Where is the Employment Bill?
In December 2019, the Government pledged a series of reforms to employment legislation which would bolster employee rights and realign several aspects of employment law to be more family friendly and provide more flexibility for employees.
This new Employment Bill was first announced in the 2019 Queen’s speech but, three years on, the 2022 Queen’s speech made no mention of the long anticipated Bill, leaving many organisations frustrated with the continued delay, or worse, fearing that the Government has shelved the reforms indefinitely.
What was expected in the Bill?
A number of significant and wide-ranging reforms have been under discussion since December 2019, including:
Enhancing the existing protections against redundancy for pregnancy and maternity. Whilst employees on maternity leave already have priority for alternative employment opportunities in a redundancy situation, the Bill is expected to extend this protection to all pregnant employees and for up to 6 months after returning from maternity leave. Equitable provisions are also expected for parents taking adoption leave or shared parental leave.
Leave for neonatal care. The Government has committed to introducing a new right to 12 weeks paid neonatal leave for parents whose babies require neonatal care after birth.
Leave for unpaid carers. The proposal here is that employees who are also registered carers will be entitled to take 1 week unpaid leave each year to help them fulfil their care giving responsibilities.
Flexible working availability. Whilst a more radical proposal was put forward previously which would have seen flexible working becoming the default option for workers in industries that could offer it, the Bill will go as far as extending the right to request flexible working from day one of employment, instead of the current 26 week service qualification.
More predictable contracts for workers with variable hours. It was expected that the Government would introduce a new right for workers with variable hours – such as those on zero hours contracts and segments of the gig economy – to request a more stable and predictable contract after 26 weeks service. Also under discussion have been rights to reasonable notice of shift allocation and compensation for short notice shift cancellation.
Regulations for tips and service charges. The Government has proposed a statutory requirement for employers to pass on all tips and gratuities in full to workers, on a fair and transparent basis.
New single enforcement body. The Government has proposed merging existing separate labour market enforcement authorities into one body which will have greater powers and offer greater protection for workers in areas such as national minimum wage, holiday pay, sick pay and the regulation of umbrella companies.
Measures against sexual harassment. The Government has promised to introduce new obligations on employers to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace, including legal protection against harassment by customers or other third parties. This will include increasing the time limit for employees to bring a claim of sexual harassment to an employment tribunal from 3 months to 6 months.
Regulation of contractual restrictions. In order to protect workers from unfair or unreasonable contractual clauses and legal pressure, the Government has announced its intention to legislate the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), regulate the use of non-compete clauses, and ban the use of exclusivity clauses for low-paid workers.
These measures, which were expected to be included in the Employment Bill, would represent the most significant set of reforms to employment law in the UK for years. Instead, the only items announced were the Harbours (Seafarers’ Remuneration) Bill, which was a specific response to the P&O ferries controversy, and the Modern Slavery Bill, a strengthening of protections and obligations already in place under the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
Unsurprisingly, there has been a backlash from various organisations, most vocally from the Trades Union Congress (TUC) who have accused the government of ‘turning its back’ on working people and suggested that ‘bad bosses up and down the country will be celebrating’ at the absence of the long promised Employment Bill. And the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee has said the Bill is vital for protecting female workers who have been disproportionately impacted by the Covid pandemic and the economic fallout that we are seeing now.
The Government have been somewhat silent on the matter, and it is perhaps not surprising that the legislative and parliamentary agenda has been focused elsewhere since December 2019 with Covid, Brexit and now the conflict in Ukraine taking up much of the bandwidth. The Government now indicates that the Employment Bill will be introduced ‘when Parliamentary time allows’, and with the next general election currently set for May 2024, there is still a potential window of opportunity in 2023. But for now, unless you run a ferry company, it’s business as usual.
If you want any advice on how these proposed reforms might affect your business, then contact us.