Buckle up: employment changes are coming thick and fast

The King attended the state opening of parliament today to read out a speech which set out the government's legislative plans. The speech itself was light on detail: it mentioned driving economic growth through developing partnerships between business and working people, providing a “new deal” for working people and securing equal pay.

The background briefing notes put a bit more flesh on the bones and reveal that the government will introduce two employment related bills. 

1. Employment Rights Bill 

The Employment Bill will be presented to parliament within the government's first 100 days in office (so, on or before 13 October 2024) and it will include most of the proposals set out in Labour's plan to make work pay which we outlined here. The government says that these changes are the "biggest upgrade to workers' rights in a generation”.

The changes include:

• providing a genuine living wage and removing the current age bands that apply to the NMW and NLW 
• banning exploitative zero-hour contracts
• ending fire and re-hire practices
• extending day one employment rights to include unfair dismissal rights, SSP and parental leave
• removing the lower earnings limit to SSP and removing the waiting days
• making flexible working the default position for all workers
• strengthening protections for new mothers by making it unlawful to dismiss a woman within six months of her returning to work 
• establishing a new Single Enforcement Body to enforce workplace rights
• establishing a Fair Pay Agreement in the adult social care sector
• reinstating the school support staff negotiating body
• updating trade union legislation and simplifying the process of statutory recognition

Although the government has said that is committed to delivering its new deal for working people in full, the guidance document does not mention several proposals that were included in the new deal. This includes its ambitious plans to get rid of the two-tiered system of employment rights which distinguish between workers and employees; introducing a right to switch off; extending the timeline to bring employment tribunal claims to six months for all types of claims and introducing legislation to prevent workers from being harassed by third parties.

We'll have to wait and see whether these are included in the Bill.

2.  Equality (Race and Disability) Bill

This bill aims to tackle inequality for ethnic minority and disabled people by:

• enshrining in law the full right to equal pay for ethnic minorities and disabled people which will make it easier for them to bring equal pay claims, and
• introducing mandatory ethnicity and disability pay reporting for large employers (those with 250+ employees) to help close ethnicity and disability pay gaps

What happens now?

The government now has to draft legislation to give effect to these promises. Once we see the Bill, we will be able to help you to prepare for the changes ahead. 

Our newsletters

We publish monthly employment newsletters. If you'd like to be added to the mailing list, please let me know.