As you will know from our earlier Legal Update, the Employment Rights Bill has been published and it contains wide ranging reforms for employment law. So, aside from reforms to unfair dismissal, what other key areas do businesses need to be aware of?
- Zero hours contracts – new rules on guaranteed hours
- Changes to statutory sick pay (SSP)
- Changes to some family friendly rights and flexible working
- Law strengthened in relation to harassment
- New trade union rights
Zero hours contracts – new rules
The Bill contains some significant changes for businesses who have zero hours workers. In brief, it proposes that employers must make ‘a guaranteed hours offer’ to zero hours workers (as well as those on ‘low hours’ contracts who regularly work more than these hours), to give them the opportunity to move to ‘guaranteed hours contracts’. These guaranteed hours contracts are to reflect the hours these employees regularly work over a ‘relevant reference period’. While businesses will be required to make these offers, employees will not be required to accept them. The government will be consulting on this area, including on what constitutes a ‘low hours contract’ and how review periods should work.
It’s also important to be aware of other provisions, including a requirement for businesses to give zero hours workers reasonable notice of shifts which they are required/requested to work, as well as reasonable notice of cancellations or changes.
Workers will be entitled to receive a set payment (as yet unknown) where a shift is cancelled, changed or curtailed, at short notice.
Changes to statutory sick pay (SSP)
The Bill will increase the availability of SSP by removing the waiting period so that it will become payable from day one. In addition, the lower earnings limit will be removed “to make the safety net available to those on the lowest incomes”.
There will be a consultation on what the percentage replacement rate for those earning below the current flat rate of SSP should be. This change will be brought forward through a government amendment to the Bill during its passage through Parliament.
Changes to some family friendly rights and flexible working
The Bill:
- Introduces a new right to at least one week’s unpaid ‘bereavement leave’, this will replace the current right to parental bereavement leave. The circumstances in which it can be taken will be set out in future regulations
- Turns statutory paternity leave into a day one right and removes the restriction against taking statutory paternity leave after first taking shared parental leave
- Removes the one years’ service requirement for unpaid parental leave so it too becomes a day one right
- Introduces the requirement that employers will only be able to refuse a statutory request for flexible working where it is reasonable to do so in relation to one of the existing statutory reasons for refusal. The introduction of a ‘reasonableness test’ is a change which could make it easier for employees to challenge a business’s refusal to agree to a request. That said, the Bill isn’t changing the penalty for a standalone breach of the flexible working rules (up to 8 weeks’ pay, currently capped at £5,600). However, as an aside, it’s worth bearing in mind that in some circumstances employees can also bring more costly claims if flexible working requests are refused or aren’t dealt with appropriately, such as discrimination or constructive unfair dismissal claims.
Law strengthened in relation to harassment
The Bill proposes significant changes to the law on sexual harassment and harassment. These include the expansion of the forthcoming duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment to taking all reasonable steps. The Bill includes new powers for regulations to be made to specify what steps are to be regarded as ‘reasonable.’
The Bill also proposes introducing employer liability for third-party harassment for all types of harassment, where it occurs in the course of employment. This will represent a significant change for businesses.
Trade union rights
There are a number of changes in the Bill related to trade union rights, likely to be of interest to most businesses are:
- A new requirement to give workers a written statement advising them that they have the right to join a trade union
- Trade unions will be given new rights to request access agreements from businesses, which make provision for officials from trade unions to access the workplace for specified purposes including meeting trade union members, recruiting new trade union members and supporting a trade union member with an employment related matter
Next Steps
At this stage it will be important to keep an eye out for future updates on developments in relation to the Employment Rights Bill and the promised consultations. Bear in mind that separately, the government has also committed to introducing other employment law reforms including introducing a right to ‘switch off’. We will keep you updated on developments to help your business stay informed.