Angela Rayner, Deputy Prime Minister, confirmed at last week’s Labour conference that the Employment Rights Bill (which will implement its ‘Plan to Make Work Pay’) will be tabled in Parliament next month. This is in line with Labour’s manifesto promise to introduce legislation within 100 days of entering government.
While we still await details of exactly what the Employment Rights Bill will contain, it is likely to introduce the full suite of employment protections promised in Labour’s Plan to Make Work Pay, which include increasing rights for trade union representatives, introducing basic rights from day one of employment (or six months and one day for unfair dismissal?!), and banning ‘exploitative’ zero hours contracts. On which note, it’s reported that at the Labour conference, delegates backed a motion put forward by unions calling for a ban on all zero-hour contracts, not just ‘exploitative’ ones, meaning there is likely to be increased pressure on the Government to go further than currently proposed and ban this practice altogether. Given zero-hour contracts do work well for a large number of businesses and workers, this would be a radical change to the status quo.
We will continue to keep you updated on developments and will of course provide our comments on the Employment Rights Bill once the full text is released.
Should you wish to discuss any of the issues raised in this article, please contact Robert Forsyth.
