Employment Rights Bill Announced

In today’s King’s Speech, the new government has confirmed its commitment to banning exploitative work practices through a new Employment Rights Bill.

King Charles outlined Labour’s agenda to ‘make work pay’ and announced the government’s plan to ‘legislate to introduce a new deal for working people to ban exploitative practices and enhance employment rights.’

Full details of the Bill are pending, but it is expected to incorporate several key workers’ rights promises from Labour’s pre-election manifesto:

• Day one rights for unfair dismissal, subject to a probation period
• Making flexible working a default right from day one
• Enhanced redundancy protections for employees on or returning from maternity leave
• A ban on employers ‘firing and rehiring’ staff under less favourable terms and conditions
• A ban on exploitative zero-hours contracts
• Improvements to statutory sick pay and the minimum wage
• Reform on collective redundancy consultation, requiring employers to count staff across all locations
• Greater protection for whistleblowers
• Repeal of the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act, which allows some employers to compel employees to work during a strike
• Changes to trade union engagement, allowing members to use secure electronic balloting.

This wasn’t the only HR contribution of note that MAD-HR identified in today’s King’s Speech.

Also mentioned was new legislation on race equality to ‘enshrine the full right to equal pay in law’ through a draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill. This bill is expected to mandate that employers with 250 or more staff publish ethnicity and disability pay gaps. It’s a measure which had been rejected by the former government.

Another announcement was the intention to establish Skills England, which will work closely with employers and introduce reforms to the apprenticeship levy.

AI is clearly being considered closely when it comes to employment and employability. King Charles stated the government’s intention to develop legislation for those creating the most advanced artificial intelligence models.

The MAD-HR team noted there was no mention in today’s announcements of Labour’s potential plans to curb companies’ access to foreign workers if they repeatedly breached employment law, nor the proposal to create a single status of ‘worker’ covering everyone except the genuinely self-employed.

Other significant legislative announcements included bringing the rail network back into public ownership and introducing a ‘Better Bus Bill’ to give local leaders more power to franchise bus services.

Earlier this week, a TUC survey had indicated strong voter support across the political spectrum for Labour’s workers’ rights plans.

What did you spot within the King’s Speech that you think will affect you and your employees?

Are you unsure what the proposals will mean for your business?

Book a call to understand how you can benefit from pragmatic, commercial guidance for business leaders following these employment law revisions.