Employment Law Update – Labour’s Plan To Make Work Pay - By Shona Christie

The Labour Party formed the new government of the United Kingdom after their General Election win on 4^th July 2024. The party has proposed to make expansive legislative changes to Employment Law within the UK which can be viewed in full here.

What exactly are the changes Labour seek to make? This article will focus on the proposed rights employees will be entitled to from day one of their employment and will also consider some of the other changes proposed.

The Legislation

Labour is proposing to make these changes through the introduction of two new Employment Law Bills. These Bills were announced at the King’s Speech on 17^th July 2024, and are entitled:

1. Employment Rights Bill

2. Draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill

Day One Rights

The most important changes to be aware of are the changes to ‘day one’ rights. These are rights which, under the new legislation, employees will be entitled to from day one of their employment. These include:

1. The ability to bring an unfair dismissal claim. Currently, an employee can bring an unfair dismissal claim under the Employment Rights Act 1996 (“the 1996 Act”). To do so however, they must have at least two years of service, unless they can argue one of the exemptions – outlined in the 1996 Act - applies to their case. It should, however, be noted that the introduction of this right will not prevent fair dismissals. Dismissal for reasons of capability, conduct or redundancy are examples of fair dismissals. Moreover, employers are still able to operate probationary periods when an employee is commencing a new role.

2. The ability to submit a flexible working request. This follows on from the previous changes to the legislation surrounding flexible working requests made in April this year. The legislation was updated to permit an employee to submit two flexible working requests in one 12-month period, as opposed to one. Furthermore, an employer must respond to the request within tow months, rather than three.

3. Eligibility for sick pay. In addition to making sick pay a day one right, Labour have proposed to remove the lower earnings limit, ensuring that all workers are eligible to receive sick pay.

4. Eligibility for parental leave.

Employment Rights Bill

In the King’s Speech, it was stated that this Bill will, “legislate to introduce a new deal for working people to ban exploitative practices and enhance employment rights.” The changes proposed in this Bill include:

1. A ban of zero-hour contracts. This changes will mean that every worker’s contract should accurately reflect the hours they regularly work. These hours will be calculated on a 12-week reference period.

2. A ban on the practices of fire and rehire and fire and replace.

3. An amendment to redundancy rights. For example, the right to redundancy consultation will be determined by the number of people affected across the business, as opposed to the number of people affected in one workplace.

4. Enhanced protection for women returning from maternity leave. It will become unlawful to dismiss a woman for six months after her return from maternity leave – except in specific circumstances.

Draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill

This Bill is currently described as a ‘draft’ Bill. This means it is likely to become law after the Employment Rights Bill. This Bill aims, “to enshrine the full right to equal pay in law.” Labour have outlined that this Bill will:

1. Extend the right to equal pay for people with disabilities and ethnic minorities.

2. Make it mandatory for organisations with over 250 members of staff to report on their ethnicity and disability pay gaps, in an attempt to tackle the inequalities of equal pay.

Any other noteworthy changes?

One further change of importance to be aware of concerns Employment Tribunal time limits. Currently, Employment Tribunals operate very strict time limits. Any Employment Tribunal claim must be commenced within three months minus one day of the act or omission in question. There are, of course, caveats to this, for example with Equal Pay claims which have a time limit of six months.

Labour have proposed to extend the time limit for raising any Employment Tribunal claim from three months to six months, which will bring all claim time limits in line with each other. This change has previously been recommended by the Law Commission in April 2020.

When will these changes take place?

Labour set a target of introducing this legislation within the first 100 days of entering government. However, it is unclear exactly when these changes will become enshrined in law. A debate is due to take place in Parliament soon in relation to the changes in Employment Law. Thereafter, the Bills will have to be debated in both houses. It remains to be seen whether this legislation can be implemented within this year.

If you have any questions, or if you would like any advice on the changes proposed and what they will mean for you and/or your workplace, please call our team on 0141 333 6750 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..