The new Labour Government's plans for employment law had been well signposted in the run up to the General Election and so there were no real surprises during the King's speech on 17 July.
The speech itself paraphrased the UK Government's intentions as they relate to employment law as "a new deal for working people to ban exploitative practices and enhance employment rights" and legislation on race equality that will "enshrine the full right to equal pay in law". The King's Speech 2024 background briefing note (the briefing) provided more detail and it is now clear that we will see two separate bills.
Employment Rights Bill
While there is still a great deal of further detail required on the new and updated rights and obligations included in the Employment Rights Bill, the briefing note does set out a number of manifesto pledges that are very likely to be included. These are:-
- Making parental leave, sick pay and unfair dismissal protection a day one right (the latter subject to the operation of "probationary periods to assess new hires").
- Banning exploitative zero-hours contracts.
- Reforming the law on "fire and rehire" and replacing the "previous Government's inadequate statutory code" (which coincidentally come into force on 18 July).
- Removing the lower earnings limit and waiting period for statutory sick pay.
- Making flexible working the default from day one for all workers, with employers required to accommodate this "as far as is reasonable".
- Making it unlawful to dismiss a woman who has had a baby for six months after her return to work, except in specific circumstances.
- Establishing a single enforcement body - the "Fair Work Agency".
- Updating trade union legislation, removing "unnecessary restrictions on trade union activity", including legislation relating to minimum service levels along with a number of other changes that will strengthen the position of unions in the workplace.
This is not an exhaustive list, and a number of other pledges may also be included when we see the final text of the Bill. The language that has been used previously and also in the briefing note is that the Bill will be introduced "within the first 100 days". This would take us to 12 October but that tells us little about how long these new rights will take to actually come into force. The passage through the Houses of Parliament will take some months and some of the new rights will require secondary legislation and/or codes of practice which will themselves require consultation. While we may see some rights coming into force in 2025, others may well take until 2026 or possibly beyond.
Draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill
This draft Equality Bill seeks to bring into law what is described as "a full right to equal pay for ethnic minorities and disabled people, making it much easier for them to bring unequal pay claims". Equal pay for all irrespective of gender, ethnicity or disability is of course a proposition that should be supported, but the existing gender related equal pay regime is complex and often difficult and expensive to pursue. It is a bold promise that is being made but, as my colleague, Sarah Gilzean, queried earlier this year, is it right to extend the existing regime, or should this be used as an opportunity to consider a more straight forward user-friendly regime for all equal pay claims? You can read Sarah's thoughts on this at Introduction of equal pay rights covering ethnicity and disability - right idea but wrong implementation?
The draft Equality Bill also seeks to introduce mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting for large employers (i.e. those that employ 250 or more employees).
National Living Wage
In addition to the two new bills, the King's Speech also confirmed the manifesto promise to remove the age bands so that every adult worker benefits and to link the rate to the cost of living. This is a change that could, potentially, take effect more quickly but it seems more likely that the Government will give employers a few months to plan for this and again, it is unlikely that we will see any change in 2024.
Just the first steps?
On 19 July, when the UK Government's commitment to creating a "right to switch off" for employees was questioned due to its omission from the speech, the response from Downing Street was that the King's Speech was "not the limits of our ambitions or all of the Government's work. These are the first legislative steps". These "first legislative steps" are the most significant overhaul of employment rights for many years - we await with interest to see how and when matters progress.
