On 17 July 2024, the King delivered his speech at the State Opening of Parliament and the new UK Labour Government’s legislative programme for the year ahead were unveiled.

From an employment law perspective, radical change is afoot, and the Government’s “New Deal for Working People”, in the form of an Employment Rights Bill, is expected to be introduced within its first 100 days.

Based on the new Government’s “Plan to Make Work Pay” and its background briefing notes to the King’s Speech, the Employment Rights Bill will do the following:

1. Introduce a “Day 1” right to claim unfair dismissal, removing the current requirement for a minimum of two years’ service. Sick pay and parental leave rights also to be available from Day 1.
2. Ban “exploitative” zero hour contracts and introduced a right to a more predictable contract.
3. Reform the law on dismissal and re-engagement or “fire and re-hire” and replace the new statutory code of practice due to come into force in July 2024.
4. Strengthen statutory sick pay by removing the lower earnings limit as well as the three-day waiting period.
5. Make flexible working the default “except where it is not reasonably feasible”, further expanding the recent expansion of the right to request flexible working as a Day 1 right.
6. Increase protections for new mothers by making it unlawful to dismiss a woman who has had a baby for six months after her return to work, except in specific circumstances.
7. Establish a new single enforcement body (or “Fair Work Agency”) to strengthen the enforcement of workplace rights.
8. Update trade union legislation, removing unnecessary restrictions on trade union activity – including the previous Government’s approach to minimum service levels and ensuring industrial relations are based around good faith negotiation and bargaining.
9. Introduce a right for workers and union members to access a union within workplaces.

In addition, an Equality (Race and Disability) Bill will (a) enshrine in law the full right to equal pay for ethnic minorities and disabled people and (b) require employers with 250 employees or more to publish more equality data by introducing mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting.

Implications for employers

The proposed reforms are the most significant and wide-ranging for many years, but, as ever, the devil is in the detail and the detail is yet to be fleshed out. Given that the UK Government has said it will consult fully with “businesses, workers and civil society” on how to put the plans into practice before legislation is passed, in practice many of the proposals may take months and even years to come into effect.

In the meantime, we will keep a watching brief for any consultations on the proposals and any draft legislation and will update and provide practical guidance when we are able. Stay tuned.

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