[UK] The King’s Speech: implications for employers

In the UK, the July 17 King’s Speech offered an indication of of what lies ahead for employment law in the nation. Bird&Bird reports.

The speech was the first drafted by a Labour Government in 14 years. Labour’s manifesto had suggested that sweeping employment law reforms were coming and two out of the 40 bills announced by King Charles were employment law-related bills. Bird&Bird summarises these and provides insight on impliations for employers.

Employment Rights Bill

The speech reportedly stated that the new Government was "committed to making work pay" and bring in a "new deal for working people to ban exploitative practices and enhance employment rights". This will happen through a new Employment Rights Bill, which implements Labour’s New Deal for Working People.

The bill will include:

• Banning exploitative zero-hour contracts
• Ending ‘fire and rehire’ practices, by reforming the law to provide effective remedies and replacing the previous Government’s statutory code
• Introducing day one employment rights for all workers: parental leave, sick pay and protection from unfair dismissal
• Strengthening Statutory Sick Pay by removing the lower earnings limit and the waiting period
• Making flexible working “the default from day-one for all workers”
• Strengthening protections for new mothers by 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 - a “Fair Work Agency” - to enforce workplace rights
• Establishing a Fair Pay Agreement in the adult social care sector, with a view to also assess how other sectors could benefit from such agreements
• Updating trade union legislation, introducing new rights for unions to access workplaces and simplifying the process of statutory recognition
  
  

The Government reportedly commits to introduce the Bill in the first 100 days therefore a final Bill could be seen by mid-October 2024. 

A draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill

A separate draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill was reportedly announced in the speech, implementing other pledges made in Labour’s New Deal and Manifesto. The Bill will build on current pay gap reporting practices, and the Equality Act 2010, tackling inequality for ethnic minority and disabled people by:

• introducing mandatory ethnicity and disability pay reporting for employers with 250+ employees; and
• extend the current equal pay regime to cover race and disability as well as sex.

According to Bird&Bird, in addition to these bills the Government is looking to ensure a genuine living wage and remove the existing national minimum wage age bands. Moves intended to provide additional security and predictability for workers, particularly as wages are not rising in line with inflation.

Source: Bird&Bird

(Quotes via original reporting)

In the UK, the July 17 King’s Speech offered an indication of of what lies ahead for employment law in the nation. Bird&Bird reports.

The speech was the first drafted by a Labour Government in 14 years. Labour’s manifesto had suggested that sweeping employment law reforms were coming and two out of the 40 bills announced by King Charles were employment law-related bills. Bird&Bird summarises these and provides insight on impliations for employers.

Employment Rights Bill

The speech reportedly stated that the new Government was "committed to making work pay" and bring in a "new deal for working people to ban exploitative practices and enhance employment rights". This will happen through a new Employment Rights Bill, which implements Labour’s New Deal for Working People.

The bill will include:

• Banning exploitative zero-hour contracts
• Ending ‘fire and rehire’ practices, by reforming the law to provide effective remedies and replacing the previous Government’s statutory code
• Introducing day one employment rights for all workers: parental leave, sick pay and protection from unfair dismissal
• Strengthening Statutory Sick Pay by removing the lower earnings limit and the waiting period
• Making flexible working “the default from day-one for all workers”
• Strengthening protections for new mothers by 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 - a “Fair Work Agency” - to enforce workplace rights
• Establishing a Fair Pay Agreement in the adult social care sector, with a view to also assess how other sectors could benefit from such agreements
• Updating trade union legislation, introducing new rights for unions to access workplaces and simplifying the process of statutory recognition
  
  

The Government reportedly commits to introduce the Bill in the first 100 days therefore a final Bill could be seen by mid-October 2024. 

A draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill

A separate draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill was reportedly announced in the speech, implementing other pledges made in Labour’s New Deal and Manifesto. The Bill will build on current pay gap reporting practices, and the Equality Act 2010, tackling inequality for ethnic minority and disabled people by:

• introducing mandatory ethnicity and disability pay reporting for employers with 250+ employees; and
• extend the current equal pay regime to cover race and disability as well as sex.

According to Bird&Bird, in addition to these bills the Government is looking to ensure a genuine living wage and remove the existing national minimum wage age bands. Moves intended to provide additional security and predictability for workers, particularly as wages are not rising in line with inflation.

Source: Bird&Bird

(Quotes via original reporting)