3 things you need to know about the proposed employment law changes planned by the Labour government

3 things you need to know about the proposed employment law changes planned by the Labour government

The Labour party won a landslide victory in the General Election and Sir Kier Starmer is the new Prime Minister.

Labour launched the ‘Labour’s Plan to Make Work Pay: Delivering A New Deal for Working People’ on 24 May 2024 and much of this reached its manifesto for the General Election.

What employment changes have been proposed?

Some of the proposed changes are:

• from day 1 of employment, an employer must dismiss an employee ‘fairly’ for reasons of capability, conduct or redundancy or during probationary periods provided that there are fair and transparent rules and processes

• from day 1 of employment, employees will be entitled to parental leave and statutory sick pay

• from day 1 of employment, flexible working will be the default except where it is not reasonably feasible

• increase the time limit within which someone can bring an employment tribunal claim from 3 months to 6 months

• introduce a “right to switch off”, following a similar model to that already in Ireland and Belgium

• introduce a right for employees to make a collective grievance to Acas

• reform ‘fire and rehire’ with effective remedies against abuse and replace the inadequate statutory code brought in by the Conservative Government, with a strengthened code of practice

• ban ‘exploitative’ zero-hours contracts and ensure everyone has the right to have a contract that reflects the number of hours they regularly work, based on a 12-week reference period

• replace the 3-tier system for employment status in the UK, with individuals classified as employees, workers self-employed with newly defined single status worker and self-employed

• create a single enforcement body to inspect workplaces and take action against exploitation

• strengthen protections for whistleblowers, including updating protections for women who report sexual harassment at work

• introduce a Race Equality Act giving the right to equal pay to Black, Asian and other ethnic minority people and strengthening protections against dual discrimination

• introduce a new right to equal pay for disabled people

• introduce disability and ethnicity pay gap reporting for employers with more than 250 staff

• make it unlawful to dismiss a woman who is pregnant for 6 months after her return to work from maternity leave, except in specific circumstances

• require employers with more than 250 employees to produce a Menopause Action Plan, setting out how they will support employees through the menopause

• introduce a new duty on employers to inform all new employees of their right to join a union (as part of the written statement of particulars)

• update trade union legislation by removing restrictions on trade union activity

• introduce an obligation to collectively consult on large-scale redundancies when employees are at risk of redundancy across the whole of a business, rather than at one workplace or local employment unit

• strengthen the existing set of rights and protections for workers subject to TUPE processes.

What will this mean for businesses and individuals?

• costs for businesses will increase
• individuals will have more employment rights
• individuals will have more secure employment
• employment will, for business, become more inflexible
• enforcement would be enhanced so that the current law would be made more effective
• employment tribunal claims are likely to increase.

Employment law rights come home

Since the UK left the EU, employment law is no longer made by or governed by Europe, which means greater autonomy for the UK to both change existing employment law and implement new employment law.

Whether the Labour Government will implement all or any of the above only time will tell!