Employment Rights Bill

Individual and Collective Employment Rights

Updates
This page was first published on 23 July 2024, the latest update was on 29 January 2025.

The Employment Rights Bill was introduced to Parliament on Thursday 10 October 2024. Some of the changes apply to employers with over 250 employees so I’ve glossed over those as all my clients are generally in the 1 – 100 employee bracket.

The Employment Rights Bill is divided into 5 parts as follows:

Number Subject
One individual employment rights
Two collective employment rights
Three pay and conditions for school support staff and adult social care sectors
Four trade unions and strike action
Five enforcements

Status of the Employment Rights Bill
This Bill was introduced to Parliament on Thursday 10 October 2024 and was debated at the second reading on Monday 21 October 2024. A Public Bill Committee scrutinised the Bill and has now completed its work and has reported the Bill with amendments to the House. The Bill is now due to have its report stage and third reading on a date to be confirmed. Amendments can be made to the Bill at Report Stage.

At the same time that the Employment Rights Bill was announced, Labour published their Next Steps document which lists additional reforms from the pre-election manifesto and outline Labours longer term plans.

Employment Rights Bill: Part One Individual Employment Rights

The Employment Rights Bill will now progress through Parliament and there will no doubt be some amendments during the process. The Bill is expected to complete its progression through Parliament and be approved by both Houses during early to mid 2025. I will be updating these pages as the Bill reaches each stage of the parliamentary process and as each consultation is released and again when they close and the results are published.

Zero Hours and Minimum Hour Contracts
Minimum Hours Contracts have been brought into the legislation to prevent employers from replacing Zero Hours Contracts with contracts that provide one hour of work to avoid compliance with zero hours legislation.

Under the new regime the duty will be on the employer to comply, rather than on the employee to request.

The duty will be to provide:

  • Guaranteed Hours the employer must make a guaranteed offer of regular hours, which reflects the hours worked in the previous defined period.
  • Reasonable Notice of Shifts the employer will be required to provide notice of required and requested hours of hours. 
  • Reasonable Notice of Cancellation or Change of Shifts where a shift is cancelled or the day of work or start or finish time is changing the employer will be required to provide reasonable notice to the employee. Compensation will payable to the employee for previously agreed shifts that are cancelled, moved or curtailed at short notice.

A consultation was launched in late October and closes on 2 December 2024. The consultation is seeking views on the extension of the provisions to agency workers and specifically whether agency workers should be offered guaranteed hours by the employment agency, or by the end hirer and who should be reasonable for serving notice of shifts and cancellation or curtailment of shifts.

Tell me more …
Section One Statements
The list of essential content will be extended to include a statement that the employee has the right to join a trade union.
Tell me more …
Unfair Dismissal
The qualifying period of employment i.e. two years will be removed. Meaning employers will have to rely on one of the five fair reasons for dismissing an employee and follow a reasonable process when dismissing an employee.

Employees who feel they have been unfairly dismissed will be able to make a claim for unfair dismissal.

Tell me more …
Probationary Periods
A statutory probationary period will be introduced that will allow for assessment of an employee’s suitability. How long the period will be is not defined; six and nine months have been reported in the press.

There are a number of options on what a fair dismissal will look like:

  • Dismissal during, or at the end of, the statutory probationary period may be added to the list of 5 fair reasons for dismissal;
  • A minimum statutory procedure may be introduced that must be followed to make the dismissal fair. (Remember those Statutory Dismissal and Disciplinary Procedures we all loved!!!).

So, careful monitoring of probationers is going to become really important. Extending probation should be rare and failing to make an assessment at the end so the employee continues in their employment by default should be avoided.

Tell me more …
Flexible Working
The pre-election manifesto suggested that the ability to request flexible working would become the default for all workers “where practical”. In reality, the Bill says refusal has to be reasonable, from a list of specified grounds for refusal (the eight grounds for refusal remain the same; but the reasonableness requirement is new). There is also a new requirement for the employer to explain why their refusal is reasonable in writing to the employee.
Tell me more …
Sick Pay
SSP will be payable from day 1 of an employees sickness, not day four. The Lower Earnings Limit will be removed, making SSP eligible to more employees.

Statutory Sick Pay is currently £116.75 per week. The rate of payment for those below the Lower Earnings Limit will become a percentage of regular pay.

A consultation was launched in late October and closes on 4 December 2024. The consultation is seeking views on what the percentage rate should be.

Tell me more …
Unpaid Parental Leave
The length of service requirement will be removed, making the entitlement a day one right.
Tell me more …
Paternity Leave and Pay
The length of service requirement will be removed, making the entitlement to pay and leave a day one right.
Tell me more …
Protection from Redundancy For Pregnant and New Mothers
Enhance maternity protection to prohibit dismissal for 6 months following a return to work from maternity leave; except in specific circumstances.
Tell me more …
Bereavement Leave
‘Parental’ will be removed from the Parental Bereavement Leave Act; making all employees entitled to paid bereavement leave.

Entitlements will be:

  • Two weeks of paid leave if the bereaved is a child under the age of 18; and
  • One week of paid leave for all other bereavements.

Where an employee is eligible to leave and experiences more than one death they will be entitled to leave in respect of each death.

The Bill refers to there been a qualifying relationship between the employee and the person who has died. This is likely to mirror the relationship requirements used in the Time of For Dependents and Carers Leave Acts.

Tell me more …
Third Party Harassment
Employers will be required to take ALL reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment by third parties.

This wasn’t in the pre-election manifesto. Third party harassment was originally in the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act) Act 2023 that will come into effect on 26 October 2024. Under that regime employers would be liable for harassment of workers by 3rd parties and covered all types of harassment under the Equality Act but it was removed.

The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act) Act 2023 requires employers to comply with a new duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees. And gives the employment tribunal power to increase compensation by up to 25% if it finds that an employer has breached this duty.

Employment Rights Bill: Part Two Collective Employment Rights

Collective Redundancy Consultation
Change the law on collective redundancy consultation so that the obligation to collectively consult is triggered by the number of people impacted across the business, rather than in one workplace.
It is not clear whether Labour also plan to change the number of redundancies that would trigger collective consultation requirements.
Tell me more …
Fire and Rehire Practices
The practice of fire and re-hire will only be acceptable when the company is on the verge of collapse. It will be necessary to go through an extensive consultation process before resorting to fire and re-hire.

A consultation was launched in late October and closes on 2 December 2024. The consultation is seeking views on the maximum protective award a tribunal can provide to an employee where an employer has failed to comply with the consultation obligations (currently 90 days). Views are also sought on whether the employer should be instructed to re-employ the individual or pay normal wages and benefits until the date of full hearing or pay normal wages and benefits from the date of the claim to the date of the full hearing.

Tell me more …
Fair Work Agency
A new Fair Work Agency will be established that will bring together different enforcement bodies. The agency will have to power to pursue employers who do not comply with statutory provisions i.e. those who take the commercial risk not to provide statutory provisions such as holiday pay, statutory sick pay and maternity and paternity pay.
Tell me more …

Employee Handbook Compliance Package

Green Arrow (150 x 120)

Is Your Employee Handbook Compliant?

An hour of my time can save MANY hours of your time!

My HR Compliance Package ensures your essential employment documents accurately remain up-to-date with new employment legislation and changes to existing legislation so you avoid complicated situations developing.

Get the Latest Legislation News and My Top Tips delivered straight to your inbox

Let Me Buy You A Coffee!

If you found this helpful and you would like to learn more about how I work with owners of small business who want to improve their HR management, please go here.

Tap into and share the Kea world!

Don't forget to add Kea to your social networks and when you read an article that you like share it with your network!
Employment Rights Bill

Kathryn

Kathryn is a highly experienced HR Manager with a wealth of skills and knowledge acquired across a variety of industries including manufacturing, health and social care and financial services. She has worked in small localised business and larger multi sited organisations and is comfortable liaising with senior managers and union officials as well as answering queries from team members. Connect with Kathryn on:

Call Us