Key Features Of The Employment Rights Bill 2024

On 10 October 2024, a significant promise made in the Labour Party’s Manifesto was given life in the form of the Employment Rights (ER) Bill 2024. In the most significant employment law shakeup for almost 30 years, the ER Bill 2024 is promised to “upgrade workers’ rights across the UK, tackle poor working conditions and benefit businesses and workers alike”.

Below is a brief summary of the key changes proposed in the ER Bill 2024

Zero Hours Contracts

According to the Government’s factsheet on the ER Bill 2024, over one million people are working under zero-hours contracts. Although they can provide flexibility to employers and employees, the Government believes that the advantages are weighted towards employers.
Therefore, under the ER Bill 2024, employers will be required to offer qualifying workers guaranteed hours reflecting the hours they worked during the reference period. The reference period will be set out in regulations and is anticipated to be 12 weeks. The qualifying workers will be able to reject an offer of guaranteed hours and remain on their current contract if they wish.

Unfair dismissal qualifying period

Currently, employees must have worked for the same employer for two or more years to
bring an unfair dismissal claim unless the reason for dismissal falls under the category of
‘automatically unfair dismissal.’ The ER Bill 2024 will allow employees to bring an unfair
dismissal claim from day one of their employment. To enable employers and employees to
ensure the working relationship benefits them both, a nine-month probation period is
proposed under the ER Bill 2024. During this period, a lighter touch and less onerous
process for businesses to fairly dismiss someone who is not right for the job will apply.

Statutory sick pay

Under the Employment Relations Act 1996, an employee must have average weekly
earnings of £123+ per week to qualify for statutory sick pay. This means up to 1.3 million low
paid workers are not eligible for Statutory Sick Pay. In addition, those who are eligible are
only paid from their fourth day of sickness absence.

The ER Bill 2024 will make statutory sick pay available to all workers, regardless of how
much they earn. Statutory sick pay will also be paid from day one of a worker being off work
for illness.

Fire and Rehire

The practice of dismissing employees who disagree with changes to the employment
contracts and then rehiring them under the new terms and conditions they previously refused
will be banned under the ER Bill 2024.

Once the law comes into force, if employees are dismissed for failing to agree to a change in
their contract of employment, or if the employer dismisses the employee to replace or to re-
engage them on varied contractual terms, those dismissals will be treated as automatically
unfair unless the employer can show:
– evidence of financial difficulties that were affecting, or were likely to affect their
viability
– the changes were to eliminate, prevent, significantly reduce, or significantly mitigate
the effects of those financial difficulties; and
– the need to make the change in contractual terms was unavoidable

Even if the employer can prove the above, the Employment Tribunal will still assess the case
to see if the dismissal was fair. To establish fairness, the Tribunal will consider things such as
whether the employer consulted with trade union representatives and/or offered anything in
return for varying the affected employees’ contractual rights.

Bereavement Leave, Paternity Leave, and Unpaid Parental Leave

Except in the case of parents losing a child under 18 years, there is currently no statutory
right to Bereavement Leave. Under the ER Bill 2024, there will be a day one right to
Bereavement Leave for the death of a loved one.

Currently, an employee must work for their employer for 26 weeks before they are eligible for
Paternity Leave, and for a year before they can take Unpaid Parental Leave. This means
parents who want to take Paternity Leave or Unpaid Parental Leave lose their entitlement if
they leave their job to work for another employer and must build back up these weeks of
service with a new employer before they qualify to take the leave. Under the new ER Bill
2024, provided they give the required notice, Paternity Leave and Unpaid Parental Leave will
be a day one right.

Wrapping up

The above outlines the main points of the ER Bill 2024. However, other areas such as
whistleblowing, menopause, and the rights of self-employed people and carers, will also be
affected. The right to ‘switch off,’ which has been introduced in many countries, including
France and Ireland, may also be introduced to promote a healthy work/life balance.

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