The King’s Speech – Employment Law Proposals

© House of Lords / photography by Roger Harris

The Prime Minister’s accompanying briefing note gave additional details, reinforcing Labour’s commitment to fully implement their ‘New Deal for Working People.’

The briefing note sets out that the Employment Rights Bill should cover the following:

1. Prohibiting exploitative zero-hour contracts, guaranteeing workers the right to a contract reflecting their usual working hours
2. ending the practices of ‘fire and rehire’ and ‘fire and replace’ by reforming the law and replacing the current statutory code;
3. granting parental leave, sick pay, and protection from unfair dismissal from the first day of employment (subject to rules for probationary periods);
4. removing the lower earnings limit and waiting period for Statutory Sick Pay;
5. making flexible working the default for all workers from day one, with employers required to accommodate this as much as reasonably possible;
6. making it unlawful to dismiss a woman for six months following her return from maternity leave (with certain exceptions);
7. creating the Fair Work Agency to strengthen enforcement of workplace rights;
8. introducing a Fair Pay Agreement specifically for the adult social care sector;
9. reinstating the School Support Staff Negotiating Body;
10. repealing the law on minimum service levels for industrial action;
11. simplifying the statutory recognition process for trade unions; and
12. introducing a right to ensure workers can access a union within workplaces.

In addition, a draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill was introduced to “enshrine the full right to equal pay law” for both ethnic minorities and disabled people. It also proposes mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting (for employers with 250+ employees).

The King’s Speech also referred to reforming the apprenticeship levy, and this may be through relaxing the rules in relation to the levy, so that fifty per cent of it could be used to train existing staff.

Notably, some of the election pledges do not require primary legislation to take effect. For example, the pledge to provide a genuine living wage for working people as the first step has already been taken, with the Government altering the Low Pay Commission’s remit at the end of July. There is now a requirement to factor in the cost of living when recommending minimum wage rates.

We now look forward to seeing the draft legislation itself!

If you have any questions or concerns about how these proposals could impact your business, please get in touch with our Employment Team on 01635 896336 or hello@fentonelliott.co.uk