Employment Rights Bill Amends - March 2025
On 5 March, the government published a set of amendments to the Employment Rights Bill. The key developments are as follows:-
Agency workers - increased rights regarding guaranteed hours/notice of shifts
Agency workers on zero hours or low hours contracts are included in the right to be offered guaranteed hours (responsibility on the end user)
Agency workers will have the right to reasonable notice of shifts, shift cancellations and changes to shifts (responsibility on both the employment agency and the end user)
Agency workers will gain the same rights as other workers regarding compensation entitlement if shifts are changed at short notice (employment agency to pay this)
Collective agreements can be made (for example between an employer and an independent trade union or an agency worker and company) to exclude rights to guaranteed hours/reasonable notice. Any new terms must be incorporated into the contract
Duty to keep annual leave records and Notice of underpayments
The employer has a new obligation to maintain records demonstrating that they have complied with holiday entitlement (records must include the amount of leave and pay)
Failure to pay certain statutory payments to workers can result in the employer receiving a notice of underpayment (with the amount due in 28 days) PLUS a penalty of 200% of the sum due (payable to the Secretary of State)
The Fair Work Agency also has the power to bring Tribunal proceedings on behalf of a worker (who has a right to bring a claim) when it seems they will not
Collective redundancy consultation
Collective consultation will be required if there are 20 or more redundancies at one establishment OR a different threshold is met (with details of that threshold to be laid out in further regulations). This potentially marks a significant concession in favour of employers
The employer does not need to consult all employee representatives together
The maximum protective award for failure to consult on redundancies will double from 90 to 180 days
Trade Union Legislation
Trade unions will have a new right to access the workplace through digital/virtual means for collective bargaining purposes
Reforms will make it easier for unions to bring complaints of unfair practices during recognition applications
There will be a reduction in the information that unions must include in industrial action notices, with the notices themselves being given 10 days in advance (rather than 14)
There will be an extension of the expiry of a mandate for industrial action from 6 to 12 months
Statutory Sick Pay
All employees, as soon as they are off sick, will be entitled to the lower of the SSP weekly rate OR for those earning below the lower earning limit, sick pay at 80% of average weekly earnings
Fire and rehire
Plans have been dropped to provide interim relief as a remedy to employees affected by “fire and rehire” but other restrictions on this practice remain
If you would like to discuss how these amendments could impact your organisation, please contact our team via hello@starfordlegalhr.com