Our Employment Expert, Jane Smith, revisits the evolving Employment Rights Bill further to our November 2024 article. You can read our previous article in full here: https://www.moore-law.co.uk/the-new-employment-rights-bill-what-do-employers-need-to-know/.
This Bill is currently at the committee stage and is being regularly reviewed. A catchily-titled “The Employment Rights Bill (Amendment Paper)” document is prepared following each committee review, which sets out changes made to the original Bill and an explanatory statement for each.
At the time of writing, we are on Amendment Paper number 7, which is 63 pages long. The Amendment Papers can be viewed here: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3737/publications – but, let’s be honest, no one wants to read all of those (especially not in January!) and so I’ve prepared a brief summary, instead. Happy New Year!
Some of the government’s proposed changes to the original Bill include:
- Increasing the time limit for bringing Employment Tribunal claims from 3 months to 6 months. This is a massive change, doubling employees’ time to file claims, and should have appeared in the original Bill!
- Clarifying the “initial period of employment” for claiming unfair dismissal as a day one right. Currently, 2 years’ continuous service is required to bring most unfair dismissal claims. The ‘initial period’ will likely be between 3 and 9 months after an employee starts work.
- Clarifying “short notice” in the context of the new right to be given notice/compensation for shift changes and cancellations, further details about such compensation, and giving greater power to Tribunals to decide whether to award the shift worker in such circumstances (with due regard to the “seriousness of the matter”).
- Updating the definition of “matters relating to gender equality” to include menstrual problems/disorders. Large employers (250+ employees) will be required to publish equality action plans under the new Bill.
- Confirmation that trade unions’ power to enter and search workplaces (under s.46) won’t extend to “any part of the workplace used as a dwelling”, for which a warrant will be needed.
MPs have suggested other changes which, importantly, include a proposed clause to make non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) void where they prevent a worker from disclosing harassment (including sexual harassment).
The final committee meeting to discuss the Bill is planned for Thursday 21st January 2025. Before the Bill can become law, it will need a third reading in the Commons, then to be passed through the House of Lords. Many of the changes also require additional legislation to implement. Overall, it’s still unlikely that we will see any major changes until 2026.
Have any questions or want to know more? Contact our employment law expert at [email protected].
This article was first published in the January 2025 edition of our newsletter, Moore Law Monthly. Join our mailing list by signing up on our Linktree here: https://linktr.ee/moorelaw.