A draft Employment Rights Bill was floated in October 2024, proposing a host of changes that would affect employers and employees alike.

In this Q&A, Employment Expert Michelle Kemp answers your questions on the Employment Rights Bill and looks at when it might come into force.

What is the Employment Rights Bill 2024?

What we have outlined below is only the headline features at this time. We will provide a more detailed analysis of some of the possible consequences and effects as part of our in-person event on 13th November.

In and among the 158 pages of legal jargon, there are some key provisions which are (in the order they appear in the draft Bill):

• New rights for zero hours workers to be given reasonable notice of shifts, payment of shifts which are cancelled at short notice and guaranteed hours provision in relation to a reference period,
• Refusals of flexible working requests will have the added caveat of refusal needing to be “reasonable” in the circumstances,
• Removal of waiting period and lower earnings limit on Statutory Sick Pay,
• Day one rights to claim unfair dismissal,
• In seeking to restrict the practice of “fire and rehire”, the draft Bill looks to make a dismissal for an employee refusing to accept a contract variation automatically unlawful with limited exceptions for employers facing financial damage,
• Provision for Regulations to define what may qualify as “reasonable steps” for the purposes of the preventative steps duty (sexual harassment),
• Disclosing alleged sexual harassment (for purposes of Equality Act) to be specifically included in the list of “protected disclosures” for whistleblowing,
• Collective redundancy consultation duty will kick in if 20 or more redundancies are proposed across the entire business, not just an ‘establishment’.

Read a full, comprehensive list of the key changes, and their nuances, here.

When is the new Employment Rights Bill coming into force?

Very little of the proposed changes are likely to happen immediately. Most of the significant amendments look unlikely to come into force for at least a couple of years and it may well be longer if the legislation itself spends a long time working its way through Parliament.

There are bound to be significant differences of opinion even within the Labour Party about how the specific terms should be enacted and enforced, so any changes may not necessarily make it easy to pass quickly.

Some of the changes are significant and it is clear from Government announcements that there will be a lengthy consultation period for those changes before anything is implemented. News reports have suggested two years before implementation which would take us to 2026 but nothing is guaranteed with Parliament passing legislation.

What’s missing from the Employment Rights Bill?

A few things suggested by Labour that would feature in this Bill including the so-called “right to disconnect”, review of parental and carers leave, and a shift towards single worker status are all notably absent from the draft Bill.

The Government has now included these in a “Next Steps” document which hints at future changes but without any specific indication as to when or how that might be the case.

What do these changes to workers’ rights mean for employers?

Michelle Kemp, Head of Employment at Frettens, says: “There are some significant surprises in this Bill, not least the apparent introduction of third-party harassment liability and the strict imposition of fire and rehire rules.

However, this document remains in draft format and there is a considerable process of parliamentary scrutiny before it is even formalised and then no doubt some significant time before it is implemented.

We will keep reviewing the contents and sharing our thoughts and on-going developments as the Bill progresses.

For now, employers will want to be mindful of these changes and start considering some of the future impacts, but should not be concerned about immediate change.”

Read the full version of this article here.

Any more questions?

If you have any questions following this article, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me. You can call us on 01202 499255 for a free initial chat, where we can discuss your concerns regarding the Employment Rights Bill, or anything else.

A lot of the questions that you may have will probably be answered at our next Employment Event, where we’ll break down the Rights Bill in more detail. Find out more here.