Law and Labour » Parental leave

Employment Rights Bill introduced

Law and Labour — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 14:31:05 +0000

On 10 October 2024, a new Employment Rights Bill (the “Bill“) was introduced into the House of Commons. The Bill contains a suite of provisions covering a wide range of employment rights. The Government has announced its intention to consult on the changes proposed in the Bill with the expectation that most of its reforms will not take effect before 2026. It is hoped that will give businesses sufficient time to prepare for the changes.

The Government has published 10 factsheets that provide further details of the measures included in the Bill. The factsheets cover:

zero hours contracts; unfair dismissal; trade unions; statutory sick pay; school support staff negotiating body; fire and rehire; the Fair Work Agency; bereavement leave, paternity leave and unpaid parental leave; the adult social care negotiating body; and the Employment Rights Bill overview.

Each factsheet typically sets out the current legal framework applicable to a particular employment right. It then describes the Government’s aims for the proposed changes and briefly describes the proposals.

The table below summarises some key proposals as described in the relevant factsheet:

Zero hours contracts Employers will be required to offer qualifying workers guaranteed hours reflecting the hours worked during a 12-week reference period. A qualifying worker may elect to reject an offer of guaranteed hours and instead remain on their current contract. Employers will be required to provide qualifying workers with reasonable notice of shifts and changes to these. If an employer cancels, moves or curtails a shift at short notice, they will be required to pay the affected workers. Unfair dismissal Employees will automatically have protection from unfair dismissal from the first day of employment, subject to a statutory probation period. The statutory probation period will last for nine months during which a “lighter touch” dismissal process will apply. The right to written reasons for dismissal will apply once the statutory probation period has concluded. Fire and rehire Where employees are dismissed for failing to agree to a change in their employment contract, the dismissal will be automatically unfair. It will also be unfair to dismiss an employee in order to replace them or to re-engage them on varied contractual terms. The employer may have a defence to such a dismissal if it can show: the business was facing financial difficulties that affected its viability; the contractual variations proposed were to eliminate, prevent or mitigate the effects of such difficulties; and changing the contract was unavoidable. The employer is required to act fairly in making the dismissal, which must be fair in all the circumstances. Family-related leave Bereavement leave will become a new, day one right. Employees may take at least one week’s leave within a 56-day period. There will no longer be any qualifying period for the right to take paternity leave or unpaid parental leave. Employees will no longer have to take paternity leave prior taking shared parental leave. Fair Work Agency (FWA) A new advisory body on employment rights, called the Fair Work Agency, will be set up. The FWA will also have the remit to investigate and take enforcement action for breaches of employment law. The FWA will be an offshoot of the Department of Business and Trade, with its functions [...]

Employment rights get an uplift from new Labour Government

Law and Labour — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 15:21:53 +0000

One of the key elements of the Labour Party’s manifesto for the 2024 general election was its “Plan to Make Work Pay”. Among the promises in the Plan were that the Party, if elected, would deliver a “genuine living wage”, ban “exploitative zero hours contracts” and end fire and rehire practices. In Labour’s first King’s Speech since being elected to government, it sought to make good on those promises.

The government plans to introduce significant changes to some key areas of employment law, primarily through the new Employment Rights Bill. The content of the Bill is not yet known, but a briefing note from the government sets out the main proposals.

They are to:

make parental leave, sick pay and protection from unfair dismissal “day 1 rights”, subject to probationary periods; ban zero hours contracts; end fire and rehire and fire and replace practices; strengthen statutory sick pay by removing the three-day waiting period and the lower earnings limit; make flexible working a day 1 right; make it unlawful to dismiss a woman within 6 months of her return to work from maternity leave, except in specific circumstances; establish a new body called the Fair Work Agency to aid in the enforcement of workplace rights; establish a Fair Pay Agreement in the adult social care sector; reinstate the School Support Staff Negotiating Body; remove certain restrictions on trade union activity, including minimum service levels; and simplify the route to statutory recognition.

The government says these changes will be introduced within its first 100 days of taking office, so the draft bill is anticipated shortly. The bill will apply to England, Scotland and Wales.

In addition, the government also announced a new Equality (Race and Disability) Bill which intends to “enshrine the full right to equal pay in law” for persons from ethnic minorities and disabled persons. This bill proposes mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting. We await further details as to how such reporting will work in practice.

Photograph: “Pedestrians” by Pixabay user Brian Merrill used under Pixabay content licence

‘Mix and match’ parenting

Law and Labour — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 19:42:41 +0000

The Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg recently announced plans in which parents will be given the right to share the care of their child in the first year following its birth.

Flexible parental leave is to be introduced in 2015.

Only mothers will be allowed to take leave in the first two weeks following the baby’s birth. After that period, parents will be able to divide the rest of the leave between each other as they see fit.

Prospective fathers will also be given the right to take unpaid leave in order to attend up to two antenatal appointments.

Women will still retain the right to take 52 weeks’ maternity leave with no more than nine months at guaranteed pay.