More employment law changes i.e. part 2 of what’s planned by the new Labour government in their first six months, i.e. July to December 2024 – let’s see what happens – Labour’s first 6 months – what to expect!

The time until the end of the year will certainly fly by with this little lot to contend with!

Making “fire and rehire” illegal

First off, what does “fire and rehire” actually mean?

This expression refers to the situation where you might want to change an employee’s Terms and Conditions but, even after consultation, the employee won’t agree to accepting the change.

Currently, there is the possibility for the employer to dismiss the employee on their current terms and offer to re-hire them on the new proposed terms. 

The new labour government proposes to put an end to “firing and rehiring”, introducing legislation to support their proposal.

Katherine says: watch this space for more detail.

TUPE changes 

If you’re lucky enough to be blissfully unaware of TUPE regulations, please feel free to skip this part! If it’s ever applied or could ever apply to your business, then you should be aware that there are some proposed changes relating to strengthening of existing rights and protections but no clear detail on actual changes as yet.

Katherine says: TUPE stands for Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) regulations and they apply if you buy or sell a business with employees as a going concern or if you plan to outsource a service previously carried out inhouse (or vice versa – the service was outsourced and you plan to bring it inhouse).

If changes are coming to simplify this notoriously complicated area of employment law, then they might even be welcomed! 

Unpaid Internships

I sincerely hope that no one in my network would dream of using unpaid internships but sadly, they do exist. The Labour government plan to ban these arrangements unless they are part of an education or training course.

Katherine says: So it’s not all bad news then! No decent employer would consider offering an unpaid internship anyway – the words “slave labour” come to mind. 

Sick Pay

It is proposed to remove the lower earnings limit (so anyone could be eligible for SSP) and to do away with waiting periods (currently, SSP is payable from day 4 of absence with the first 3 days being unpaid and referred to as “waiting days”).

Katherine says: Sickness absences will need to be put under the microscope in every business with some clear and direct guidelines for Managers to support people who are off sick but also to minimise the time people are off sick whenever possible. 

Maternity discrimination

There is a proposal to make it unlawful to dismiss a woman who is pregnant for a period of up to six months after her return to work except in specific circumstances (these circumstances have not been detailed but I imagine it could refer to complete business closure, for example).

Katherine says: If you have any potential redundancies in the pipeline, please make sure you speak to me in good time so we can plan ahead. 

Zero hours contracts

It is proposed that zero hours contracts will instead be required to have a baseline of predictability and should reflect the number of hours regularly worked over a 12 week period and should also ensure that all workers get reasonable notice of any change in shifts/working time. 

Katherine says: let’s see what happens on this one but it’s worth bearing in mind as some of you do regularly use zero hours arrangements currently.

Bereavement leave

It’s proposed to introduce a legal entitlement to bereavement leave for all workers. It’s not yet clear if the statutory entitlement will be for paid or unpaid leave.

Katherine says: currently, bereavement leave (often called compassionate leave) is entirely at the employer’s discretion. I hope that even if statutory leave is introduced, most businesses will still prefer to pay in full for a certain number of days rather than default to the statutory rates which will most likely be in line with other leave entitlements.

Right to switch off

We don’t yet know a lot of detail around this proposal; it could echo the French position relating to the right to disconnect as it’s referred to. This will be particularly relevant for those of you who have employees who routinely work from home.

Katherine says: something for us to bear in mind for the future really. Although arguably, a reasonable employer is unlikely to place unreasonable demands on their team anyway but we shall see what comes of this one. 

Conclusion
So there we have it – a list of the majority of the proposed changes to be introduced by Labour at some point during the remainder of 2024. Contact us for more details.