As the Employment Rights Bill is published, employment law specialists share their initial thoughts on the proposals as flagged by the government on 10 October.
‘Be under no illusion, this Bill means business’
Luke Bowery, partner at UK law firm Burges Salmon
“It was a bold move for the government to promise an Employment Rights Bill within its first 100 days of power not least given the extent of its proposals for change.
Employers are likely to find it more difficult to turn down flexible working requests than is currently the case” – Luke Bowery
“With much talk of ‘100 days’, many had assumed the new suite of worker rights would come into play immediately. However, the new Bill is simply a step on the way – albeit a significant one, of course. Much of the detail is yet to be worked out so many reforms will not take effect until 2026 – and importantly changes to unfair dismissal will not be implemented until autumn 2026.
“In delivering its promised ‘once in a generation’ overhaul of workers’ rights, the government has a difficult balance to strike. It is, after all, also committed to delivering growth. The Bill has some concessions for employers. For example, while unfair dismissal will become a day one right, a fair dismissal of an employee who is “not right for the job” during any probationary period will be easier to achieve. A lighter touch dismissal process and a probationary period of potentially nine months are suggested to help with this.
Employment Rights Bill 2024
Employment Rights Bill: nine-month probation among 28 reforms
This week’s Employment Rights Bill ‘could take years’ to kick in
“A right to switch off which would have made it difficult for employers to contact their workers out of hours does not appear in the Bill. This will be addressed, instead, following consultation, through a statutory Code of Practice which is likely to offer more flexibility for employers in implementation.
“The government is seeking to extend flexible working by making it the ‘default’ in a bid to keep people in for work for longer and to increase retention rates. While these intentions may be commendable, the government’s stated aim is to ‘ensure more requests are agreed’ meaning employers are likely to find it more difficult to turn down requests than is currently the case.
“An area of concern for employers is the government’s proposals to conflate the status of ‘employee’ with that of ‘worker’ and award all workers the full suite of employment rights. Employment status is a complex area of law. Employers will be pleased, therefore, that the government, while remaining committed to reform, has acknowledged that this will take longer to undertake and implement and so will sit outside of the new Bill.
“With improved rights for mothers, fathers, those who are sick, new joiners, flexible workers, zero hours workers and many others as well, employers should be under no illusions – this Bill means business.”
‘How will the word ‘exploitative’ be defined?’
Martin Williams, head of employment and partner at Mayo Wynne Baxter
“It’s important for employers to remember that the Employment Rights Bill will have to go through the parliamentary process, with extensive consultation and secondary legislation required. This isn’t going to happen overnight or in its exact proposed form.
“It will be interesting to see what ‘banning exploitative zero-hours contracts’ will mean in practice as it will depend on how ‘exploitative’ is qualified.”
‘Bosses will be sighing with relief’
Jo Mackie, partner and leading employment lawyer at Burlingtons
“The Bill as proposed is good for business and, at best, so-so for workers. Bosses will be sighing with relief. The absence of a ‘right to disconnect’ tells its own story. Workers have been given the odd sweetener, such as the right to request flexible working. The only measure with teeth are the changes to zero hours contracts. The Bill does not make groundbreaking advances in workers rights as Labour had promised.”
‘Radical change’
Daniel Pollard, employment partner at Charles Russell Speechlys
“The most significant of the changes is the end to the unfair dismissal qualifying service limit. Currently, a third of the workforce do not have two years’ service and have no dismissal protection today. The change gives the third of the workforce dismissal protection overnight. This is possibly the most radical change to unfair dismissal law since it was first instructed in 1971.”
Will tribunals be reformed?
Paul Kelly, head of employment team at Blacks Solicitors
“One of the main concerns is the increased red tape that many small businesses will have to manage, which might have the unintended consequence of putting employers off hiring new staff and possibly dismissing those with less than two years’ service before the legislation comes into force. One aspect of the proposed reforms that has not yet been addressed is how the government will reform the employment tribunal service considering the anticipated increase in claims that will flow from these increased rights. Already suffering from severe backlogs and a lack of judges, whether the system can cope remains to be seen.”
Reporting sexual harassment will change
Ivor Adair, Partner at Fox & Partners
“Employers will need to reappraise how they prevent and handle the reporting of sexual harassment, which will benefit from whistleblowing protections. Also, new laws raising the bar of the duty to prevent sexual harassment from reasonable steps to ‘all reasonable steps’ could shift the dial in minimising sexual harassment, which continues to be a real problem in the workplace”.
Nothing will be immediate and nothing is certain
Jane Hallas, head of team and solicitor at WorkNest
“The government’s flagship new Employment Rights Bill contains over 158 pages with 119 sections and 7 schedules. This will take some time to absorb but nothing is going to happen immediately, with the bill expected to get Royal Assent next summer and many of the provisions will be subject to further consultation thereafter. The so-called ‘day 1’ right for unfair dismissal will not come into effect until Autumn 2026, and this will be subject to a probationary period, which itself will be subject to consultation.”
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