January
There was no hanging around at the start of the year, 1 January saw new laws coming into force to ensure EU based discrimination protections didn't fall away in the aftermath of Brexit. New legislation also made changes to working time reporting requirements and put in place provisions that would make TUPE a little more user friendly for small employers later in the summer. The new Act also addressed the calculation of holiday pay for irregular hours and part-year workers, but it seems impossible to make that calculation user friendly for anyone…
More controversially, we saw a consultation on the reintroduction of employment tribunal fees. Incredibly unpopular when they were in place between 2013 and 2017, the new proposals seemed simpler and, more importantly, cheaper, however the change of government makes the resurrection of fees unlikely.
February
Rumours started circulating via the mainstream press in early February that the Labour party had drafted a Race Equality Bill extending equal pay rights to ethnic minority groups and disabled workers, and similarly extending pay gap reporting obligations. Whilst we thought that the extension to equal pay was perhaps the right idea, but the wrong implementation method, the draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill is expected to be presented to Parliament in the coming months.
February also saw some high profile CEOs setting five days a week in the office mandates.
March
March saw a red card for Manchester United following a data protection breach. Although the breach occurred in 2018 and the Information Commissioners Office considered it resolved, employees took action in the High Court suing for £100,000. Perhaps small change for Manchester United but an important reminder to businesses of all sizes of the importance of keeping employee data safe.
April
A significant amount of new employment legislation was introduced in April. As well as the usual annual updates, April brought us unpaid carer's leave, enhancements to paternity leave, a day 1 right to flexible working, extension to the protections for pregnant women and new parents in a redundancy scenario and the implementation of new rules for calculating holiday pay. By that time, we also had an inkling about what the outcome of the (yet to be announced) general election was likely to be and that many more new rights, some connected to those created or enhanced in April, were likely to be in the pipeline.
April also saw the judgment in one of the biggest cases of the year being handed down by the Supreme Court. In Secretary of State for Business and Trade v Mercer it was held that UK law was incompatible with Article 11 (freedom of association) of the European Convention of Human Rights, failing to protect workers who take part in industrial action during work hours from detriment short of dismissal. This is set to be rectified by the Employment Rights Bill.
May
In May, the Labour party published its Plan to Make Work Pay - A New Deal for Working People, two days after the 2024 general election was announced. With little detail but a lot of press coverage, the Labour party repeated, amongst many other things, its intention to make unfair dismissal a day 1 right subject to a probationary period. Also receiving a fair bit of coverage In May was an employment tribunal case where an award of £4.5 million was made for a dismissal that took place, you guessed it, during a probationary period.
June
Election manifestos were published in June, with all political parties looking to make some changes to employment rights. Some of the more unlikely proposals included repealing the Equality Act 2010 and abolishing all diversity, equality, and inclusion roles.
Also in June, the Scottish Government voted to remove the definition of "woman" from the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018 ("the 2018 Act"). As no alternative definition is to be substituted, for the purposes of the 2018 Act, woman has the same meaning as that given under the Equality Act 2010, meaning it includes trans women with a gender recognition certificate. Although the 2018 Act is a relatively niche bit of legislation, there has been a long running legal action arising from surrounding what it means, legally, to be a "woman". Heard by the Supreme Court in November 2024, this judgment will be one to look out for in 2025.
July
With the Labour party winning the general election on 4 July, the clock started ticking on the new governments promise to publish the Employment Rights Bill within the first 100 days of power. In the meantime, the long-awaited Code of Practice on dismissal and re-engagement came into force on 18 July. Produced under the Conservative government, it was described as "inadequate" by the Labour government.
As many of us jetted off for some down time in sunnier lands, we reported on the real difficulties employers can face while genuinely trying to help out their employees in National Minimum Wage: Can't do right for doing wrong. This was a case where the employer fell afoul of National Minimum Wage while trying to manage a holiday savings scheme for staff.
August
The new Labour government confirmed that the Strikes (Minimum Service Legislation) Act 2023 would be repealed, pointing out that no employer had, so far at least, actually relied upon it. With the "right to switch off" also anticipated, we looked at whether that would be as easy as flicking a switch.
Meanwhile, the Equality and Human Rights Commission name checked six organisations for failing to report their 2023-24 gender pay gap data, although that followed on from over 600 organisations having been issued with warning and reminder notices between April and May 2024 with most then responding. Six is a reduction on the last two years, and this diminishing number of failures to engage with the reporting process is a positive sign as we look towards disability and race pay gap reporting becoming mandatory for larger employers in the future.
September
As we awaited sight of the Employment Rights Bill, September saw the Labour government announce that the legislation brought forward under the Conservative government to give workers a right to predictable terms and conditions would not be brought into force. It was also confirmed that the Trade Union Act 2016 would (in large part) be repealed. Significant changes were clearly afoot.
October
The publication of the Employment Rights Bill on 10 October was the clear star (in employment law terms at least) of October, and indeed the year. As a result many articles were produced covering what was in it, what wasn't in it, what might be amended into it, and what consultations were running. Employment lawyers and HR professionals have a busy few years ahead.
Another very important development in October was the coming into force of the new duty to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. October also saw the requirement to distribute tips fairly under the "Tipping Act" come into force. Both of these duties will though likely be impacted by provisions in the Employment Rights Bill.
November
With so much going on, it was something of relief to find that the Court of Appeal in the case of Haycocks v. ADP RPO UK Ltd decided that a "general workforce consultation" was not a requirement of good industrial practice in scenarios where the collective consultation triggers were not met.
December
The Employment Rights Bill continued to dominate the headlines as we reached the end of the year, leaving us with the feeling that perhaps what 2024 has done more than anything, has set us up for future change. For more on what those changes will be, and what else we think will make the employment law headlines next year, watch out for our preview of 2025. You can also sign up to our webinar on what to expect in employment law in 2025 which takes place on 9 January.
