Following consultations with business groups, trade unions and civil society, the UK government has introduced the first round of amendments to the employment rights bill as it progresses through parliament.  Here are the key changes to date:

SSP

One of the key revisions will extend statutory sick pay (SSP) benefits to 1.3 million low-paid workers, granting them legal access to this crucial financial support for the first time.

Under these changes, workers earning less than £123 per week will qualify for sick pay, and the rate will be set at £116.75 per week (£118.65 from April) or 80 per cent of their weekly salary, whichever is lower. Currently, employees falling below the £123 per week threshold are not entitled to SSP, and the rate is flat regardless of weekly earnings.

Additionally, the government is scrapping the three-day qualifying period, meaning SSP will be paid from the first day of sickness. This change could see the lowest earners gain up to £100 per week compared to the current system.

Fair Work Agency

An amendment to the employment rights bill will grant the Fair Work Agency the ability to initiate proceedings in an employment tribunal on a worker’s behalf if they choose not to take action themselves.

The Fair Work Agency is a new state enforcement agency for specific employment rights which will be established by the employment rights bill. It will consolidate the enforcement responsibilities of HMRC’s national minimum wage enforcement team, the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority and the Employment Agency Standards Protectorate.

The tribunal will still make any financial award to the worker if the complaint is well founded.

The new Fair Work Agency will now have unprecedented powers, including:

1. The ability to bring Employment Tribunal claims on behalf of workers — even if they don’t want to claim themselves.
2. The power to offer legal assistance for employment cases, with the Fair Work Agency’s costs potentially recoverable from employers if the claim succeeds.
3. The authority to pursue employers for unpaid holiday pay and sick pay and impose financial penalties on top which go straight to the government.

These amendments to the Bill could fundamentally reshape employment litigation. Employers who previously relied on employee reluctance to claim may now find the Fair Work Agency stepping in instead. Risks of non-compliance with rules on minimum wage, sick pay and holiday pay will materially increase.

Guaranteed Hours

The other major change is a new provision which allows a collective agreement to contract out from the rights to guaranteed hours and reasonable notice of shifts in their entirety, for both workers and agency workers. This means that the employer and an independent trade union can reach an agreement that excludes the new rights and replaces them with something else, so long as these new terms are incorporated into the contract. For agency workers, the collective agreement can be with the person who has the contract with the agency worker.

This set of amendments is important but not the end of the story. Some of the key aspects of the Bill remain unaffected – importantly including the right to unfair dismissal from day one. Things will be clearer when the Bill is passed and the consultation documents are published, although some key issues will remain subject to the outcome of consultation and future regulations.  A lot now turns on the detail of accompanying regulations and whether some compromises can be found there. The timing of implementation is crucial – we will keep you updated as more details are published.

This week’s bulletin advises on amendments to the New Employment Rights Bill as it progresses through the consultation stages.

Abandonment of right to ‘switch off’ outside work hours

Reports suggest ministers are set to abandon plans for a legal right to ‘switch off’ outside work hours. The proposal, a key element of Sir Keir Starmer’s “New Deal for Working People”, aimed to strengthen employment rights by allowing workers to ignore work-related emails and calls outside office hours.
The right to switch off was not included in the Employment Rights Bill but was expected to be added in due course. Reports now suggest that is unlikely to happen. According to The Sunday Times, the Government is expected to confirm its removal when amendments to the Bill are tabled this week, with a Government source reportedly telling the Times that the “right to switch off is dead”.

Fire and re-hire and collective redundancy consultation – government abandons interim relief but doubles protective award to 180 days

The Government has published its response to its consultation on strengthening remedies against abuse of rules on collective redundancy and fire and rehire. Key points to note from the response include:

  • The cap on protective awards in collective redundancy situations will be increased from 90 days to 180 days to encourage employer compliance.
  • A proposal that interim relief should be available in claims for protective awards and/or claims for unfair dismissal on grounds of fire and re-hire (which are to be introduced in the Employment Rights Bill) will not be taken forward. The government acknowledged that this would place undue burdens on businesses and tribunals.
  • In response to feedback that employers would welcome greater support in order to ensure compliance with collective consultation obligations, the government confirms that it will issue further guidance for employers on consultation processes for collective redundancies in due course.

Inclusion of framework for application of zero hours contracts measures to agency workers

The Government has published its response to its consultation on the application of zero hours contracts measures to agency workers. The Employment Rights Bill already includes complex proposals for low and zero-hours workers covering three key areas:

  1. A right for low and zero hours workers who satisfy certain conditions to be offered guaranteed hours at the end of a relevant reference period that reflects the hours worked during that reference period.
  2. A right for zero hours and other specified workers to be given reasonable notice of shifts and changes in shifts.
  3. A right for zero hours and other specified workers to payment each time a work shift is cancelled, moved or curtailed at short notice.

The Government has confirmed that it will table amendments to the Employment Rights Bill to include a framework for the extension of the application of each of these measures to agency workers. How the measures will work in practice must await secondary legislation.

However, the consultation response provides some information:

  • Responsibility for providing the agency worker with reasonable notice of shifts will be on both the employment agency and the end hirer – with the tribunal able to apportion liability based on the responsibility of each party in a given case.
  • Responsibility to pay any short notice cancellation or curtailment payments will be on the employment agency but they will be allowed to re-coup this from the hirer where they have arrangements with the hirer covering this.
  • The Secretary of State will have the right to publish regulations stipulating the form and manner in which an agency worker should receive notifications of shifts, cancellations or curtailments
  • Responsibility to offer guaranteed hours to qualifying agency workers will fall on the end hirer.
  • There will be an exception to the requirement to offer guaranteed hours where there is a genuine temporary work need (such as seasonal demand).

We will keep you updated as the various component parts progress through the consultation stages.

 As always if you have any questions regarding the above or if you’d like to discuss these or any other points further please give one of our expert team a call or get in touch via our Contact Form.