Workers to benefit from raft of reforms as Government unveils Employment Rights Bill

The legislation, which was laid before Parliament on 10 October, will make flexible working “the default” for all employees, except in cases where the employer can prove it is “unreasonable”.

Photograph: iStock/FG Trade

Absent from the Bill are some commitments from the Government's Make Work Pay plan, such as the widely reported ‘Right to Switch Off’, which seeks to prevent employers from contacting workers outside their contracted hours. Such commitments have, however, been included in a Next Steps document with a view to implementing them in the future, subject to consultations, or through the use of non-legislative means such as codes of practice.

The 28 measures contained in the Bill include the removal of the existing two-year qualifying period for protections from unfair dismissal; a ban on “exploitative” zero-hours contracts by giving those who work regular hours over a defined period the right to a guaranteed hours contract, while allowing those who prefer to remain on a zero-hours contract to do so; an end to “unscrupulous” fire-and-rehire practices; and the right to unpaid parental leave from day one.

Workers will be eligible for statutory sick pay from the first day they are unwell, and the Government will consult on a new statutory probation period for new hires.

A new enforcement body called the Fair Work Agency will be established, “to enforce rights such as holiday pay and support employers looking for guidance on how to comply with the law”, said the Government.

“The best employers know that employees are more productive when they are happy at work. That is why it’s vital to give employers the flexibility they need to grow whilst ending unscrupulous and unfair practices,” said UK Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds. “This upgrade to our laws will ensure they are fit for modern life, raise living standards and provide opportunity and security for businesses, workers and communities across the country.”

British Safety Council chairman Peter McGettrick has welcomed the Bill, describing the reforms as, “a major step forwards in ensuring all workers benefit from a more certain and consistent floor of standards and protections in work”. McGettrick said that he would like to see the measures forming “part of a new approach to growth and productivity which recognises that people’s wellbeing, health and safety are fundamental to our wider prosperity”.

He added: “Whether you work in a small start-up or a large corporate, and whatever the nature your contract, we should all get the same basic rights and protections at work, and employers should then be given the flexibility and scope to do what is right for their business.”

Unions have also broadly welcomed the reforms contained in the Bill, although some are concerned about possible loopholes in areas such as ending fire-and-rehire practices.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said the Bill is “without doubt a significant step forward for workers but stops short of making work pay”. But she added that the legislation “still ties itself up in knots trying to avoid what was promised”, and that “failure to end fire-and-rehire and zero-hours contracts once and for all will leave more holes than Swiss cheese that hostile employers will use”.

TUC secretary general Paul Nowak said: “Driving up employment standards is good for workers, good for business and good for growth. It will give workers more predictability and control and it will stop good employers from being undercut by the bad.” There is “still detail to be worked through”, he added.

Small business representatives have been more critical of the Bill. Tina McKenzie, policy chair at the Federation of Small Businesses, described the legislation as “a rushed job, clumsy, chaotic and poorly planned”.

McKenzie added: “Dropping 28 new measures onto small business employers all at once leaves them scrambling to make sense of it all. Beyond warm words, it lacks any real pro-growth element and will increase economic inactivity, seriously jeopardising the Government’s own 80 per cent employment target.”

Most of the reforms in the Bill are not expected to take effect before 2026.

“Clearly, these changes are not all going to happen immediately, and we will have to see how they will look after the Government has consulted, but we need employers to get clarity and certainty sooner rather than later, so that workers can thrive not just survive,” said British Safety Council’s McGettrick.