The Government has announced details of what to expect from the Employment Rights Bill due to be unveiled in Parliament later today. The Government has confirmed that the Bill will include measures to:
- Make unfair dismissal a ‘day one’ right – scrapping the two-year qualifying period for protection from unfair dismissal. The Government will consult on a statutory probation period for new hires to assess their suitability for a role but how this will work remains unclear.
- End ‘exploitative’ zero-hours contracts – notably this is not a complete ban on zero-hours contracts but will instead allow those on zero and low hours contracts to gain the right to a guaranteed hours contract if they work regular hours over a defined period
- End ‘unscrupulous fire and rehire practices’ – again it remains unclear whether fire and rehire will be prohibited in all situations or whether the existing rules will be tightened.
- Introduce rights to paternity, unpaid parental and bereavement leave from day one
- Remove the current three-day waiting period and the lower earnings limit for statutory sick pay
- Strengthen flexible working by making it the default and compelling employers to justify where they consider that this is impractical
- Require large employers to create action plans on addressing gender pay gaps and supporting employees through the menopause
- Strengthen protections for pregnant women and new mothers, including protection from dismissal while pregnant, on maternity leave and within six months of returning to work
- Repeal the trade union legislation introduced by the previous Government
- Removing age bands in national minimum wage.
The legislation does not include all of the elements indicated in the Labour Party’s ‘Plan to Make Work Pay’. The Government will also publish a ‘Next Steps’ document to outline reforms that it will look to implement in the future. Subject to consultation, these will include:
- a ‘right to switch off’, preventing employees from being contacted out of hours, except in exceptional circumstances
- a commitment to end pay discrimination to make it mandatory for large employers to report their ethnicity and disability pay gap as well as their gender pay gap
- a move towards a single status of worker removing the distinction between workers and employees. Self-employed contractors will remain unchanged.
- reviews of the parental leave and carers leave systems.
Many of the changes proposed will require amendment to Acts of Parliament meaning that they are unlikely to reach the statute books immediately but with the Labour Party’s large majority it is envisaged that the legislation will be pushed through reasonably swiftly.
If you have any questions about any of the new reforms, please contact our Employment Team on 0345 646 0406 or complete an online enquiry form, and a member of the team will be in touch.