The Employment Rights Bill was introduced by Parliament on 10 October 2024. There are 28 individual reforms, many of which are subject to further consultation and will not be immediately in force (October 2026 being mooted for some of the changes).
As employment solicitors we have a lot to grasp, and there will be much discussion about the intricacies and nuances of this new bill, and aspects are likely to be further amended, but briefly, there is an intention to end exploitative zero-hour contracts with requirements for guaranteed hours, notice of shift patterns and cancellations. ‘Fire and Rehire’ will effectively be banned in all but the most extreme circumstances (i.e. severe financial situations which could result in the employer having no choice but to become insolvent) and will become an automatic unfair dismissal.
There will be a shift with flexible working in that it should be the default position, and that the employer will be required to set out in writing why their refusal to accommodate the flexible working request is reasonable (albeit there are quite a few statutory grounds for employers to choose from). It will also become unlawful to dismiss a woman whilst pregnant, on maternity leave and within 6 months of returning to work (with some exceptions).
Statutory sick pay, the right to paternity leave and parental leave become day one rights rather than day 3 for SSP or 26 weeks service before the right to paternity and parental leave arises. ‘Parental’ will be removed from bereavement leave legislation so that it applies to all.
The big one is that there will be more protection for employees with unfair dismissal being a day one right which had previously had a 2-year qualifying period however the government intend for there to be a statutory probation period (likely to be 9 months) which they will consult on.
The collective redundancy threshold of 20 employees will now apply to the whole business rather than one site.
Employers will have more liability for third party harassment – please see here for our previous article on this.
There will also be the creation of a Fair Work Agency to enforce matters such as national minimum wage and holiday pay and employers with 250 or more employees will be required to publish equality action plans plus gender pay gap information.
Plus there will be several trade union related changes.
Going forward, but not in the bill, the government have indicated further future reforms including the ‘right to switch off’, they will try to deal with the uncertainty of employee/worker status and want a requirement for larger employers to report on pay based upon ethnicity and disability.
If your business needs help in implementing these changes, please contact us on 01483 303636 or info@justemployment.com to see how we can help you.
Please note that this article is based upon information available on the date of publication. There are further consultations required on several of the matters set out above so no reliance should be placed on this content.
