Nearly 50 Changes Could be in Government’s Plan for Employment Rights Law Shakeup – Byline Times

The past fortnight of political coverage would have you think the only thing happening in Government was a row over how much – now ousted – No 10 chief Sue Gray earned.

But several pivotal pieces of legislation are making their way through Parliament. Together, they will affect almost every person in Britain.

The Government’s landmark Employment Rights Bill is set to be introduced in the House of Commons on Thursday. 

It is based on Labour’s pre-election document, ‘Labour’s Plan to Make Work Pay: Delivering a New Deal for Working People’, which was agreed with unions following extensive talks. Labour pledged in its manifesto to implement it “in full”.

Other key laws being put through Parliament this month will renationalise the railways (the Public Ownership Bill), and overhaul the private rented sector for 11 million private renters. The Renters’ Rights Bill, which will ban so-called No Fault (Section 21) evictions was introduced on 9 October.

While some elements of Labour’s initial workers’ rights plan are expected to have been watered down in the legislation – which has been subject to consultation with both unions and business leaders – it is still expected to be the biggest advancement in workers’ rights in over a generation.

On Wednesday, the Prime Minister’s spokesperson said the legislation would ensure workplace rights are “fit for a modern economy” and would “empower working people and kickstart economic growth”.

Asked by Byline Times whether the final package had the support of both unions and bosses, the spokesperson said there had been “significant engagement” with businesses and unions on the bill.

The measures in the bill were described as “pragmatic” and focused on delivering manifesto commitments to improve workers’ rights while also improving productivity.

Some outlets have reported that some of the law’s most significant provisions may not take effect until 2026. A centrepiece of the bill is the right for employees to claim unfair dismissal from their first day of employment, rather than after two years as currently required. However, this provision is not expected to be implemented until autumn 2026, according to Politico. (Most other measures are expected to come into effect in 2025.)

“They’ve taken the toughest thing and put it at the end,” one source told the outlet. 

Employers will reportedly retain the ability to dismiss staff “fairly” during probation periods, which are expected to be set at six to nine months. The exact length of these periods is to be determined through further consultation. Employers are likely to push for nine months. 

The bill is described as a “framework”, with many details to be decided through consultation. 

The length of the “reference period”, at which point workers on Zero Hours contracts can request more stable contracts, is likely to be 12 weeks, but this is also subject to consultation, according to Politico. 

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner met with business groups and unions to discuss the bill ahead of its introduction on Wednesday night. 

The Government claims the bill will “get the balance right between driving an improvement in workers’ rights, driving productivity, (improving) living standards, and growing the economy”.

An ITV journalist reported that the meeting with unions and business leaders about the bill was heated, though the PM’s spokesperson refused to comment on the claim. 

Labour’s pre-election ‘Plan to Make Work Pay’ document, published in May, is likely to be held up against whatever comes out of the legislation now that the party is in power, particularly after what could be a fraught consultation process.

Below we pull out the main recommendations from that policy plan. Most of the language is taken directly from that document.

What Labour’s Pre-Election ‘Plan to Make Work Pay’ Committed the Party To 

1. Introduce legislation within 100 days of entering Government to implement a New Deal for Working People.
2. Repeal the Trade Union Act 2016, the Minimum Service Levels (Strikes) Bill and the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses (Amendment) Regulations 2022.
   1. This would scrap minimum voting thresholds for strike ballots, fully ban strike-breaking tactics by employers bringing in agency labour during industrial action, among other changes. 
3. “Consult fully” with businesses, workers, and civil society on how to put the New Deal plans into practice before legislation is passed.
4. Ban “exploitative zero-hour contracts” and ensure everyone has the right to have a contract that reflects the number of hours they regularly work, based on a 12-week reference period.
5. Ensure all workers get “reasonable notice” of any change in shifts or working time, with compensation for any shifts cancelled or curtailed.
6. End the scourges of ‘fire and rehire’ and ‘fire and replace’ by reforming the law to provide “effective remedies against abuse” and replacing the inadequate statutory code.
7. Include basic individual rights from day one for all workers, ending the current arbitrary system that leaves workers waiting up to two years to access basic rights.
8. Move towards a single status of worker and transition towards a simpler two-part framework for employment status, differentiating between workers and the genuinely self-employed.
9. Strengthen redundancy rights and protections, and strengthen the existing set of rights and protections for workers subject to TUPE processes.
10. Strengthen protection for whistleblowers, including updating protection for women who report sexual harassment at work.
11. Strengthen rights and protections for self-employed workers, including the right to a written contract, action to tackle late payments, and extending health and safety and blacklisting protections.
12. Make flexible working the default from day one for all workers, except where it is not “reasonably feasible”.
13. Review the parental leave system within the first year of a Labour Government and ensure parental leave is a day one right.
14. Strengthen protections for pregnant women by making it unlawful to dismiss a woman who is pregnant for six months after her return, except in specific circumstances.
15. Review the implementation of unpaid carers’ leave policy and examine the benefits of introducing paid carers’ leave.
16. Introduce the right to bereavement leave for all workers.
17. Bring in the ‘right to switch off’, so working from home does not become homes turning into 24/7 offices.
18. Work with workers, trade unions, employers, and experts to examine what AI and new technologies mean for work, jobs and skills, and how to promote best practice in safeguarding against privacy invasion and discriminatory algorithmic decision-making.
19. Change the Low Pay Commission’s remit so that the minimum wage reflects the cost of living, remove discriminatory age bands, and ensure proper enforcement.
20. Strengthen statutory sick pay by removing the lower earnings limit, making it available to all workers, and removing the waiting period.
21. Strengthen the law to ensure hospitality workers receive their tips in full and workers decide how tips are allocated.
22. Ban unpaid internships except when they are part of an education or training course.
23. Establish a new Fair Pay Agreement in the adult social care sector, empowering workers and trade unions to negotiate fair pay and conditions.
24. Reinstate the School Support Staff Negotiating Body to establish a national terms and conditions handbook, training, career progression routes, and fair pay rates for support staff.
25. Update trade union legislation to remove “unnecessary restrictions” on trade union activity and ensure industrial relations are based on good faith negotiation and bargaining.
26. Allow modern, secure, electronic balloting and workplace ballots for trade union statutory ballots.
27. Simplify the process of union recognition and the law around statutory recognition thresholds.
28. Introduce rights for trade unions to access workplaces in a regulated and responsible manner for recruitment and organising purposes.
29. Introduce a new duty on employers to inform all new employees of their right to join a union and to inform all staff of this on a regular basis.
30. Ensure there is sufficient facilities time for all trade union reps and create new rights and protections for trade union reps to undertake their work.
31. Update regulations to outlaw the use of predictive technologies for blacklisting and safeguard against singling out workers for mistreatment or the sack without evidence of human interaction (AI focused recommendation) 
32. Put in place measures to ensure that outsourcing of services can no longer be used by employers to avoid paying equal pay to women.
33. Strengthen Equality Impact Assessments for public sector bodies and implement a regulatory and enforcement unit for equal pay with trade union involvement.
34. “Protect and uphold” the Equality Act 2010, including the Public Sector Equality Duty.
35. Work with trade unions and others to ensure workers diagnosed with a terminal illness are “treated with respect, dignity, and supported at work”.
36. Enact the socioeconomic duty under Section 1 of the Equality Act, applying to public bodies.
37. Require large firms to develop, publish, and implement action plans to close their gender pay gaps, and ensure outsourced workers are included in their gender pay gap and pay ratio reporting.
38. Make the publication of ethnicity and disability pay gaps mandatory for employers with more than 250 staff.
39. Require large employers with more than 250 employees to produce Menopause Action Plans.
40. Establish a single enforcement body to enforce workers’ rights, including strong powers to inspect workplaces and take action against exploitation.
41. Improve and strengthen enforcement through Employment Tribunals, including increasing the time limit for employees to make an employment claim from three months to six months.
42. Enable employees to collectively raise grievances about conduct in their place of work to ACAS.
43. Review health and safety guidance and regulations to modernise legislation and guidance where it does not fully reflect the modern workplace.
44. Require employers to create and maintain workplaces and working conditions free from harassment, including by third parties, and strengthen the legal duty for employers to take all reasonable steps to stop sexual harassment.
45. End the “drive to privatise public services”, extend the Freedom of Information Act to apply to private companies that hold contracts to provide public services, and extend it to publicly-funded employers associations.
46. Examine public services that have been outsourced to “improve quality, ensure greater stability and longer-term investment” in the workforce, and deliver better value for money.
47. Ensure “social value” is mandatory in public sector contracts through a new National Procurement Plan.

The document also pledged to create a new Fair Work Standard to ensure the “best employers get recognition”. It would be upheld by a new Social Value Council made up of public, employer, and trade union representatives.

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Josiah Mortimer also writes the On the Ground column, exclusive to the print edition of Byline Times.

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