Following Labour’s General Election win, this is a good time for employers to start looking closely at Labour’s plans to reform employment law.
The Labour Party published a Green Paper on its plan to “Make Work Pay”, which contains its proposals for new employment rights for workers.
The emphasis is on Day One rights for employees, which covers an immediate right to statutory sick pay, parental leave, and to bring unfair dismissal claims.
The protection against unfair dismissal has always been subject to a qualifying period, currently two years, and so this represents a radical change.
The most recent version of the Green Paper does suggest that there will be some form of exemption for probationary periods, but this is still to be clarified.
Among other proposals, there are plans to abolish zero hours contracts, strengthen trade union rights, enhance family friendly rights, improve redundancy protection, and to give employees a statutory right to “switch off”.
Labour are committed to introduce many of these proposals in their first 100 days in office.
We held a free webinar last month to outline these proposals and give employers some initial guidance on how to prepare.
If you have missed the webinar by the time you read this article just drop us a line and we can provide you with a recording of it.
Paul Humble
Greystone Legal
