Employment Rights Bill – Major Changes on the way!

The UK Employment Rights Bill 2024, introduced by the Labour government, marks a significant overhaul of employment legislation. The Bill when it becomes an Act will be one of the most significant pieces of legislation in employment law in the UK.

This Bill is currently working its way through Parliament. It may still be subject to some revision and much of the detail of some of the provisions will be introduced by regulations.

However, given the nature of the wide ranging scope and the provisions contained in the Bill all employers are going to be affected and so it is essential all employers gain an understanding of the key and critical changes heading their way. In many cases employers are going to have to review and or revise their policies and in some circumstances employers are going to have to consider more comprehensive steps.

The key changes, and what we know so far are:

1. Day-One Employment Rights against unfair dismissal

The Bill ensures that employees receive rights from their first day of employment, one of the most significant being the elimination of the two-year qualifying period for protection against unfair dismissal which is currently in place. 

However, there will be an initial period of employment, similar to a probationary period, during which the employer will have the facility to dismiss without having to follow the full procedures. The nature of this procedure and the tests that will operate are yet to be determined.

The removal of the 2 year requirement is a significant change and will mean that employers will need to consider increasing the effectiveness of the recruitment and interviewing of job applicants in the first instance in order to avoid poor recruitment decisions, ensuring effective induction and initial training of new starters, effective probationary processes and performance management, changes to procedures and where necessary management training. One thing we do know is that this change will take effect no sooner than Autumn 2026

2. Additional day-one rights for employees

• Statutory Sick Pay (SSP), removing the current waiting period of 3 days and lower earnings limit.

• Paternity leave and Parental Leave, the service qualification will be removed for parental leave and paternity leave, making them day one rights. This is probably not that significant and is in line with current maternity leave rules.
• Statutory Bereavement Leave, the Bill provides for at least 1 week’s statutory bereavement leave, but this will be dependent on the relationship the employee had with the family member. I think this can only be positive and is leave that most businesses/organisations offer currently in some form anyway.

3. Zero hours contracts

The Bill introduces very complicated changes to this area and introduces a right to a guaranteed hours contract which reflects the hours eligible zero hours workers or variable hours workers regularly work over a reference period.

In addition the Bill will introduce a right to a reasonable notice of shifts, cancellations or changes to a shift and payment for shift cancellation.  

Employers using zero hour or variable contracts or arrangements are going to need to set up a system to deal with these changes and have appropriate understanding of the changes and documentation in place to comply with the new legislation. I think it is a case of watch this space on this one!

4. Flexible working arrangements

The changes will include that an employer can only refuse a flexible working request for eg part time hours, term time hours, if it considers that a specified ground or grounds applies and if it is reasonable to refuse the request on this basis. The specified grounds remain the same as the current legislation.

The right to request flexible working is currently a day one right (from April 2024) and the subtle change in this piece of the Bill is that the burden of proof is on the employer to show that flexible working isn’t possible.

5.  Time limit for employment tribunal claims

The time period for bringing employment tribunal claims, including unfair dismissal, is generally going to be extended from the current 3 months to 6 months.

It will be interesting to see what comes from the final details and legislation. Although it is expected that most of the changes will come into effect in 2026, it would be a good idea to review policies, procedures and people practices in preparation for the changes.

If you need any guidance or support please contact me on [email protected] or 07870 230501.