Following Labour’s win in the general election, many businesses may be wondering what lies ahead for HR. Here are three areas to keep on your radar:
- Managing politics in the workplace
- Areas for reform
- Other changes on the horizon
1. Managing Politics in the Workplace
Politics is likely to be a significant topic of conversation for many people in the coming days and weeks, as such you may find employees in your business talking about the election result, their political views generally or opinions on certain matters. Bear in mind that it’s important to ensure that all employees are treated with dignity and respect in the workplace and that includes how colleagues treat each other.
Needless to say, it’s also important that work still gets done. With a lot going on at the moment not just the election (sporting events, summer holiday plans etc), you may find that there is more chatting than usual in the workplace. If you feel this is getting out of hand, for example, it’s adversely impacting productivity, don’t be afraid to appropriately tackle the situation. Often, a gentle, reminder is all that’s needed to get things back on track.
2. Areas for reform
The Labour Party has proposed wide-ranging reforms to employment law, including:
- Introducing a day-one right to sick pay, parental leave and for many businesses – unfair dismissal (although it seems proposed that employers will be able to operate probationary periods to assess new hires)
- An extension of tribunal time limits for bringing all claims from three months to six months
- Banning “exploitative” zero-hours contracts (as opposed to an outright ban)
- A right for employees to have a contract which reflects the hours they regularly work, based on a twelve-week reference period
- Introducing a right to ‘switch off’
The Labour Party manifesto stated that they would consult before passing legislation and we will keep you up to date on employment law proposals and developments as we learn more.
3. Other Changes on the horizon
Over the next few months, the following employment law changes are planned to come into force:
- The ACAS Code of Practice on Dismissal and Re-engagement is to come into effect on 18th July 2024.
The statutory Code sets out a process for an employer to follow when they are considering making changes to one or more of their employees’ contracts of employment, and they envisage that, if the changes cannot be agreed upon, they might opt for dismissal and re-engagement.
If you are considering proposing changes to your employee’s terms and conditions, please get in touch for advice before acting, including any process to follow, as this is not a step to be taken lightly.
- The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 is expected to come into force around October 2024
It introduces a new additional duty for employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees. Employers currently have a duty not to sexually (or otherwise) harass employees and job applicants and can be vicariously liable for the harassing acts of employees. Employers can defend a harassment claim if they can show they took ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent such actions taking place.
That defence remains but when the new Act is in force there will also be a new mandatory duty – in relation to sexual harassment only – to take ‘reasonable steps’ to prevent it from happening in the first place.
The Act will give employment tribunals the power to uplift sexual harassment compensation by up to 25% if an employer is found to have breached the new duty to prevent sexual harassment.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission will update its guidance to include what ‘reasonable steps’ means in practice in relation to the new duty. This is expected around September 2024 following consultation. In the meantime, employers may wish to start thinking about assessing what the sexual harassment risks are in their business and what steps can be taken to prevent sexual harassment from occurring.
Should the change in government lead to any changes to the two areas above, we will update you.
Keep up-to-date with employment law changes by regularly exploring our Legal Updates.