Following the Government’s commitment to introduce significant reform to employment law, the Employment Rights Bill (“Bill”) was published on 11th October 2024, together with a “Next Steps” document. There is no set date for the Bill’s introduction; however, it is widely reported that October 2026 is the likely date.
We set out below a summary of the key points: –
Unfair Dismissal
The current two year service qualifying requirement is to be removed and employees will have the right to claim unfair dismissal from day one, provided they have started work. There is to be a consultation on a new statutory probationary period. It is rumoured that this will be a period of nine months.
Fire and Re-Hire
It will be automatically unfair to dismiss an employee for refusing to accept a contract variation, except where the business will not survive without it.
Zero Hour Contracts
Workers will have the right to a guaranteed hours contract to reflect the number of hours they have worked in a relevant reference period. They will also have the right to reasonable notice of a shift cancellation or changes to a shift.
Flexible Working
The changes will require employers to explain why they consider it reasonable to refuse an application on one of the grounds already exists.
Statutory Sick Pay
SSP will be paid from the first day of sickness and the lower earnings threshold is to be removed.
Redundancy Consultation
The trigger for collective consultation which is currently determined based on individual establishments will instead be dependent on the number of redundancies across the whole business.
Paternity, Parental and Bereavement Leave
Paternity Leave and Parental Leave will become day one rights. Bereavement Leave is to be extended, although the detail of the relationship required with the deceased is not clear. Leave for loss of a child will remain at two weeks, whereas all other bereavements will be one week.
Protection for Pregnancy and New Mothers
There will be increased protection for pregnant women and new mothers, including whilst pregnant and within six months after returning to work.
Sexual Harassment
Employers will be subject to a new duty to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of employees.
The Bill also reverses the position in relation to third party harassment. It prohibits an employer from permitting an employee to be harassed by a third party and requires all reasonable steps to be taken to prevent this.
Allegations of sexual harassment will also fall to be protected under the whistleblowing legislation.
Equality Action Plans – Gender Pay and Menopause
Employers with over 250 employees will be required to have action plans for gender pay reporting and to support employees going through menopause.
Trade Union and Collective Rights
There are various measures to reinforce the above and increase protection. One measure likely to be a general application to all employers is that employees’ terms must include confirmation of their right to join a trade union.
Enforcement Agency
The establishment of a Fair Work Agency will bring together existing enforcement powers and also enforce rights such as holiday pay.
There are certain matters that the Bill does not include but that the Government has committed to implement in the future as outlined in its “Next Steps” document. These include:-
A right to switch off, preventing employees from being contacted out of hours except in exceptional circumstances.
A requirement for large employers to report their ethnicity and disability pay gap.
A move towards single status of workers and transition towards a simpler two part framework for employment status.
Review of parental leave and carers system.
Review of TUPE.
Review of Health and Safety guidance and regulations, including neurodiversity and long Covid.
Raising collective grievances.
This note is a short overview of the measures and further details will follow. If you require any additional information or would like to discuss anything in more detail, please contact one of the team.
