaps and programmes to support employees through the menopause.
- Changing the law to make flexible working the default for all where “practical” and to be implemented unless the Employer can prove its unreasonable.
- Establishing a new enforcement agency, called the Fair Work Agency, to bring together the various existing enforcement powers and enforce employment rights.
- Repealing the Minimum Service Levels legislation introduced by the previous Government.
- Addressing low pay and the cost-of-living crisis when setting minimum wage rates, as well as removing discriminatory age bands.
Beyond the Bill
The Government have also published a Next Steps document that outlines the further reforms that it wants to implement:
- A right to switch off: to prevent employees from being contacted out of hours (save in exceptional circumstances).
- A strong commitment to end pay discrimination by expanding the Equality (Race and Disparity) Bill.
- A move towards a single status of worker and transition towards a simpler two-part framework for employment status.
- Reviews into parental leave and carers leave to ensure they are fit for purpose.