Government Publishes Good Work Plan

The Government has published a series of proposed changes to employment law, following the Matthew Taylor Good Work Review. Matthew Taylor is the Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Arts and was commissioned by the Government to complete an independent review to explore Britain's changing labour market and how workers' rights could be better protected.

Following the Good Work Review, the Government published the Good Work Plan on the 17th December 2018 and laid down the first statutory instruments the very next day.

Statutory instruments are a form of legislation which allow the provisions of an Act of Parliament to be subsequently brought into force or altered without Parliament having to pass a new Act. They are also referred to as secondary, delegated or subordinate legislation.

Following the Good Work Review the following legislation will come into force on 6 April 2020:

The Employment Rights (Employment Particulars and Paid Annual Leave) (Amendment) Regulations 2018. It provides that the ‘written statement of employment particulars’ must be given to the employee from day one of employment. Currently written statement of employment particulars must be given within 2 months or 1 month, if employee has worked continuously Stefanko and others v Maritime Hotel Ltd.

It also changes the rules for calculating a week's pay for holiday pay purposes, increasing the reference period for variable pay from 12 weeks to 52 weeks. This is a very important change for employees who work irregular hours.

The Agency Workers (Amendment) Regulations 2018 abolishes the Swedish Derogation for agency workers. This will close a legal loophole in the UK Agency Worker Regulations that allows agency workers to be paid inferior pay rates to permanent employees.