The government has unveiled its Next Steps to Make Work Pay alongside the publication of its Employment Rights Bill today.
The paper highlights the government’s vision and objectives for Make Work Pay, the Employment Rights Bill and wider reforms, covering its plans to deliver measures sitting outside of the Employment Rights Bill.
Angela Rayner MP, deputy prime minister and Jonathan Reynolds MP, secretary of state for business and trade said in a joint statement: “This document sets out the next steps we intend to make in our mission to effect change and make work pay. We know that we will be judged by our actions, not our words.
“We invite businesses, workers and unions to continue to work with us in partnership to ensure that the important improvements in rights and conditions we are making for workers are pragmatic for businesses of all sizes.”
Employment Rights Bill
Employment Rights Bill: nine-month probation among 28 reforms
This week’s Employment Rights Bill ‘could take years’ to kick in
With the reforms being implemented in phases, targeted consultations after the introduction of some measures, including one exploring what the percentage replacement rate for those earning below the current flat rate of statutory sick pay should be.
The government will also consult to “ensure zero-hours contracts are effectively and appropriately applied to agency workers, as well as on reforms to modernise and update trade union laws so they are fit for the modern economy, with the potential to inform further amendments during the bill’s passage”.
The document acknowledges that more detail on many of the policies will be provided through regulations, and in some cases codes of practice, after Royal Assent.
It stated: “This government understands that adjusting to these new reforms will take time and is committed to ensuring that all stakeholders receive appropriate time to prepare for these changes ahead of their commencement.
“We expect to begin consulting on these reforms in 2025, seeking significant input from all stakeholders, and anticipate this meaning that the majority of reforms will take effect no earlier than 2026. Reforms of unfair dismissal will take effect no sooner than autumn 2026.”
As part of the government’s consultation, it will seek stakeholders’ views to ensure any extra time needed is factored into any decision-making, and also aims to publish any necessary guidance for them to make the required adjustments.
In terms of family-friendly rights, some immediate changes will be introduced, including making flexible working the default, establishing a new right to bereavement leave”
In terms of family-friendly rights, some immediate changes will be introduced, including making flexible working the default, establishing a new right to bereavement leave, making paternity and parental leave a day one right, and strengthening protections for pregnant women and new mothers returning to work.
However, the government will also consider further steps, recognising that “the current parental leave system does not support working parents”.
It will also review the introduction of carer’s leave and decide whether changes to the current approach are needed.
A consultation will take place on a simpler “single status” framework that differentiates between workers and the genuinely self-employed, “ensuring that all workers know their rights and have the comfort of protection at work”.
While the Low Pay Commission has been instructed to take into account of the cost of living when setting minimum wage rates and help remove “discriminatory age bands”, the Employment Rights Bill will also enable the government to bring forward a framework for a Fair Pay Agreement process in the adult social care sector and it will launch a consultation on how it should work.
Some measures will be delivered through the Equality (Race and Disability) Bill, including extending pay gap reporting to ethnicity and disability for employers with more than 250 staff”
The document stated: “Care workers deserve to be recognised and fairly rewarded for the important work they do and so those working in social care will be at the heart of government’s social care reforms.”
Not all reforms will have to be introduced through legislation, for example, the Right to Switch Off will be implemented through a statutory Code of Practice.
Some measures will be delivered through the Equality (Race and Disability) Bill, including extending pay gap reporting to ethnicity and disability for employers with more than 250 staff and measures on equal pay, extending equal pay rights to protect workers suffering discrimination on the basis of race or disability, which the government believes will ensure that “outsourcing of services can no longer be used by employers to avoid paying equal pay” and implementing a regulatory and enforcement unit for equal pay with involvement from trade unions.
Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance
Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday
Latest HR job opportunities on Personnel Today
Browse more human resources jobs
