The general election is due on July 4th 2024 and with the polls favouring a Labour government, their proposals, if implemented, would transform the face of employment law in the UK. The Labour Party has outlined around sixty potential reforms to employment law, which they aim to implement during their first 100 days in office.
Although the details are yet to be confirmed, the main changes expected if Labour wins the election are:
- Introducing unfair dismissal rights from day one of employment, as opposed to after two years’ service – it seems that employers will still be able to use probationary periods, although it is yet unclear how these will work alongside unfair dismissal rights;
- Extending the time limit for bringing Employment Tribunal claims and removing the compensation caps;
- Banning zero-hour contracts (with some possible exceptions if the employee requests one);
- Increasing rights to request flexible working and predictable hours;
- Increasing the ability of trade union representatives to enter workplaces;
- Combining ‘workers’ and ‘employees’ into the same category with respect to their employment law rights;
- Introducing stricter rules around artificial intelligence (AI);
- Reviewing shared parental leave;
- Increasing protection for workers against sexual harassment;
- Increasing statutory sick pay, removing the lower earnings limit and removing the waiting days;
- Increasing minimum wage and the removal of age-related minimum wage categories;
- Repealing the recent anti-strike laws;
- Banning, or more strictly regulating, ‘fire and rehire’ (the practice of terminating an employee’s contract and re-employing them immediately afterwards on new terms and conditions);
- Enforcing the requirement for employers to report on disability and ethnicity pay gaps;
- Increasing employees’ rights in situations of redundancy, TUPE transfers and whistleblowing;
- Promoting the right to switch off from work by moving away from a culture that expects employees, especially those who work from home, to be permanently available to answer phone calls and e-mails.
- Banning unpaid internships, except when they are part of an education or training course;
- Changing the laws around how staff in hospitality receive their tips;
- Introducing compulsory menopause action plans for large employers
- Making it easier for employees to raise individual and collective grievances.
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Get in touch
If you would like to discuss how our specialist team of employment lawyers can help you manage these changes, contact us today at 02920 858733 or email us at tcms@thomas-carroll.co.uk.
