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Ron Alalouff is a journalist specialising in the fire and security markets, and a former editor of websites and magazines in the same fields.
October 14, 2024

ANALYSIS

UK Employment Rights Bill – What does it mean?

Labour says its new legislation will deliver “biggest upgrade to rights at work for a generation”. Ron Alalouff analyses the Bill.

Banning compulsory zero-hours contracts, the introduction of basic employment rights from day one, and the right of employees to request flexible working are among measures in the Employment Rights Bill announced by the government on 10 October.

The Bill will give greater protection against unfair dismissal from day one, removing the existing two-year qualifying period for the remedy. It also provides for bereavement, paternity and parental leave from the outset of employment.

Statutory probation period with ‘day one’ rights

A new statutory probation period for new hires – the length of which will be open to consultation but which the government favours a period of nine months – is also among the proposed measures. According to the government this period will allow for a proper assessment of employees’ suitability for a role, while giving them protection from unfair dismissal from day one.

The proposals will strengthen statutory sick pay entitlement, removing the lower earnings limit for all workers and cutting out the waiting period before sick pay kicks in. It will also make flexible working the norm where practical, though exactly how this will be implemented remains to be seen.

According to an analysis by Slaughter and May, the Bill retains the current mechanism for an employee to request flexible working, but the reasonableness criterion on the part of the employer will also apply to the reason for refusing the request. “Far from introducing a right to work flexibly,” says the analysis, “the Bill in fact does little to change the current position on requests for flexible working”.

Limits on zero-hours contracts

While workers will be able to stay on zero-hours contracts if they wish, they will have the right to a guaranteed hours contract if they work regular hours over a defined period. The Bill includes provisions for guaranteed hours offers, rights to reasonable notice of work shifts or changes or cancellation of shifts, and rights to payment for cancelled, altered or curtailed shifts.

Aside from the Bill, there will be a longer-term consultation on moving towards a single status of worker. Again, this falls short of Labour’s original proposals for eliminating zero hours contracts and having a single status of worker, with clear differentiation between workers and the genuinely self-employed.

Large employers will be required to take action to address gender equality, including supporting employees through the menopause, and protections against dismissal will be strengthened for pregnant workers and those returning from maternity leave. The government says its intention is to keep people in jobs longer, reduce recruitment costs for employers by increasing staff retention, and help the economy grow.

There will also be a new Fair Work Agency bringing together existing enforcement bodies to enforce rights such as holiday pay, and to support employers looking for guidance on how to comply with the law.

In some cases, the Bill contains detailed provisions but in many others it simply provides ministers with the power to make regulations. This will allow the detail of certain proposals to be fleshed out after consultation.

‘Unscrupulous’ fire and rehire practices banned

The Bill seeks to end ‘fire and rehire’ and ‘fire and replace’ practices by reforming the current law, including a new ground of automatic unfair dismissal where the employer sought to vary the employee’s contract and the employee did not agree to it.

Protection will also apply where the employer seeks to employ someone else to carry out the same duties. The only exception to prohibiting ‘fire and rehire/replace’ would be if a business could show that it would otherwise be at risk of complete financial collapse.

The previous government’s statutory code is to be replaced by these new provisions and a new statutory code of practice introduced.

Greater protection against harassment by the employer and by third parties is also included in the proposed legislation. The Bill also makes provision for pay and conditions in low-paid sectors such as school support staff and adult social care workers, strengthens trade union rights in the workplace, and repeals the last government’s minimum service levels legislation.

“The UK’s out-of-date employment laws are holding our country back and failing business and workers alike,” said Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner.” Our plans to make work pay will deliver security in work as the foundation for boosting productivity and growing our economy, to make working people better off and realise our potential.”

Business Secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, said: “The best employers know that employees are more productive when they are happy at work. That is why it’s vital to give employers the flexibility they need to grow whilst ending unscrupulous and unfair practices.”

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