Major reform of employment law rights on the cards
Yesterday the government announced the details of the Employment Rights Bill which aims to introduce significant changes to the rights of workers. In all, the Bill sets out 28 employment law reforms, including:
- Making unfair dismissal a day one right, but subject to a new statutory probationary period which it is anticipated will introduce a lighter touch process for dealing with all but redundancy cases. The government will consult on the length of the probationary period but nine months is proposed.
- Protection from dismissal for pregnant woman and returners from maternity leave will be strengthened, with the government proposing to make it unlawful to dismiss within six months of return except in specific circumstances
- controversial ‘fire and rehire’ practices will be curtailed by making it automatically unfair to dismiss an employee for refusing to agree to changes to their employment contract, unless the employer can show that financial difficulties mean that the change is not reasonably avoidable.
- A new right for zero-hour workers to be offered a guaranteed hours contract reflecting the hours they have regularly worked over a reference period, and the right to be given reasonable notice of any changes to working hours and to be paid compensation if shifts are cancelled or cut short.
- Amendment of the part of the Equality Act 2010 coming into force later this month, introducing the requirement on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace, extending the requirement to “all reasonable steps”.
- Introduction of employer liability for third party harassment.
- Making statutory sick pay a day one right, so that the current three-day waiting period will cease to apply.
- Making unpaid parental leave, paternity leave and (a new right to) bereavement leave day one rights.
- Creating a new Fair Work Agency, which will, among other things, deal with enforcement of the National Minimum Wage, holiday pay, and Statutory Sick Pay.
The Bill will have its second reading on 21 October 2024.
To find out more, contact Marie Allen on 01473 211121 or email marie.allen@gotelee.co.uk
