Following the general election on 4 July, significant employment reforms in line with Labour’s manifesto are expected. Labour plans to introduce an Employment Bill within the first 100 days, prioritizing the “New Deal for Working People” plan. Key proposals include:
1. Employment Rights and Status:
• Unfair dismissal protection from day one.
• Reforms to fire and re-hire practices.
• Enhanced redundancy rights.
• Moving towards a single status of worker.
• Strengthened rights for the self-employed.
2. Workplace Protections and Equality:
• Collective grievance mechanisms.
• Digitized and improved employment tribunals.
• Establishment of a single enforcement body, the ‘Fair Work Agency’.
• Stronger measures against sexual harassment and improved equal pay frameworks.
• Mandatory publication of ethnicity and disability pay gaps.
• Menopause Action Plans for large employers.
• Enhanced protections for terminal illness, pregnancy, carers, and bereavement leave.
3. Family-Friendly and Flexible Working:
• Default flexible working from day one.
• Reviewed and potentially expanded parental leave.
• Statutory rights for carers and bereavement leave.
4. Health, Safety, and Fair Pay:
• Modernized health and safety regulations.
• Genuine living wage aligned with the cost of living.
• Statutory sick pay from day one of illness.
• Strengthened laws ensuring hospitality workers receive their tips in full.
5. Technology and Workers’ Rights:
• Examination of AI’s impact on jobs and skills.
• Right to switch off and regulations on workplace surveillance.
6. Trade Unions and Collective Bargaining:
• Repeal restrictive union laws.
• Simplified union recognition process.
• Rights for unions to access workplaces and for employees to join unions.
• Strengthened protections for union representatives.
7. Additional Reforms:
• Enhanced TUPE protections for workers during business transfers.
• Strengthened whistleblower protections.
• Ban on exploitative zero-hour contracts with predictable hours based on a 12-week reference period.
This provides summary information and comment on the subject areas covered. Where employment tribunal and appellate court cases are reported, the information does not set out all of the facts, the legal arguments presented and the judgments made in every aspect of the case. Employment law is subject to constant change either by statute or by interpretation by the courts. While every care has been taken in compiling this information, we cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions. Specialist legal advice must be taken on any legal issues that may arise before embarking upon any formal course of action.
