Now that we know Labour have won the General Election, I have had a number of clients contacting me asking what this will mean for employment law. I’m aware they made a lot of pledges that will be relevant to their HR practices, can you share what these are?
Now that we know Labour have won the General Election, I have had several clients contacting me asking what this will mean for employment law. I’m aware they made a lot of pledges that will be relevant to their HR practices, can you share what these are?
Prior to the election, the new government set out a few commitments to change in its “Labour’s Plan to Make Work Pay.” This sets out plans to ban “one-sided” flexibility in zero-hours contracts and give the right to these workers to compensation for cancelled shifts as well as the right to a regular contract to reflect the hours they’ve worked, and to replace the recently published Code of Practice on fire and re-hire practices (which is set to come into force from 18 July) with a tougher version.
While the document states that Labour will ensure that employers can “operate probationary periods to assess new hires”, it also makes clear that the right not to be unfairly dismissed, sick pay and parental leave will all be in place on the first day of employment.
Among other proposals, the new Government will consult on removing the current distinction between employees and workers, provide for redundancy consultation to be determined by the number of people affected across the whole business rather than in one workplace, and strengthen the existing protections for whistle-blowers and workers subject to TUPE processes.
When it comes to pay, Labour have pledged to replace the rate of statutory sick pay with a “fair earnings replacement”, remove the National Minimum Wage age bandings, ban certain unpaid internships, and create Fair Pay Agreements in adult social care to regulate pay across the sector. They will also take the new laws on worker tips, set to come into force in October 2024, one step further and give workers the power to decide how tips are allocated.
In terms of time off, the government intend to review the implementation of carer’s leave (which came into force in April 2024) and examine the benefits of introducing paid carer’s leave. They’ve also committed to introducing a new right to bereavement leave, which is currently only available to parents of children who have died under the age of 18.
They’ll also make flexible working the default from day one for all workers (which, since 6 April 2024, employees have been able to request from the first day of employment) and only allow it to be refused where it is not reasonably feasible.
There are also a number of plans that focus on employee wellbeing. They will support the wellbeing of workers and their long-term physical and mental health and introduce a new right to disconnect to give employees the right to switch off from their work outside of working hours.
Labour also has plans to strengthen workers enforcement rights. They’ll do this by introducing a new single enforcement body responsible for ensuring employment rights are upheld and increase the time limit within which employees are able to make an employment claim from three months to six months.
Whilst all this change will not come at once, you will still need to get prepared. Labour has pledged to put new laws relating to the above and more before Parliament within the first 100 days from its official opening on 17 July 2024, but that is only the first step in the journey of these pledges becoming law.
What is clear is that when these changes do come into force you will have to deal with a lot of HR changes that will mean new contracts, policies and procedures.
To find out more about how this will affect your company and employees please contact your KKVMS advisor.