2024: the year's biggest news in employment and HR

The central event of the year for HR was the onset of the first Labour government since 2010. It was not a surprise that within months it acted on its commitment to beef up workers’ rights and strengthen unions. It also followed through on its promise not to raise income tax, but the state of the nation’s finances meant money had to be raised somewhere and employers’ national insurance was in the chancellor’s crosshairs – to the alarm of many business organisations. Other major themes included major redundancies in steel and vehicle manufacture, partly as the world moves toward greener technology. Major scandals around sexual harassment gave new impetus to demands for more action, bolstered by the arrival of the Worker Protection Act.

January: Post Office scandal bursts into public consciousness

Photo: Shutterstock

2 January Doctors strike leaves NHS ‘skating on the thin ice’

10 January Gender critical social worker wins tribunal case

11 January Post Office scandal reveals serious flaws in leadership. ITV dramatisation Alan Bates vs the Post Office draws public attention to the vast miscarriage of justice.

17 January Capita pulls out of real Living Wage

19 January Tata Steel announces it will close blast furnaces and make 2,800 redundant

24 January Amazon fined €32m for excessive employee monitoring in France

25 January Surge in government spending on unpaid wages and redundancy pay

26 January Bullying allegations have soared at MoD since 2019

30 January Employment tribunal fees to be reintroduced

February: Thrash metal drummer snares Elon Musk’s huge pay hike

Elon Musk.
Photo: PA Images/Alamy

1 February Candidate shortage afflicts two-thirds of businesses

2 February Deutsche Bank plans to cut 3,500 jobs worldwide

2 February Thrash metal drummer snares Elon Musk’s salary hike

9 February Tesco Bank staff to transfer to Barclays

13 February The Body Shop enters administration

15 February Third of women’s flexible work requests rejected in public sector

15 February UK enters technical recession

20 February Rise in number of low-paid jobs in UK

21 February Median pay awards fall as UK enters recession

22 February Most flexible employers

22 February UK four-day week trial hailed as a success one year on

26 February More people moving into ‘severely insecure work’

27 February One in five large firms has not analysed gender pay gap

28 February Tata Group says it will create around 4,000 jobs at new Somerset EV battery plant

March: Zero-hours contracts hit record levels

Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats are enhancing their right to work checks on substitute riders.

Abdul Shakoor / Shutterstock

7 March Boots to end hybrid working for office workers

8 March Sexual harassment in City firms still ‘shockingly prevalent’

14 March ‘Toxic culture’ at MoD as 100 cases are investigated

18 March Worker who suffered PTSD after Grenfell wins record £4.6m

20 March France to impose minimum wage on ferry operators

20 March Teacher recruitment in critical state in England

20 March Pay awards at lowest level in 18 months

22 March Zero-hours contracts hit record numbers

26 March Responsible guidance for use of AI in recruitment published

27 March CBI used NDAs to silence victims of sexual harassment

April: UK immigration rules slammed as harmful to business

Photo: Shutterstock

2 April Use of NDAs to prevent reporting a crime to be banned

3 April London mayor Sadiq Khan announces huge jobs plan

5 April Men working from home less likely to be promoted

9 April One in five highly skilled contractors not working because of IR35

11 April New UK immigration rules are slammed by businesses as harmful to the economy

17 April UK legislation which was found to offer no protection from detriment to workers who take part in industrial action is incompatible with international human rights law, rules the Supreme Court

22 April Aslef drivers to strike in May

23 April P&O workers to be paid French minimum wage

25 April KPMG cancels job offers to foreign graduates