The Employment Rights Bill – The Biggest Employment Law Shake Up

The Employment Rights Bill – The Biggest Employment Law Shake Up

The Employment Rights Bill – The Biggest Employment Law Shake Up in Living Memory.

Business owners and employment lawyers up and down the Country were eagerly anticipating the publication of The Employment Rights Bill. Labour promised in their “Plan to make work pay” Manifesto that they would introduce new laws to “ boost wages,

make work more secure and support working people to thrive – delivering a genuine living wage, banning exploitative zero hour contracts, and ending fire and rehire” within 100 days of taking office. Well, 100 days would have been Monday 14 October and the Bill was published today (10 October) – so they got there, just.

Concerns for Employers

The greatest concern for employers was the promise to make unfair dismissal a “day 1 right”. Currently, an employee (save for limited exceptions) must be employed for two years (1 year and 51 week’s technically but who is counting) before having the right to pursue a claim for unfair dismissal. The threat to give employees the right from their first day of employment sent shivers up and down the spine of UK employers. However, Labour then revealed that employees would only be able to bring a claim after successful completion of a probation period, and today, they issued a Bill allowing this to become law, and a document titled “What does the Employment Rights bill mean for you” which confirmed that their preference would be for that probation period to be for up to a period of 9 months. The length (and details) of the probation period will now be subject to consultation, but employers will have breathed a collective sigh of relief at the suggestion of 9 months – 6 months had been muted until today’s publications.

The Unanswered Questions

The devil will of course, be in the detail; and there remain a number of unanswered questions;

  1. What form will a probation period have to take, will mention of it suffice or will it need to be in an employee’s contract of employment?
  2. One assumes that if it has to form part of the contract, it will have to be issued before the employee starts their employment?
  3. If so, does the employee have to have accepted it, and/or signed the contract?
  4. Will there be the ability to extend the period?
  5. Will employers be obliged to adopt some form of procedure during the probation period?
  6. What about a notice period?

Based on some of the wording in the Bill "proportionate assessment of an employee's suitability" it suggests there must be some form of assessment, rather than having free reign to terminate within the probation period and what about if the dismissal is not related to performance or suitability?

Timeline for Implementation

We await further detail, but what is sure, is that this is a huge change for the UK employment market, and employers will need to ensure they have carefully drafted probation clauses, procedures and have trained those managing staff. The good news for employers, the changes are not due to take effect until Autumn 2026 at the earliest.

Protection for Zero-Hours Workers

The new Bill also introduces additional protection for zero hours workers – a right to guaranteed hours after working regular hours for a defined period, the right to reasonable notice of shifts and the right to pay if shifts are cancelled at short notice. For employers engaging zero hour workers, there will be plenty of complicated rules that could trip you up, so it is worth seeking advice and tightening your contracts and processes.

Changes to Statutory Sick Pay and Bereavement Leave

Statutory sick pay will also be available from the first day of absence and bereavement leave will be available to everyone, not just parents.

Flexible Working Requests and Labour Enforcement Agency

The Bill also introduces additional requirements for employers when considering flexible working requests and introduces a new labour enforcement agency – again we await further detail in this regard.

Pay Gap Reporting and Section 1 Statement Updates

There are a number of other changes including obligations on pay gap reporting for employers with 250 or more employees and all section 1 statements (usually contained in contracts of employment) must include statements of union rights, so all contracts of employment will need to be updated to reflect this in addition to firming up probation periods.

If you have any queries please contact us

These are just the headlines, there is plenty more in the 158 page Bill which was only published earlier today. We will be running multiple seminars on the new rules and if you have any queries, please do contact me, James Twine on 01752 292351 or at jtwine@wolferstans solicitors.