Changes To Workers’ Rights

The government promised that within 100 days of coming into office they would publish their plans for an overhaul of workers’ rights. Although this promise has been kept with the announcement of the Employment Rights Bill, there was no accompanying time frame for when these changes will become law. The government deciding to opt for a period of consultation first, means that it could be another two years or more before any of the proposals become law.

The major changes announced are:

• Abolition of two-year qualifying for protections from unfair dismissal. This will be replaced by a nine-month probation period where new workers can be properly assessed as to their suitability for the role.
• End of exploitative zero-hours contracts.
• End of unscrupulous fire and re-hire practices.
• All workers will be entitled to SSP from day one. Removing the three day “waiting day” qualification rule
• Workers earning less than the Lower Earnings Limit (£123.00 per week) cannot currently claim SSP. This will be scrapped and a lower rate of SSP will be introduced.
• Fathers to become eligible for paternity leave from day one instead of the current 26 weeks qualification period.
• Parents to become eligible for unpaid parental leave from day one of employment instead of one year.
• Unpaid bereavement leave to become a day one right.
• Flexible working, including working from home and flexible start/finish times, to become a worker right, unless employer can prove the request to be unreasonable.

A number of measures included in Labour’s pre-election Make Work Pay plan have not been addressed in this Employment Rights Bill. So whether we will see further announcements in the next year or so remains very much to be seen.

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Disclaimer - All information in this post was correct at time of writing.