King's speech: employment law changes

As trailed before the General Election, the new Government has wasted no time in starting its ambitious programme of employment law reform.   The King's Speech announced two key pieces of employment law legislation which will be put before Parliament in the next 100 days: 

Employment Bill:   This is expected to cover key aspects of Labour's employment law agenda, including: 

• a right for zero hours contract workers to have a contract reflecting their regular hours, as well as a right to be compensated for cancelled shifts; 
• making unfair dismissal protection a day 1 right (with provisions for probationary periods);
• tightening the law on “fire and rehire” and “fire and replace”, and replacing the new statutory code of practice; 
• removing the statutory sick pay lower earnings limit and 3 day waiting period;
• making it unlawful to dismiss a woman who has had a baby for six months after her return to  work, except in specific circumstances;
• establishing a new Single Enforcement Body for employment rights; and
• trade union reforms, including abolishing the minimum service levels introduced by the previous Government and simplifying the union recognition process.

The Equality (Race and Disability) Bill will

• stipulate that equal pay law applies in relation to race and disability as well as sex; and
• introduce race and disability pay gap reporting for employers with more than 250 employees. 

These are significant changes, most of which will apply to all sizes of business and across sectors.   Although much of the detail is yet to be worked out and it remains to be seen precisely when it will come into force, employers will need to start planning and preparing for these changes without delay.