We round up the latest employment news.
Update on new legislation to extend the flexible working framework
The Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 has completed its passage through Parliament and now awaits Royal Assent. Once it’s passed into law, the government will have to introduce separate Regulations to bring it into force. Our best guess is that this will take place in 2024.
Once in force:
- Employees will be able to make two flexible working requests in any 12 month period
- Employers will have to deal with requests within two months of receipt (but the parties will be able to agree to extend this)
- Employers will be under a duty to consult with the employee before rejecting a request
- Employees won’t have to explain what effect they think their request will have on their employer and suggest ways to deal with this.
Over half of women face maternity discrimination
More than half of all mothers have faced some form of discrimination while pregnant, on maternity leave, or on their return to work, according to research carried out by campaign group Pregnant Then Screwed.
The group surveyed more than 24,000 parents, and revealed that:
- 19% had left their employment due to a negative experience related to their pregnancy or maternity leave
- 74% of women had received comments that their performance had dipped due to their pregnancy or being away from work on maternity leave
- 64% of pregnant women said their boss or colleagues had made hurtful comments about the way they looked
- 10% said they were bullied or harassed when pregnant or returning to work
- 7% were made redundant or forced to leave due to a flexible working request being declined or health and safety issues.
Parliament considers need for legislation to combat bullying at work
Last week, the first reading of the Bullying and respect at work Bill was debated in parliament. The Private Members Bill aims to provide a statutory definition of bullying at work (which does not just focus on protected characteristics) and establish mechanisms for reporting and investigating incidents. It also wants to promote positive behaviours through a Respect at Work code.
The Bill doesn’t have the support of the government and is unlikely to proceed to a second reading.
Eight organisations ‘named and shamed’ for failing to report on their gender pay gaps
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has released the names of eight organisations which have missed deadlines to report on their 2022–2023 gender pay gap data. That’s an improvement on the previous year, which named 28 organisations. In April and May 2023, EHRC sent warning notices to 730 organisations that have missed reporting deadlines, and most have now filed their reports.
The EHRC can send warning notices threatening formal enforcement action. If organisations fail to comply, the EHRC can seek a court order and impose an unlimited fine.
Government confirms that it won’t require organisations to report on their ethnicity pay gaps
The government has recently published its formal response to its consultation on ethnicity pay reporting, which confirms what we already knew: it will not compel employers to provide this information.
Earlier this year, it published guidance to help employers adopt a consistent methodology and approach if they want to volunteer this information. Access the guidance and read our thoughts on it here.
Government abandons Bill of Rights Bill
The government has confirmed that it will not proceed with its controversial plan to rewrite human rights law via its Bill of Rights. However, we believe that it is still committed to “a human rights framework which is up to date and fit for purpose and works for the British people.”
New research to support dyslexic thinkers in the workplace
Randstad Enterprise has collaborated with Made by Dyslexia to publish a report revealing the disparity between HR leaders’ perception of dyslexic employees experience in the workplace and the real-life experiences of 1,500 dyslexic employees. Recommendations have been made for employers to better support dyslexic thinkers at work.
Trade union membership down 20%
The annual report into trade unions reveals that trade union membership decreased by 19% between 2021 and 2022 to 5.4 million.
The total assets of trade unions decreased by 11.5% over the same period – from £2.6 billion to £2.3 billion.
Read more – July 2023
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