The Employment Rights Bill has now landed. Here are the key takeaways...
Day 1 Rights
Unfair dismissal
The Bill removes the two-year qualifying period of employment for protection from unfair dismissal. Employees will be able to bring a claim from the first day of their employment. This appears to be limited to employees who have already begun work, not prospective employees.
Paternity and parental leave
The Bill introduces a day one right to paternity leave and unpaid parental leave.
Sick pay
The Bill removes the current three day waiting period and lower earnings limit for statutory sick pay.
Restricting ‘fire and re-hire’ practices
The Bill proposes a new form of automatic unfair dismissal if an employee is dismissed for refusing to vary their contract of employment.
Flexible working
The Bill requires any refusal of a flexible working application to be reasonable (however the specified grounds for refusal are similar to those currently permissible). The employee must evidence the reasonableness of their refusal in writing.
Zero-Hour contracts
Zero and low hour contracts have not been banned but workers have been given more rights. This includes the right for qualifying workers to be offered a guaranteed hours contract if they work regular hours over a period of time. Essentially, workers can ask their employer for a contract of employment that represents the number of hours they have worked over a period of time. There also appears to be a right to be given reasonable notice of a shift, and payment for cancellation of a shift at short notice.
Maternity leave and pregnancy
The Bill introduces strengthened protections from dismissal while women are pregnant, on maternity leave or within six months of returning to work.
Bereavement leave
The Bill proposes a day-one right to paid bereavement leave, which is modelled on adapting the existing parental bereavement leave regime.
Protection from harassment
The Bill introduces the obligation for employers to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment and introduces full liability for third party harassment.
Reporting sexual harassment will also gain protection as a whistleblowing disclosure.
Trade Union and industrial action
The Bill introduces a wide range of rights for Trade Unions and protections for employees when taking industrial action.
Next steps...
The Government have published a ‘Next steps’ document for future implementation including:
- Right to switch off
A right to switch off which prevents employers form contacting employees out of hours, except in exceptional circumstances.
- Equal pay
A commitment to end pay discrimination by requiring large employers to report their ethnicity and disability pay gap as part of expanding the Equality (Race and Disparity) Bill
- Single status worker
A move towards the removal of three different types of worker to one single status.
Conclusion
Exactly how the changes will manifest will be a matter of practical implementation and case law but for now…we now await the second reading of the Bill (21 October 2024).
