Government Publishes Much-Anticipated Employment Rights Bill - Portner

The government unveiled its eagerly-awaited Employment Rights Bill earlier this month, as promised within 100 days of taking office. The government says the Bill will “upgrade workers’ rights across the UK, tackle poor working conditions and benefit businesses and workers alike”.

The new Bill is an ambitious piece of legislation that runs to some 150 pages and introduces 28 new employment measures.  Many of these were promised in the Labour Party’s pre-election manifesto and confirmed in the King’s Speech. You can read about them in our article, What employment law changes can we expect from our new government?

The aim of the legislation is to:

• Address one-sided flexibility, ensuring workers have a baseline level of security
• Support family-friendly rights by reviewing paternity bereavement and post-maternity leave rights
• Ensure fair pay for a fair day’s work
• Shore up enforcement of employment rights.

The Bill had its second reading in the House on 21 October 2024.

The government has also launched the following four consultations, which will run until 2 December 2024:

1. Zero hours contracts consultation, which you can read about here.
2. Collective redundancy and fire and rehire consultation, which you can read about here.
3. Trade union consultation, which you can read about here.
4. Statutory Sick Pay consultation, which you can read about here.

Key provisions

Highlights of the Bill include:

• Unfair dismissal will become a ‘day one’ right, and the two-year qualifying period for protection from unfair dismissal will be removed. However, the government plans to consult on a new statutory probation period for new hires to allow employers to properly assess an employee’s suitability for a role. The new law will include a fair and proportionate process for dismissal during probationary periods.
• Ending exploitative zero-hours contracts and fire and rehire practices by introducing rights to guaranteed hours, reasonable notice of shifts and compensation for short notice cancellation of shifts.
• Establishing day-one rights for paternity, parental and bereavement leave. 
• Removing the lower earnings limit before workers can claim statutory sick pay and cutting out the waiting period before sick pay kicks in. 

When will the new laws come into force?

Despite the length of the Bill, much of the detail underlying the reforms remains uncertain. Some secondary legislation will be required, and consultations will be held throughout 2025 in relation to certain key measures in the Bill.

This means that, in practice, the new legislation is unlikely to come into effect before 2026 at the earliest.

‘Next steps’

The government published a ‘Next Steps to Make Work Pay’ document simultaneously with the draft Bill. This sets out its long-term plans in relation to employment law as well as commentary on some of the provisions of the new Bill.

Subject to consultation, one potential new right for employees introduced in this document is a ‘right to switch off’. This will allow workers to disconnect from work outside regular hours and not be contacted except in exceptional circumstances. This new right will be subject to a consultation before being set out in draft legislation.

The Bill is a cornerstone piece of legislation for the new government, and more details are certain to emerge over the coming weeks and months. We will update you as and when these are released.

If you have any queries about the above or any employment issues, please contact Karen South at ks@portner.co.uk.