The Major Changes in Employment Rights in the UK

Article by Nisha Rikhi

The new workers’ rights legislation is a much-anticipated development in employment law. The measures set out within the legislation will change the employment landscape in the UK for all employees and workers alike. The article explores what the new measures in the legislation are and how they will affect workers.

Termination of employment:

The government is going to give employees the right to not be unfairly dismissed from day one of employment. This is a very important step forward for employee protection. At the moment, an employee only has the right to not be unfairly dismissed after two years of employment. Changing this rule would ensure that employers do not unfairly dismiss employees from the first day of employment. At the moment, an employee can be dismissed for any reason within the first two years of employment, even if this reason is demonstrably unfair. Making the right to not be unfairly dismissed means that employees at greatest risk of unfair dismissal would be better protected. This means that employers will only be able to dismiss employees for a genuinely fair reason.

The government is seeking to ban the dismissals of women who are pregnant, on maternity leave, and during a six month return to work period. This is a vital new protection for female employees. It has been proven that pregnant women or new mothers returning to work are more likely to face unfair treatment or unfair dismissal. Making it so pregnant women or new mothers just returning to work cannot be dismissed provides vital protection from discrimination. The good news is that protection would also apply to adoption leave, shared parental leave, neonatal care leave and bereaved partner’s paternity leave. That means that any employee who has taken leave to look after a baby or child will not be able to be dismissed on the grounds of having taken that parental leave. Employers will also not be able to single out those employees on maternity leave or who have taken parental leave for dismissal within a set time period. This gives women enhanced protection from discrimination and unfair dismissal as they cannot be dismissed while they are pregnant, on maternity leave or during a set period following a return to work.

Zero-hours contracts:

The government is abolishing exploitative zero-hours contracts. The new rules will require an employer to offer employees on zero-hours contracts guaranteed hours. The offer of guaranteed hours must reflect the hours worked by the employee. This change will apply to agency workers. This reform in itself is a seismic reform to the employment landscape as it puts an end to unstable working hours.  This means that all employees will have the right to predictable work schedules, with a guarantee they will be given a minimum number of hours each week to work. The government is going to require employers to give zero-hours contract workers reasonable notice of a shift they are required to work. The employer would also be required to give the employee reasonable notice of any change to the shift, including if the shift is cancelled. In the event of a cancelled shift, a worker will be entitled to payment for short notice cancellation if they had reasonably believed that they would be needed for that shift. The employer will have to make payments to workers each time there is a change to a shift at short notice. This is a noticeable improvement for employees as it forces businesses to grant them better job security and working hours. These changes to zero-hours contracts only bring benefits to the world of work. It lifts low-wage workers out of poverty as these changes effectively give them guaranteed income by forcing employers to offer them contracts for the hours they normally work. It also creates greater job security and income certainty as employees know exactly how many hours they will work and what income they have coming in, so they can sustain their housing and other expenses.

Pay:

The National Living Wage is going to continue to increase every year. The introduction and continuation of the rising national minimum wage for all employees, regardless of age, is a crucial reform for employees and workers. This is because nobody who is in paid work should have to use foodbanks or rely on charities to help them with the cost of essentials. The government has announced that it will be removing the age bands currently set out in the National Minimum Wage, which means that all adults will benefit from receiving the same wage. This is a very important change to the National Minimum Wage as adults across the country have been experiencing the same cost-of-living pressures, regardless of age. Differentiating between adults on the basis of age when setting the National Minimum Wage is discriminatory and getting rid of it is a vital step towards minimum pay equality. The rising minimum wage band and the removal of the age bands benefit employees and workers as they will be paid a decent wage for the hours they have worked. This expansion of the National Living Wage can only be beneficial to the world of work. This raises the minimum hourly rate that an employee can be paid and will effectively raise millions of people out of poverty by ensuring they have a basic income.

The government is extending the equal pay laws so equal pay claims can be brought on the basis of race or disability. This is a reform that will greatly benefit employees and workers. Every employee who does the same job or a very similar job should be paid the same hourly rate, regardless of gender, race or disability. The Equal Pay Act already protects against unequal pay on the basis of gender. Extending the equal pay regime so that employers are required to pay everyone doing the same job equally, even if they are of a different race or have a disability, is a benefit to all employees. It will create equitable treatment for all employees, and it will force employers to eliminate racism and disability discrimination. This can only be of benefit to employees and workers. The government is showing that they intend to make this reform a reality for millions of employees by creating a new regulatory enforcement unit to enforce equal pay laws. This shows employers and employees that the government intends to enforce equal pay laws across all employment settings. Employers will now have to start paying their staff equal pay for equal work, even if they are of a different race or are disabled. This is a benefit to the workplace and it creates an equitable working environment which will only benefit employees and workers.

Sickness:

Statutory Sick Pay will become payable from the first day of sickness, removing the previous waiting period of three days. The lower earnings limit will also be removed. This means that for the first time, all eligible employees will be entitled to SSP, regardless of earnings. The government has now decided that it will regulate to give those earning less than £123 a week the right to SSP at a rate of 80% of their weekly earnings. These reforms mean that workers will no longer be required to earn above the lower earnings limit to qualify and will not need to wait four days before they can receive Statutory Sick Pay.  No employee should have to go to work when they are sick simply because they cannot afford to not be in work. The changes being made to Statutory Sick Pay will allow more workers to receive it when off sick and make sick pay more generous. These reforms will have a marked benefit on the world of work. Employees will be able to take time off work when they are sick, without worrying about losing their income. This could also help to make workplaces more productive as it will cut the rates of presenteeism, which adversely affects productivity as the changes in sick pay will eliminate the necessity for workers to turn up to work when they are too ill to do so.

Flexible working:

The government is going to require that all refusals of flexible working requests be reasonable. This means that employers will be expected to consider and approve flexible working requests made from day one of employment, unless they can prove that it would have unreasonable consequences for the business. Flexible working includes flexible starting and finishing hours, compressed hours, part-time hours and working from home. Under the new rules that the government is planning to bring in, an employer would be legally obligated to approve all flexible working requests made from the date a new employee starts work, unless they can prove the request is unreasonable. If an employer wants to refuse a flexible work request, they must prove that they cannot grant the request due to being unable to reorganise the workforce, hire new staff or produce the same quality of work, for example. Changing the law to force employers to grant flexible working requests will have a considerable impact on the world of work. This change will give employees greater work-life balance and greater flexibility to those who wish to fit their work around their childcare and caring responsibilities. The change in the law on flexible working will change the world of work forever as there will be expectations from employees, backed up by law, that employment should fit around and support an individual employee’s family life and other commitments.

Family rights:

The government is going to give employees the right to paid parental leave from day one of employment. This will be achieved by removing the length of service requirement for parental leave. This means that employees will have the right to parental leave from day one of employment instead of after one year. This is good news for families, as it gives parents a greater ability to take time off work to care for children and newborn babies. The government is also going to make paternity leave a day one right. Male employees will no longer need to be employed for 26 weeks before they are eligible for paternity leave. This is good news for fathers as it gives them greater rights when it comes to taking time off work after a baby is born. The government is going to further improve the world of work for families by changing the rules for shared parental leave. Employees will have greater flexibility around caring for children as fathers will now be able to take paternity leave and pay, even after they have taken shared parental leave and pay. Improving the employment rights for families is an essential plank of the Labour government’s employment philosophy. They believe that paid work should support an individual’s family life.

The Parental Bereavement Pay and Leave Act, which came into force in 2020, gives employed parents two weeks of paid bereavement leave after the death of a child. This has strengthened employment rights for parents. Under the law, parents now have additional rights to take paid time off work which was not provided for under the existing parental leave arrangements. The new parental bereavement leave and pay provisions have made employment more family-friendly and have given parents greater protection and flexibility when it comes to dealing with the death of a child.

The desire of the government to make employment rights more family-friendly is reflected in other reforms it is bringing in. The government is planning to introduce a day one right to at least one week of bereavement leave for employees. This change is beneficial to workers as anyone who is employed when a dependant dies would then be able to take time off work. Currently, employees can only take paid bereavement leave if they are experiencing parental bereavement. For all other employees, they would have to take unpaid dependent leave. Labour’s proposed change would mean that all employees could take paid time off for bereavement when a dependant dies.

The upcoming changes to parental leave, paternity leave, shared parental leave and general bereavement leave are important, given the Labour government’s stance on work and family life. They believe that every employee should be able to take time off work to look after their children from the first day on the job without fear of repercussions. These changes will undoubtedly improve the world of work for families, as for the first time, employees will be able to take time off work from day one to look after their children or grieve the loss of a child or dependent.

The Neonatal Care Leave and Pay Act gives employed parents extra paid parental leave for parents of babies receiving neonatal care. Under this new legislation, a parent can claim an extra week of leave for every week that their baby is receiving neonatal care. This is a sizeable step forward as before parents had to take normal parental leave. Now, there is special leave that can only be taken by parents who have babies receiving neonatal care. This is an added protection for new parents and makes employment more family-friendly. The new legislation also gives parents who have fulfilled the service requirement the right to paid leave in this situation. This improves the situation for parents as those who qualify will no longer need to rely on holiday pay to bolster their income if they have to take time off outside of paid maternity or paternity leave. The Neonatal Care Leave and Pay Act enhances protections for new parents and makes employment more family-friendly, particularly for young families.

Enforcement:

The government is going to extend time limits for bringing tribunal claims from three months to six months. This will give employees greater protection against unfair treatment or discriminatory treatment. It will give employees an extended period of time in which to pursue complaints and lodge tribunal claims if they feel they have been treated unfairly. This will benefit employees as it will provide them with greater opportunities to obtain redress for unfair treatment. Employees and workers will also benefit from greater regulatory protection that might make it less likely that they will be treated unfairly. This is because the government is creating the Fair Work Agency which will bring together existing enforcement functions.

The Fair Work Agency will be responsible for enforcing laws around the National Living Wage, statutory sick pay, the employment tribunal penalty scheme, labour exploitation and holiday pay. This means that employees and workers can have confidence in raising grievances with employers about things like incorrect pay or not receiving holiday pay as these are all complaints that would be subject to enforcement action. Before this legislation was brought forward, there was very limited protection for employees outside of the employment tribunal. The passage of this legislation could create a new enforcement agency that could advocate for employees and help guard against wilful breaches of employment rights on the part of the employer. Creating greater regulatory enforcement will benefit employees as it will give them greater redress when their employment rights are violated and will give them greater protection from mistreatment at work.

Overall, it is clear that the changes to parental leave and the introduction of new types of bereavement and parental leave will make the workplace more family-friendly, thereby increasing family rights for those in paid employment. The new flexible working, sick pay and unfair dismissal requirements will also strengthen employment rights for employees. It is clear that the change to family rights coupled with the flexible working, sick pay, unfair dismissal and equal pay changes will significantly reshape the employment landscape. It is a piece of legislation that promotes the rights of employees significantly, as the government will be giving employees existing rights from day one of employment and creating new protections for employees. This much-anticipated legislation, with the abolition of zero-hours contracts and the new enforcement regime, will significantly affect businesses. Businesses will have to change the way they employ people as a result of the abolition of zero-hours contracts, the requirement to pay Statutory Sick Pay from day one of sickness and the requirement that all refusals of flexible working requests be reasonable. Consequently, while the proposals in the upcoming Employment Rights Bill are vastly beneficial for employees, it may change the way employers advertise jobs and hire employees in the future, in a bid to combat the potential costs of employing new staff. However, it is undeniable that while these proposed changes could significantly change the way employers conduct business, the change would overall have a vastly positive effect on employees, as they create better rights and greater protections for employees to enjoy.