Labour’s new employment law changes

Wednesday 21st Aug 2024

Labour have promised to introduce a huge wave of employment laws which could come into effect from as early as October 2024. The devil will be in the detail so we await that, however, the changes are very employee centric, great for employees but maybe not so great for business!

The changes include:

  • Making parental leave a day 1 right
  • Banning exploitative zero-hour contracts and ensuring workers have a right to a contract that reflects the hours they regularly work
  • Ending or restricting the practice of ‘fire and rehire’
  • Removing the lower earnings limit (currently £123/week) and the 3 day waiting period for Statutory Sick Pay
  • Making flexible working the default for all workers from day one and requiring employers to accommodate this as far as is reasonable
  • Making it unlawful to dismiss a woman who has had a baby for six months after she comes back to work (with certain exceptions)
  • Creating the Fair Work Agency to enforce workplace rights
  • Introducing a Fair Pay Agreement in the adult social care sector
  • The right to disconnect from work (switch off)

Two other changes proposed of particular note are:

  1. Protection from unfair dismissal available from day 1 (subject to special rules for probationary periods). This change will have the greatest impact on employers. Managing new employees and using probationary periods effectively will be key.
  2. Making statutory sick pay a day 1 right. This will be an increased cost to the business.

We know many practices have HR contracts in place, make sure you look out for any new policies, contract changes, etc. This information has been supplied by Hill HR Consultancy Ltd, for more information visit https://www.hillhr.co.uk/

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