The Employment Rights Bill has just been published, with its Second Reading scheduled for 21 October.

We will prepare a detailed analysis of the Bill and update the HR Community in the coming week with more details. The Next Steps to Make Work Pay document sets out the measures which will be subject to further consultation. You can also find the Explanatory Notes, which summarise what each part of the Bill does here. 

We'll host a HR Technical call on 23 October (1pm-2.30pm, MS Teams) to hear your initial reactions, your participation is instrumental to inform our positions – follow this link to register.

The Bill is 158 pages long, covering 28 separate policies, and the large majority of those will be subject to detailed consultations. The BRC has been engaging with Labour on these proposals for many years now and members engagement has been instrumental to inform our positions. We’d like to thank you for your input and look forward to continue collaborating on this.

The Bill is a framework to deliver Government’s plan to Make Work Pay. A small number of consultations are expected from early 2025. The majority of consultations will take place after Royal Asset, which is expected no earlier than summer 2025 and the reforms will take effect no earlier than 2026. 

BRC will engage regularly with officials through the passage of the Bill, to ensure regulations are fit for purpose. Our media response is:

Helen Dickinson OBE, CEO said:

“As the country’s largest private sector employer, employing three million people, the industry stands ready to work with government to ensure these reforms are a win:win for employers and colleagues, and maximise employment opportunities, investment, and growth. Many of the expected provisions, including stopping exploitative contracts and offering flexibility in employment, are things that responsible retailers already do. Introducing these standards for everyone means good employers should be competing on a level playing field. We look forward to engaging the government on the details, including around seasonal hiring and the use of probation periods.”

According to its Policy Paper, the Bill will:

  • Introduce ‘Day 1 rights’ of employment, including entitlement to Paternity Leave and Unpaid Parental Leave as well as protection from Unfair Dismissal, while allowing employers to operate probation periods (Government will consult on a consultation on a new probation period for new hires).
  • Establish Bereavement Leave and making Flexible Working the default.
  • Address one-sided flexibility by banning exploitative zero-hours contracts, abolishing the scourge of fire and rehire and strengthening provisions on collective redundancy.
  • Establish the Fair Work Agency, a new enforcement body for workers’ rights.
  • Bring forward measures to modernise Trade Union laws.
  • Increase protection from sexual harassment, introducing gender and menopause action plans for large companies and strengthening rights for pregnant workers.
  • Strengthening Statutory Sick Pay.

On zero-hour contracts, Government ensured that workers on full-time contracts who occasionally pick up overtime hours are not affected and, where work is genuinely temporary, there will be no expectation on employers to offer permanent contracts. Employers will also be able to operate probationary periods by providing an initial period during which there will be a lighter-touch process for employers to follow to dismiss an employee who is not right for the job – current proposal is for a 9-month probation period. We look forward to engaging with Government to inform the details of these proposals.

And some measures weren't included in the Bill, but will be subject to further consultation, as set out in the Next Steps to Make Work Pay document:

  • A Right to Switch Off, preventing employees from being contacted out of hours, except in exceptional circumstances.
  • Expanding the Equality (Race and Disparity) Bill to make it mandatory for large employers to report their ethnicity and disability pay gap.  
  • Moving towards a single status of worker and transition towards a two-part framework for employment status.  
  • Reviews into the parental leave and carers leave systems to ensure they are delivering for employers, workers and their loved ones.