Planned Changes to Employment Law

Following the Labour Government’s first King’s Speech on 17 July 2024, the newly formed Government promised two employment-related bills:

• An Employment Rights Bill

• A draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill

  
  

The new Government has promised to introduce its Employment Rights Bill within the first one hundred days (somewhere between 12 and 25 October 2024). 

According to the briefing notes, the Employment Rights Bill will:

• Ban exploitative zero-hours contracts.

• End "fire and rehire" and "fire and replace".

• Make parental leave, sick pay, and protection from unfair dismissal a day one right for all workers (subject to probationary periods to allow employers to assess new hires).

• Remove the lower earnings limit and the waiting period for Statutory Sick Pay. 

• Make flexible working the default from day one for all workers.

• Strengthen protections for new mothers, making it unlawful to dismiss a woman who has had a baby for six months after her return to work, other than in exceptional circumstances.

• Establish a Fair Work Agency to strengthen enforcement of workplace rights.

• Update trade union legislation, removing restrictions on trade union activity.

  
  
  
  

The draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill

According to the briefing notes, the Government intends 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.

• Introducing mandatory ethnicity and disability pay reporting for large employers (those with 250+ employees).

Additional implications for employers

In the future, the Government intends to introduce a “genuine living wage”, including removing what it describes as “discriminatory age bands”.

What happens next?

We will need to wait and see the draft legislation itself in order to fully understand what changes are being introduced, and how the reforms might work in practice.

The introduction of a bill is the first step in a process which includes a number of stages. This first step of the process is expected to happen somewhere between 12 and 25 October 2024.

Fire and Re-hire – what you need to know.

The statutory Code of Practice on dismissal and re-engagement came into force last month on 18th July.

If a contract change has not been agreed between an employer and its employee(s) then the employer might propose to introduce the change by dismissing and rehiring employee(s). This is known as 'fire and rehire' or 'dismissal and re-engagement'.

This is where an employer gives its employees notice that they propose to:

• dismiss employees from their existing contract

• offer to rehire them on new terms

Employers need to be aware that they should only do this as a last resort. They should follow the new Code of Practice on dismissal and re-engagement on GOV.UK

The new code of practice aims to tackle the use of 'fire and rehire' as a negotiation tactic to pressurise employees and sets out what employers must do in this situation.  

In future, the courts and employment tribunals will take the Code into account when considering relevant cases. This will include on unfair dismissal claims where the employer should have followed the Code.

Employment tribunals will have the power to apply an uplift of up to 25% of an employee’s compensation if an employer unreasonably fails to comply with the Code.

The new Code clarifies how employers should behave when seeking to change employees’ terms and conditions, aiming to ensure employees are properly consulted and treated fairly.

Employers will now also need to explore alternatives to dismissal and re-engagement and have meaningful discussions with employees or trade unions to reach an agreed outcome.

The Code can be found here

Carer's Leave set to come into force on 6 April 2024

From 6th April 2024 employees with caring responsibilities are entitled to take up to a week of unpaid leave each year to look after someone who relies on them because they are ill, have an injury, are disabled or have care needs because of their age.

This applies to all employees who need to give or arrange care for a dependant who has: 

• A physical or mental illness or injury that means they need care for more than three months

• A disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010

• Care needs because of their old age.

How much carers leave can an employee take?

Employees can take up to one week of leave every 12 months.  This is pro rata for part time employees.  For example, if an employee usually works three days a week, then they can take three days of carer’s leave.

Carers Leave can be taken as a whole week off or as individual days or half days throughout the year.

If an employee needs to care for more than one person, they cannot take a week of carer’s leave for each dependant. Employees can use the week of leave on more than one dependant.

Employers should now update their policies ready for April.

Further details regarding carers leave can be found here.