How a Labour Government will impact HR and Employment Law

Following their victory in the General Election on Thursday, the UK now have a Labour Government. In this article, we look at Labour’s proposed changes in their manifesto for HR and Employment Law.

During their election campaign, Labour released their election manifesto ‘Change’ which included ‘Labour’s plan to make work pay – delivering a new deal for working people’. This outlined around 60 changes to employment law, promising better terms and conditions for Britain’s workers. They have committed to bringing some changes into force within the first 100 days. It is not yet clear though which of these changes it would be, but we expect to receive updates in the near future.

We have outlined the changes to HR and Employment Law that Labour proposed in their manifesto and therefore, what is expected to come into force below.

Wages and pay

Wages

• Abolish the age banding for National Minimum Wage
• Ban unpaid internships (unless they are part of education or a training course)
• Ensure that travel time is paid in sectors where there are multiple working sites
• For companies with 250 or more staff, it will be mandatory to share publications on ethnicity and disability pay gaps, in addition to the current gender pay gap report obligation.

Sick pay

• Improve Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) by making it available to all workers and removing the waiting period of 3 days.
• Planned rates for SSP to represent fair earnings replacement.

Tips

• Hospitality workers to receive their tips in full through strengthened laws.
• Workers to decide how their tips are allocated.

Tackling exploitative zero hour contracts

• Plans for anyone who works regular hours for 12 weeks or more to gain the right to a regular contract to reflect hours worked.
• All workers to receive reasonable notice of any change in shifts or working times and to be compensated for cancelled shifts.
• These plans will not stop employers from offering fixed-term contracts, i.e., seasonal work.

Day one rights for workers

Employment rights

• Make certain employment rights such as unfair dismissal, sick pay, and parental leave a day one right by removing the qualifying period.
• Make it illegal to dismiss a pregnant employee for six months after they return from maternity leave (except in specific circumstances).

Flexible working

• Plans to make flexible working the default from day one for all workers (except when it is not reasonably feasible).
• This includes flexi-time contracts and hours that better accommodate school term times.

Single status of ‘worker’

Remove the current distinction between ‘workers’ and ‘employees’ so that workers are entitled to the full range of basic employment rights and protection such as sick pay, holiday pay, parental leave, and protection against unfair dismissal.

Self-employed

• Give them the right to a written contract

Fire and rehire

Plans to tighten rules around fire and rehire practices. The Labour Party plan to replace the statutory code brought in by the current Government with a strengthened code of practice.

Rights strengthened

Plans to strengthen rights and protections in place for:

• Pregnant workers
• Workers made redundant
• Workers subject to the TUPE process
• Whistle-blowers
• Those making grievances.

There is also a plan to encourage employers to register for the ‘Dying to work’ charter to support workers with terminal illnesses.

Right to switch off

• To introduce a new worker’s right to disconnect and protect them from remote surveillance.
• Allow employees and employers to work together on policies or contractual terms that benefit both parties. For example, setting our expectations and structure, i.e., sending/receiving emails out of hours.

Employment tribunals

Extend the time limit for making Employment Tribunal claims to six months (currently 3 months for majority of claims).

Trade Union laws

Update Trade Union laws including:

• Strengthen trade union right of entry to workplaces
• Process of union recognition simplified
• Stronger protections for trade union reps
• Employer obligation to inform employees of the right to join a union and who the union would be in a written contract.

Harassment

Strengthen harassment law by making it a requirement for employers to create and maintain a workplace free from harassment.

Caring responsibilities

Review the current law around carer’s leave and look at the benefits of introducing paid carer’s leave.

Employee wellbeing

Support on wellbeing with a specific focus on long-covid.

Menopause support

Employers with over 250 employees will be required to produce Menopause Action Plans.

AI

Work closely with workers, trade unions, employers and experts to examine what AI and new technologies mean for work, jobs, and skills.

Getting prepared

Preparation is key for employers in terms of understanding the proposed changes. At HPC we are here to support our clients through this to ensure they remain up-to-date and compliant with any HR and employment law changes that are introduced.

To help support businesses to prepare for these changes we are offering a free health check to help identify any gaps in your HR and employment law practices that may leave you vulnerable to non-compliance, and therefore costly claims.

To claim your free health check please get in contact with our team of experts.

T: 0330 107 1037

E: contact@hpc.uk.com

LinkedIn: High Performance Consultancy

The contents of this article are for general information purposes only. Whilst High Performance Consultancy Ltd endeavours to ensure that the information on this document is correct, no warranty, express or implied, is given as to its accuracy and we do not accept any liability for error or omission.