What you need to know about the Employment Rights Bill
The Employment Rights Bill has finally been published, and here's what you need to know and, what you don't need to worry about!
Firstly, we can all breathe a sigh of relief as the government have said “We expect to begin consulting on these reforms in 2025, seeking significant input from all stakeholders, and anticipate this meaning that the majority of reforms will take effect no earlier than 2026. Reforms of unfair dismissal will take effect no sooner than autumn 2026”.
This means that although the government will seek to implement some things quicker than others there will be no big bang effect (and in fact some of the things promised aren’t even covered but we’ll come onto that later)
Key changes to be aware of
- The removal of 2-year qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims.
- There will be a new statutory probation period set at 9 months to balance the new day-one rights with an evaluation period for employers.
- There will be a move to ban exploitative practices by banning zero-hour contracts. There will also be a right to reasonable notice of shift, and payment for cancellation of shifts at short notice (although we don’t yet know what reasonable notice will be).
- Flexible working refusals will have to be reasonable based on a list of specified grounds for refusal. In short flexible working arrangements will become the default option unless you can justify why it is impractical.
- There will be a right to SSP from day 1 of absence removing the current 3 day waiting period
- Paternity Leave and Parental Leave will become day one rights aligning them to Maternity Leave
- Bereavement Leave rights will be extended to anyone who is bereaved (although we don’t yet know how the government will classify the relationship that the employee must have had with the deceased).
- Employers will be required to provide employees with a written statement confirming their right to join a trade union
- It will be automatically unfair to dismiss an employee for refusing a contract variation.
- Employers will have full liability for third party harassment (this is a big one!)
What’s not included
The Government made a lot of promises which don’t appear in the new Bill including:
- a ‘right to switch off’
- a move towards a single status of worker
- a review of parental leave and carers leave
They have committed to implementing these in the future, but don’t expect any movement on these for quite a while.
Unsure how the changes will impact your business or need guidance navigating them? We’re here to help — reach out today!
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