In the King’s speech (July 2024), the Government stated that they are committed “to making work pay and will legislate to introduce a new deal for working people to ban exploitative practices and enhance employment rights”.
So, what can we advise on so far?
1. An Employment Rights Bill
2. An Equality (Race and Disability) Bill
3. What happens next
An Employment Rights Bill
An Employment Rights Bill is on the way. The Government has said that their “plan to Make Work Pay will create a new partnership between businesses, trade unions and working people and is fundamental to [their] growth mission. The Employment Rights Bill, to be introduced within the first one hundred days, is a significant step towards delivering this ambition and represents the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation”.
Furthermore, the Government stated that “the Bill will deliver on policies as set out in the Plan to Make Work Pay that require primary legislation to implement.”
Whilst we do not yet know the full details of the Bill, the Government has said that the plan includes commitments to the following:
- Banning exploitative zero-hour contracts, ensuring workers have a right to a contract that reflects the number of hours they regularly work and that all workers get reasonable notice of any changes in shift with proportionate compensation for any shifts cancelled or curtailed.
- Ending ‘Fire and Rehire’ by reforming the law to provide effective remedies and replacing the previous Government’s “inadequate” statutory code.
- Making unfair dismissal protection available from day one of employment (subject to special rules for probationary periods), also making parental leave and statutory sick pay available from day one (as well as removing the lower earnings limit and waiting period for statutory sick pay).
- “Making flexible working the default from day-one for all workers, with employers required to accommodate this as far as is reasonable, to reflect the modern workplace” (what this will mean in practice following recent changes to the law on flexible working remains to be seen).
- Simplifying the process of statutory recognition for trade unions and introducing a regulated route to ensure workers and union members have a reasonable right to access a union within workplaces.
An Equality (Race and Disability) Bill
The Government has also announced that there will be a draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill. They have said that the draft Bill will tackle inequality for ethnic minorities and disabled people by:
- “Enshrining in law the full right to equal pay for ethnic minorities and disabled people making it much easier for them to bring unequal pay claims. Claimants currently face significant barriers when bringing pay discrimination claims on the grounds of ethnicity or disability. Enshrining in law the full right to equal pay for ethnic minorities as well as disabled people will make it easier for them to bring forward equal pay claims where they have been underpaid”.
- “Introducing mandatory ethnicity and disability pay reporting for larger employers (those with 250+ employees) to help close the ethnicity and disability pay gaps. Surfacing pay gaps will enable companies to constructively consider why they exist and how to tackle them”.
What Next?
We will keep you up to date with further developments in relation to these two Bills. In the meantime, explore more developments through our Industry News about employment law matters that may affect your organisation.