The Employment Rights Bill

Caroline Cobain
Legal Director
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As you will be aware from the build up since Labour’s manifesto pledges during this year’s election, and with Labour having subsequently been elected to government, Labour have been planning to make significant changes to employment law in the UK as we currently know it. Angela Rayner has described it as “the biggest upgrade to rights at work for a generation”, and it is.

The government’s press release Government unveils most significant reforms to employment rights – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) about the Employment Rights Bill (the “Bill”) (which has not yet been released) was recently unveiled.

As we expected, it is packed full of headline-grabbing revisions to UK employee rights and employer obligations.

The government press release states that the Bill, when it is finalised into statute and brought into force (being reported by BBC today that most of the new measures are anticipated to come into force in Autumn 2026, although some could conceivably be earlier), will “upgrade workers’ rights across the UK, tackle poor working conditions and benefit businesses and workers alike”.

The government has been clear that its objective, in bringing about the reforms, is to drive growth in the economy and to support more people into secure work.

Key points to note from the Bill:

• The current two-year unfair dismissal qualifying period is to be removed, meaning that all workers will have the right not to be unfairly dismissed from day one;
• A consultation period will follow on a new statutory probation period for new hires.  The government recognises that employers need to have, and retain, a period of time in which to properly assess a new employee’s suitability for the role, as well as giving comfort to employees that they have enhanced rights from the outset of the employment relationship. The detail of how this is proposed to work in practice (including definite timescales for such period, the grounds upon which an employer might part company with someone during the period, and the processes to be followed by employers if the employee is determined unsuitable for the role) is yet to be confirmed;
• As widely reported in the press beforehand, the Bill prohibits “exploitative” zero hours contracts making guaranteed hours a right if a worker works regular hours over a defined period of time;
• The practice of ‘fire and rehire’ will become unlawful;
• A number of family-related leave rights, such as paternity leave, parental leave and bereavement leave will become a day one right;
• Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) is to be reformed too – removing the first three waiting days (where currently SSP is not payable in respect of any period of absence, unless linked to an earlier absence) and making SSP payable from day one, and, with the lower earnings limit being removed,  available to all workers;
• The Bill envisages flexible working being the default where practical. This will need to be supplemented by detail clarifying when, as a matter of law, such a working arrangement is deemed to be practical for an employer;
• Other changes relate to identifying and tackling gender pay gaps in the case of larger employers;
• Menopause support by employers is to become a matter of law, as is greater protection against dismissal for pregnant women and new mothers;
• Interestingly, a new “Fair Work Agency” is to be established, which the government has announced will consolidate existing enforcement bodies and shall be tasked with enforcing holiday pay rights and providing support to employers on compliance with the new law.

We appreciate that these changes will look and feel daunting to many, if not all, employers, but a lot of the specifics around how, when and exactly what are yet to be fleshed out and announced. We shall be providing further JEL Alerts as and when further detail is known.

If you have any questions in the meantime, about the Bill or any other employment law matter, please do not hesitate to contact a member of the team on 0141 331 5150.

Topics: Dismissal and Re-engagement, Employment Rights Bill, Flexible working, Menopause, Statutory Sick Pay, Unfair Dismissal, Zero Hours Contracts