Employment Rights Bill – Top Takeaways

The landmark Employment Rights Bill was unveiled last week which will bring forward much anticipated and reported employment law reforms!

These changes include the following:

1. Making unfair dismissal a ‘day one’ right. The current two-year qualifying period will be removed and the Government will consult on a “statutory probation period”.
2. End ‘exploitative’ zero-hours contracts.Those on zero and low hours contracts will gain the right to a guaranteed hours contract if they work regular hours over a defined period.
3. Ending ‘fire and rehire’. This will only be possible in only very limited circumstances. The Bill will servery restrict an employer’s ability to change contractual terms without employee buy-in.
4. Introduce rights to paternity, unpaid parental and bereavement leave from day one. Remove the current three-day waiting period and the lower earnings limit for statutory sick pay.
5. Strengthen flexible working by making it the default for all unless the employer can prove it is ‘unreasonable’.
6. Require large employers (over 250 employees) to create action plans on addressing gender pay gaps and supporting employees through the menopause.
7. Strengthen protections for pregnant women and returning mothers, including protection from dismissal while pregnant, on maternity leave and within six months after a return to work.
8. Establish a new enforcement agency, the ‘Fair Work Agency’, which will bring together existing enforcement powers and also enforce rights such as holiday pay.
9. Repeal the Minimum Service Levels legislation introduced by the previous Government in relation to Industrial Action.
10. Address low pay by taking into account the cost of living when setting minimum wage rates and removing discriminatory age bands.

Some of the changes expected to be included in the Bill were missing, such as:

‘The right to switch off’ – set to prevent employers from contacting workers outside of their working hours.

The introduction of the Equality (Race and Disparity) Bill - which will require ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting for larger employers, a single status for workers – where a simpler framework for employment status will be introduced and a review of the parental leave and carers' leave systems.

This sets out some drastic changes to be implemented, remember, the Bill is not yet in force and it is not yet known when it will come into force. For help with employment matters, please get in touch with our friendly team.