What is the Employment Rights Bill 2024?
On October 10th, 2024, the Employment Rights Bill 2024 was announced which introduces significant changes to UK employment law. There are 28 changes in the new Bill including day-one rights for unfair dismissal, making flexible working the default from day one, ending fire and re-hire in most cases. These changes are aimed to improve and/or address issues that have arisen in the evolving work landscape, providing better worker protections and promoting fair employment practices. However, it is likely to have unintended consequences for both employers and employees.
Key Changes
We have broken down some of the key features of the Bill below:
The two-year qualifying period for an employee to bring a claim for unfair dismissal will be removed which means that employees will be protected from unfair dismissal from their first day of employment. This means that employers will not be able to avoid a fair reason or fair process to dismiss employees with short service once this is in place.
The Bill does, however, refer to dismissal during an initial period of employment in order to allow employers to make a proper assessment of an employee’s suitability for a role. To ensure they are compliant employers should ensure that they have probationary periods in contracts of employment for new starters and/or amend existing clauses to ensure they provide maximum flexibility under the new laws.
It may be that the removal of the two-year qualifying period makes employers more hesitant to take on new employees and introduce more rigorous recruitment processes which may have the opposite effect of boosting the labour market.
If an employee is dismissed where contract variations cannot be agreed the dismissal with be automatically unfair. However, this does not apply if the variations are aiming to eliminate, prevent or significantly reduce the effect of financial difficulties affecting the employer’s ability to carry on the business or its activities, or where the variation cannot be reasonably avoided.
If your business is planning any restructures or contractual variation projects you will need to keep an eye on the changes in this piece of legislation.
Under the 2024 Bill, flexible working becomes a default right for employees which means that from day one of employment there will be a presumption that flexible working request should be approved unless the employer can reasonably prove that it is not viable on specified business grounds. The employer will also have to explain in writing to the employee why their refusal is reasonable.
Those permitted business grounds for refusing flexible working may be changed by further regulations under the Bill, so watch this space.
This change acknowledges the growing demand for work flexibility and seeks to support a more diverse and inclusive workforce.
The aim of this is to end one-sided flexibility and ensure that workers have a minimum level of security and predictability in their jobs. The Bill proposes to end the use of zero hours contracts unless the employee specifies that they want to keep theirs.
The Bill will ensure that all workers have the following:
The aim is to provide workers with a more predictable income and improved working conditions and those employers that use zero hours contracts will need to review and update them. Without the flexibility zero-hours contracts offer, it could impact on service delivery and cost for some businesses and may leave workers without the flexibility they are looking for.
This will require employers to consult collectively if the number of people impacted across the business meets the threshold rather than treating each workplace separately. It removes the ‘one establishment’ from the trigger for collective redundancy, so proposed dismissals across an employer’s workforce must be aggregated.
The impact of this is that it is likely to significantly increase the number of redundancy situations that fall within the scope of collective consultation obligations. It may lead to employers reviewing their group structures, potentially having a different legal entity as the employer in each separate establishment to try and avoid consultation obligations.
The Bill aims to strengthen the duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment by requiring employers to take ‘all reasonable steps’ rather than just ‘reasonable steps.’ It is expected that the regulations will set out what those steps should be. Reporting sexual harassment will amount to a protected disclosure for the purposes of whistleblower protection.
Protection against third party harassment is also being reintroduced.
The Bill paves the way for regulations to make it unlawful to dismiss a woman during pregnancy and for six months upon return from leave for workers on maternity leave and on return from other statutory leave other than for reasons of redundancy.
The right to parental and paternity leave will become a day one right. Additionally, it will allow employees to take paternity leave after taking a period of shared parental leave.
The Bill proposes to scrap the three-day waiting period for Statutory Sick Pay (SSP), making employees eligible to claim sick pay from day one of falling ill and removing the lower earnings limit for SSP. This means that all employees, regardless of earnings, will be entitled to SSP.
The Bill proposes the creation of a new enforcement body that will be given powers to take action against employers who do not comply with the law on workers’ rights.
The agency will have powers to investigate breaches of employment law, impose penalties and support workers in disputes with their employers.
Employers will be required to remind workers that they have a legal right to join a trade union on a regular basis, even where the employer does not recognise a union.
The Bill will update trade union legislation giving trade unions new rights to access workplaces in a regulated and responsible manner to meet, represent, recruit and organise members in the workplace.
Specifically, if you are operate a Care Home in the Living sector, the Bill proposes starting sector-based collective bargaining, starting in the care sector. The aim is to establish a Fair Pay Agreement in adult social care, and then, following review, they will assess how and to what extent such agreements could benefit other sectors.
Next Steps
The government has also published a Next Steps paper alongside the Bill with commentary on the Bill and details of reforms it intends to implement in the future including a right to switch off, extending Equal Pay cases to include race and disability, making it mandatory for large employers to report their ethnicity and disability pay gap, reviewing the parental leave and carers leave systems, moving towards a single status of worker and launching a Call for Evidence on unpaid internships.
What do you need to do?
For employers, the Employment Rights Bill 2024 requires adjustments to current policies and practices. Some immediate actions include:
Employers must act quickly to ensure compliance with the new regulations and avoid any penalties.
Conclusion
The Employment Rights Bill 2024 represents a significant shift in employment law for employers with the potential to move towards a more inclusive, fair, and supportive working environment for all. Whether you’re an employee seeking more flexibility or an employer looking to understand your new obligations, this legislation sets a new standard for workplace rights and responsibilities.
As an employer you need to stay informed and need to be proactive in adapting to these changes to ensure compliance and effectively supporting your workforce. Now is the time to familiarise yourself with these changes to ensure a smooth transition into the future of work.
Stay informed, and if you have any questions about how these changes might impact you, please don’t hesitate to contact us at Blossom HR Consultancy.
