Changes to UK employment rights announced

When Labour came back to power in July 2024, they made a big claim about transforming employment rights within the first 100 days of governing. And now finally we know some of the detail. Only its not immediate, in fact it won’t take effect until October 2026! Is this a damp squib? Not necessarily, indeed many of the proposals are sensible and strike a balance between the current regime and what the unions undoubtedly wanted. Grab a brew and read our summary of the changes to UK employment rights.

Day one employment rights?

Much was made of a day one entitlement to employment rights, including the right to claim unfair dismissal. Only it appears that during an up to 9 month probationary period, you can follow an abbreviated process. How will this work in practice? Well we don’t know exactly and given this is to be consulted upon, it could change between now and then. It could be that a specific probation dismissal process will be enshrined in law and if you fail to follow that, then a claim for unfair dismissal could be brought. We’ll wait to see more on this one.

Statutory sick pay

Statutory Sick Pay is currently payable from day 4 of an absence and is subject to a lower earnings limit of £123 per week. This will change with SSP being payable from the first day of absence. The lower earnings limit will also be removed although the amount of SSP payable may be lower than the standard rate.

Family friendly leave

Employment rights will be extended with paternity leave, unpaid parental and bereavement leave becoming a day one right. Flexible working is already a day one entitlement but the onus will be on employers to approve the request unless it is unreasonable. So the default here is that the request will be granted.

Zero hours contracts

Much has been made of ending ‘exploitative’ zero hours contracts. The extension of employment rights here includes employers having to offer guaranteed hours based on what employees have worked within the last 12 weeks. How that calculation will be performed is unclear. Will it be an average number of hours or the least worked? Given the Employment Rights Bill also includes payment for cancelled or curtailed shifts and giving reasonable notice of changes, this could prove difficult to manage.

Other extensions to employment rights

Other plans include

• Large employers will be required to create action plans for addressing gender pay gaps and supporting emplopyees through the menopause
• Protections against dismissal will be strengthened for pregnant women and new mothers.

Future development

Not included in this Employment Rights Bill but also being highlighted as future developments are:

• The right to switch off
• Mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting for large employers
• A move to 2 employment statuses (worker and self employed).
• Reviews of parental and carer leave entitlements.

What do you need to do now?

Thankfully we have a reasonable time period before the Employment Rights Bill will be implemented. We would recommend that if you do not currently have a probationary period in place, you should implement one. If you already have one, take time to explore how it is working for you. Done right, probation is not only a time to assess someone’s suitability for the role they’ve been recruited for but is also a focussed time of supporting your new employee to get up to speed in their new role. Too often its a tick box exercise. The extension to employment rights makes it all the more important to use it effectively.