New Employment Rights Bill: What’s changing?
Last week the government announced its new Employment Rights Bill, which aims to vastly expand workers’ rights protections and extend most employment rights from ‘Day 1’, and generally shift the balance towards workers and employees.
What's in the Bill?
- Right to claim unfair dismissal from day 1 – this will be subject to a ‘probationary period’, presently suggested to 9 months, in which employers could still dismiss for competency reasons or because the employee lacked a legal right to work. Consultation is still ongoing on the detail of the probationary period, and other implementation details.
- More protection for those on zero-hour contracts – this will include rights to guaranteed hours, reasonable notice of shift changes, and compensation for last minute cancellation or changing of shifts. The protections will not apply to agency workers or those without worker status.
- No more waiting days for Statutory Sick Pay – employees will be able to claim SSP from the first day of sickness. The lower earnings limit will be removed so that those earning less than £123 per week can claim.
- Extended right to leave – both parents will be eligible to take maternity leave, paternity leave and unpaid parental leave from the start of employment. A new right to bereavement leave will also be created.
- Making flexible working “the default” – the right to request flexible working has been a ‘day 1’ right since March 2024. The eligible statutory reasons for refusing a request will remain the same, but employers must now show that it is ‘reasonable’ to refuse the request, potentially giving the provisions more teeth.
- Better protection from “fire and re-hire” – companies will now need to show that changes to employee terms and conditions were unavoidable, and that failure to make them would result in the business having to close in the immediate future. This is a much higher bar for the employer than required under current case law.
- Expansion of trade union rights – the bill removes a number of restrictions on the right to strike and organise, such as the minimum service levels provisions introduced by the government last year. The bill also strengthens protections for workers subjected to a detriment for participating in a strike, and expands the right of access of trade unions to workplaces.
When will these changes happen?
The bill is likely to take some time to become law – at least until 2025. The end of ‘minimum service levels’ requirements for public sector strikes will happen as soon as the Bill is passed, and many of the provisions relating to trade unions will come into effect two months after the Bill is passed.
The rest of the Act will come into force when the Secretary of State makes the relevant regulations. The government has signaled that unfair dismissal protections will come into effect no earlier than autumn of 2026. It is likely that the government will give sufficient notice to employers before the most significant changes are implemented.
Many of the details of the bill are to be covered by further regulations issued by the secretary of state, and so the full provisions that employers will have to comply with may not be known until after the bill is passed – consultation with employers and business groups will continue as the bill makes its way through parliament.
Is there more to come?
Yes, the government’s Next Steps to Make Work Pay policy paper envisages further changes to be consulted on and brought in over the coming years. These include:
- Removing age bands for the minimum wage, putting all workers on the same rate regardless of age
- Modernising health and safety guidance
- Extending Equal Pay rights to include discrimination on the basis of race or disability, and creating a new enforcement unit for Equal Pay
- Creation of a ‘single worker status’
- Strengthening protections for those with self-employed status
- A review of TUPE regulations
- Allowing employees to raise grievances collectively
We will publish more articles in the coming weeks giving more detail on the new changes contained in the Employment Bill, and will bring you news of further changes as and when the government announces them. It is going to be very important for employers to stay aware of changes and when they are happening, to avoid staff discontent and potential Tribunal litigation.
The government’s Advisory and Conciliation Service (ACAS) have also recently published a free webinar for employers, explaining the impact of the Bill (note you will need to provide your name and e-mail to view the webinar).
