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Employment law changes due following the King’s Speech

With a new Labour government, we are expecting a raft of new employment laws.  In the King’s speech yesterday, Labour set out its legislative agenda for the next few months, which included a reference to “legislation to ban exploitative practices and enhance employment rights”.  In the briefing notes accompanying the speech, they state that the Employment Rights Bill will:

  • Grant rights to parental leave, sick pay and protection from unfair dismissal to apply from day 1 (subject to special rules for probationary periods).
  • Ban zero-hours contracts, making sure workers have a right to a contract that reflects the hours they regularly work.
  • Prevent “fire and rehire” and “fire and replace” by reforming the law and replacing the statutory code.
  • Remove the waiting period and lower the earnings limit for statutory sick pay.
  • Introduce a right to request flexible working from day one and require employers to accommodate this as far as is reasonable.
  • Make it unlawful to dismiss a woman within 6 months of returning to work after having a baby (with certain exceptions).
  • Create a Fair Work Agency to enforce workplace rights.
  • Introduce a Fair Pay Agreement in the adult social care sector.
  • Repeal the law on minimum service levels in relation to industrial action.
  • Simplify the process of statutory recognition for trade unions.
  • Introduce a right for workers and union members to access a union within the workplace.

We will await the draft legislation and update everyone in due course.

In the meantime, if you have any questions about how this might affect your business, please get in touch with a member of the team.

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