How the New Employment Rights Bill Affects You

new emp banner
By Adam Walters | 12/10/2024 | 3 min read

Recently, the British government published its new Employment Rights Bill, but what does that mean to you? Here’s a quick guide to learn how the bill can affect your business and what you need to know about it to remain compliant.

Day-One Rights

With the new legislation, all employees have day-one rights. These rights include being protected against unfair dismissal and paternity leave.

Up to this point, some benefits were only mandatory after you had worked for the same employer for a minimum of two years. This change removes that time to wait, allowing all people access to the same benefits regardless of their length of employment.

There is a bit of trepidation around this change with the fear that some employers may become more cautious when hiring new employees, as they are less willing to take risks on inexperienced candidates who have shown some potential.

No More Zero-Hour Contracts

Zero-hour contracts, sometimes also known as casual contracts, is when the employer is not obliged to provide any minimum number of working hours. Traditionally zero-hour contracts were used to keep staff on call and available to work, but allowed employers to only use employees for the time they are needed.

These contracts are being eliminated because zero-hour contracts create an irregular and inconsistent workload for the employees. Workers are guaranteed no working hours, leading to unsteady amounts of income.

The Employment Rights Bill removes zero-hour contracts in hopes to tackle exploitative contracts and puts an end to ‘one-sided’ flexibility, ensuring workers hours, if they want them.

If a worker wishes to remain on a zero-hour contract, they can request to remain, but all other workers will have updated contracts that reflect their work schedule.

Addressing Fire and Rehire

Fire and rehire is an exploitative business practice where a worker is made redundant and fired, only to be rehired later under worse terms and conditions of pay. This allows employers to reduce the cost of employing a worker, while still having access to the same experience and quality of work.

The Employment Rights Bill is taking steps to remove this and to provide workers with the peace of mind that their terms and conditions can not be voided.

Flexible and Fair Work Is the Norm

The bill focused on making flexible working schedules the norm, where possible. It also introduces actions to make the workplace more fair to all workers.

Large employers are now required to create action addressing gender equality. They are also required to support employees through menopause and there are added protections against firing employees who are pregnant or returning from maternity leave.

Establishing the Fair Work Agency (FWA)

The Fair Works Agency (FWA) is a government organization dedicated to supporting employers and helping them become compliant with the new legislation. The FWA will bring together a few of the existing government bodies in one place to help enforce workers’ rights.

Start Preparing Now

The Employment Rights Bill is meant to empower and protect employees, but it’s introducing major changes to businesses. Because those changes are so large, the best time to start updating your processes and policies is now. The last thing you want to do is leave preparation for the last minute and be caught out as being non-compliant.

With decades of industry experience, IRIS is here to help. We have the tools and resources available to help you be one step ahead of this legislation, ensuring you are compliant. We’re ready to help update your organization to become compliant now and can help you go forward with any further legislation in the future.

Speak to an expert today to see how IRIS can help your organization achieve more.