• 05 Dec 2024
• •
• 5 min read

The Employment Rights Bill 2024: Key Changes Employers Need to Prepare For

The Employment Rights Bill was published on 10 October 2024 and is set to reshape the landscapes of employment law. The commencement date for this legislation is unknown but is expected to come into force in Autumn 2026. The key provisions of the Bill are summarised below:

Unfair Dismissal – a ‘Right from Day One’

The qualifying period of two years that employees currently need in order to bring an ordinary unfair dismissal claim will be removed. This will give every employee the right not to be unfairly dismissed from day one of their employment. An employee will not be afforded this protection if their contract of employment is withdrawn before their start date.

A statutory probationary period (expected to be 9 months) will be introduced. Therefore, unless it is a redundancy situation, employers will be able to follow a less onerous process to fairly dismiss an employee during the statutory probationary period.

Further details are expected after the conclusion of the consultation process.

Ending Fire and Rehire

Any dismissal of an employee for refusing a contract variation will be automatically unfair. This will be the case unless an employer can show both that the variation is needed, and the employer could not have reasonably avoided this. When deciding if the variation is needed, the employer will need to show that its absence affects the employer’s ability to carry on the business as a going concern.

Ending Zero Hours Contracts

1. Guaranteed Hours Contract 

The Employment Rights Bill will introduce a duty on employers to offer guaranteed hours to workers who are on either a zero hours or low hours contract. The hours to be offered will need to reflect the number of hours the worker regularly works within a particular reference period (anticipated to be 12 weeks).

2.  Right to reasonable notice of shifts

Employers will be required to give workers reasonable notice of a shift (specifying the date, start time and the number of hours to be worked). If an employer changes or cancels a workers shift at short notice, they will need to pay their worker compensation. If the employer fails to make this payment, the worker will be entitled to bring a tribunal claim. We await further clarification as to what will constitute reasonable or short notice.

3. Right to compensation for shifts cancelled, curtailed or moved at short notice

Employers will be required to compensate their workers if they cancel, move or curtail a shift at short notice. What constitutes short notice and the amount to be paid will be set out in the Regulations in due course.

Sexual Harassment

On 26 October 2024 the new Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 came into force.  This introduced a new requirement on employers to take ‘reasonable steps to prevent harassment of their staff in the course of their employment, including from third parties.’ The Employment Rights Bill proposes to take this further and will require employers to take ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.

Protection from Third Party Harassment

The Bill will ensure that employers are liable if their employees are harassed by third parties in the course of employment. Employers will be liable unless they can demonstrate that they took ‘all’ reasonable steps to prevent the harassment. This applies to every type of harassment – not just sexual harassment.

Flexible Working

Employers will need to state the grounds of refusing the application (as it does now) but moving forward, it will also be required to explain why it considers it reasonable to refuse the application.

Paternity, Parental and Bereavement Leave

Paternity Leave and Parental Leave will be Day One rights. Bereavement Leave seems to be extended to anyone who is bereaved, with the right to two weeks off in the case of a deceased child and one week for any other person.

Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)

Statutory Sick Pay is currently only payable from the fourth day of absence. The first three days are known as ‘waiting days.’ These ‘waiting days’ will be removed so that eligible employees are entitled to SSP from their first full day of sickness absence.

The Lower Earnings Limit threshold will also be removed to make SSP available to all employees regardless of their weekly earnings. SSP will be paid at a flat rate (currently £116.75 per week) or a percentage of the employee’s earnings, whichever is lower. The Government has committed to consulting on what the percentage rate for those earning below the current flat rate of SSP should be.

Gender Pay Gap and Menopause

Employers with over 250 employees must have action plans on gender pay gap reporting and supporting employees through menopause.

Collective Redundancy Consultation

When deciding whether there are 20 or more proposed redundancies, the number of redundancies across the whole business should be considered, rather than considering separate establishments only.

Tips

The Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023 placed an obligation on employers to ensure that 100% tips are fairly and transparently allocated. Where tips are received on more than an occasional or exceptional bases there is a requirement to keep written tips records and have a Tips Policy. The Bill expands the duty by creating an obligation to consult trade union or other worker representatives before producing a written policy. The policy must then be reviewed at least every 3 years.

Trade Unions

The Employment Rights Bill introduces a number of amendments in relation to trade union recognition, including but not limited to:

1. Statement of right to join a Union

Employers will be required to provide employees with a written statement confirming their right to join a trade union.

2. Trade Union ‘access agreements’

Unions can request an ‘access to the workplace’ agreement from Employers to provide access to meet members, recruit new members, support a member with an employment related matter or to facilitate collective bargaining. Any disputes will be handled by the Central Arbitration Committee.

3. Union recognition

The Bill removes the requirement to show at the application stage that a majority of workers in the bargaining unit are likely to support recognition. The Secretary of State is granted the power to reduce the requirement to show that between 2% and 10% of workers in the bargaining unit are members of the union. The clause also simplifies the support required for recognition in the final ballot so that a simple majority of those voting is sufficient.

4. Reversing burden of proof on time off for union duties

In cases where trade union officials or trade union learning/equality representatives claim they were denied reasonable time off for union duties, the burden of proof is placed on the employer who must demonstrate that the time off requested was unreasonable.

5. Simplifying industrial action ballots

The requirement that at least 40% of the trade union members entitled to vote in a ballot on industrial action must do so in order for the ballot to be valid, is to be removed.

6. Protection against detriment

Workers will, under the new Bill, have protection from detriment for participating in lawful strike action. The government will consult on what types of detriment should be prohibited.

7. Repeal of Minimum Service Levels

The Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 will be repealed.

Extension of Time Limits

As it stands, most tribunal claims need to be brought within three months of the act complained of. On 26 November 2024 the government made an amend to the Bill that extends the three-month time limit to six months. It is currently unclear as to when these new timescales will be introduced but the extension will apply to all types of claims, including claims for unfair dismissal and discrimination.

 Although there is a chance that the change would be welcomed in some cases, it is likely that extending the time limits will lead to an increase in claims overall. This increase will place additional pressure on an already struggling tribunal system, causing further delay.

Disclaimer

This information is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. We recommend seeking professional advice before taking any action on the information provided. If you would like to discuss your specific circumstances, please feel free to contact us on 0800 2800 421.