The Employment Rights Bill 2024: Key Reforms and The Next Steps

A major shake-up of workers’ rights is on the horizon, while the proposed reforms represent significant changes, they remain under consideration and no timeline for implementation has been announced.

The Employments Rights Bill, introduced on October 10th 2024, presents a number of substantial reforms to a range of measures. Accompanying this days later, a “Next Steps to Make Work Pay” document was released, outlining the plans for future reforms.

The Alpha HR Legal Lens will break down the provisions and explain the next steps employers and employees should anticipate.

 

Key Provisions of the Bill

Unfair Dismissal as a “Day One” Right

Workers will have the right to claim unfair dismissal from day one, which is a big change from the existing two-year qualifying period. However, this right will apply only once the worker has commenced employment and therefore it would not cover instances where the signed contract is withdrawn before the start date.

To balance this, employees will be subject to longer probation periods, during which employers will closely monitor employees’ performance during this period.

 

Ending Fire and Rehire

The Bill seeks to curb “Fire and Rehire” practices, where it will become automatically unfair to dismiss an employee who refuses to accept contact changes under most circumstances. The only exception is where an organisation faces sever financial challenges which would result in liquidation.

 

Ending Zero Hour Contracts

Zero-hours contracts is where the organisation does not guarantee a minimum number of working hours to the employee, and they also can refuse to work when asked.

Clause 1 of the Bill introduces protection for workers on zero-hour contracts or minimum-hour contracts. Workers’ will have the right to “guaranteed hours” based on the previous hours worked during a 12 week “reference period”.

Additionally, workers must receive “reasonable notice” of shift changes, whether it be cancellations or hour reductions.

 

Statutory Sick Pay

The Bill proposes abolishing the three-day waiting period for Statutory Sick Pay, instead SSP will transition to being a percentage of pay.

 

Sexual Harassment

Clause 16 strengths employers’ obligation to prevent Sexual Harassment in the workplace. Unlike the recent Preventative Duty we reported on, which came into force October 26th, 2024, requiring employers to take “reasonable steps”. The new duty raises the bar to require “ALL reasonable steps” to prevent Sexual Harassment, including third parties.

 

Redundancy, Collective Consultation:

Under the new Bill, redundancy laws will be reversed. When determining whether 20 or more redundancies are proposed, the number of redundancies across the entire business should be totalled, regardless of the various establishments or individual sites.

 

Paternity, Parental and Bereavement Leave:

Paternity and Parental leave is only allowed when the employee have been with the company for more than a year, however the government has plans to change this to a “day one” right.

Bereavement Leave will also be extended to anyone who has bereaved.

 

The Next Steps to Make Work Pay:

A few days later the Government published their “Next Steps to Make Work Pay” document, which highlights additional employment reforms under consideration, including:

• A ‘right to switch off’, preventing employees from being contracted out of hours, except in exceptional circumstances.
• Removing the age bands to ensure every adult worker benefits from a genuine living wage.
• A requirement for large employers to report their ethnicity and disability pay gap.
• A consultation on a simpler framework that differentiates between workers and the genuinely self-employed – so a move to a two-part system of employment status rather than the current three.
• Reviews into the parental leave ad carers leave systems to ensure they are “delivering for employers, workers and their loved ones”
• A pledge to consult with ACAS on enabling employees to collectively raise grievances about conduct in their workplace.