Employment Rights Bill
Individual and Collective Employment Rights
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:
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. |
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:
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. |
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. |
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:
Where an employee is eligible to leave and experiences more than one death they will be entitled to leave in respect of each death. |
Third Party Harassment |
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
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.
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