By Alice Kendall, Recruitment Consultant
Businesses are growing increasingly accustomed to the ever-increasing list of UK Employment Law changes. It’s an almost annual occurrence.
With the new Labour Government now in place, significant changes to UK Employment Law are looming on the horizon that could have major implications for large companies and SMEs alike.
To help navigate your way through the changes, it’s a good idea to start evaluating your current practices to ensure you are 100 per cent compliant with the new legal landscape.
Zero-Hours Contracts
Labour intends to ban zero-hours contracts, which allow employers to only pay staff when they need them, to ensure jobs provide a baseline level of security and predictability.
The Employment Rights Bill will mean employers have to guarantee shifts or compensate workers when shifts are cancelled without reasonable notice It is hoped the new rules will provide more security and less instability for workers, but people can opt in to a zero-hours contract if they want the flexibility they offer.
Fire and Rehire
The practice of firing employees only to rehire them under less favourable conditions is now banned, coming into force on 18th July 2024. To modify employment terms, businesses will need to “take all reasonable steps to explore alternatives to dismissal” by engaging in a meaningful consultation and negotiation process.
In short, employers cannot “raise the prospect of dismissal unreasonably early” or put undue pressure on employees by threatening dismissal where it is not envisaged.
Enhanced Maternity Protections
Pregnant women will receive greater protection from redundancy as it will be unlawful to be dismissed during pregnancy and for six months post-maternity leave, except under specific circumstances. This extends current protections and requires employers to navigate additional layers of dismissal regulations.
Trade Union Rights
Employers will have a duty to inform workers of their right to join a union and allow unions regulated access to workplaces.
The Employment Rights Bill will also remove “unnecessary” restrictions on trade unions, including the need to ensure a minimum level of service during strikes. Changes will also simplify union ballot procedures and improve protections against union-related discrimination.
Redundancy Protections
As part of the new redundancy protections, consultation requirements will be strengthened to protect workers, especially those who are employed by multi-site businesses. Employers will be required to consult collectively based on the number of redundancies across the entire business rather than at an individual location.
Pay Gap Reporting
Although this will only affect businesses and employers with over 250 employees, it will mean that robust action plans will need to be developed and published in a bid to close gender pay gaps. Additional reporting requirements will be required to monitor ethnicity and disability pay gaps.
Right to Disconnect
Employees will be able to ignore work-related emails and calls under a new right that will allow people to disconnect outside of their ‘normal’ working hours.
The plans are expected to allow people to refuse to take on extra work at the weekends and cover workers’ annual leave, meaning employers could not ask employees to carry out work-related tasks when on annual leave. Whilst the ‘right to disconnect’ probably won’t be enshrined in law, it is likely to be a major recommendation in the codes of practice for businesses.
To comply with the new law, which is part of the Labour Party’s “right to switch off” campaign pledge, employers would need to develop policies that respect this right while balancing operational needs.
