Party Conference season is upon us and with the next general election due to take place by January 2025 at the very latest, this may be the last opportunity for political parties to deliver their pitch to the country. All parties are therefore setting out their proposals for government, which includes potential changes to employment law. At the recent TUC Congress in Liverpool, the Labour Party’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, set out Labour’s proposed reform to employment legislation as part of the party’s ‘New Deal for Working People’.
Ahead of Labour’s party conference, we highlight some of the key proposals within their Employment Rights Bill which they have committed to introduce to Parliament within 100 days of entering office.
Reforming employment status
For employment law purposes, an individual may be an employee, worker or self-employed and their status determines what employment rights the individual has and the obligations of their employer. Labour intends to create a single status of ‘worker’ for all but the self-employed. As such, individuals who are currently regarded as workers will be afforded the same entitlements and protections as employees, which includes rights to sick pay and holiday pay. As ever the devil is in the details, however it could mean that workers gain significant employment rights overnight following the Bill being passed by Parliament. Businesses will have to be ready for this potential overnight change to ensure that they are compliant with the new status, which will include having up to date policies and procedures to reflect the change.
Day one rights
Labour have pledged to remove the qualifying periods for many statutory rights, whereby some protections, such as the right to not be unfairly dismissed, are only gained by an employee after two years’ service with the employer. These entitlements will effectively become a day one right, extending protections to a significant number of employees. Labour has provided unfair dismissal, sick pay and parental leave as examples of new day one rights.
The party also intends to make the right to flexible working the “default from day one”. Currently, an employee must have worked for their employer for at least 26 continuous weeks before they are entitled to make an application for flexible working. Labour plans to make this a day one right and have pledged to support small and medium-sized business to adapt to flexible working practices, although they have not provided any details in respect of how the government will support businesses.
The current Conservative government have recently passed legislation to update flexible working requests and whilst the updated legislation will not remove the requirement to have worked for at least 26 continuous weeks before making an application, they have committed to introducing secondary legislation that will entitle employees to make an application for flexible working from day one.
Banning zero hours contracts
Labour has long promised to ban zero hours contracts, so unsurprisingly the party has reaffirmed their commitment to banning contracts without a minimum number of guaranteed hours. A Labour government would ensure that an individual working regular hours for 12 weeks or more will be entitled to a regular contract to reflect the hours normally worked. Furthermore, Labour will ensure that all workers will receive reasonable notice of any change in shifts or working time, with wages for any shifts cancelled without appropriate notice being paid to workers in full. They have not defined what is meant by ‘reasonable’ or ‘appropriate’ or whether there will be statutory guidance to this effect.
