Getty Images
A planned overhaul of workers' rights would give millions of people the right to claim unpaid parental leave and stronger protection against unfair dismissal from their first day on the job.
The government is set to announce details of its proposed employment rights bill, which it says would end the “abusive” use of zero-hours contracts and “fire and rehire” practices.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner described this as “the biggest improvement in workplace rights in a generation”.
The bill includes 28 separate measures to be introduced later, most of which will be subject to further consultation and will not come into force until fall 2026.
The government seeks to be pro-worker and pro-business, and to achieve this balance many details still need to be decided.
While some unions have welcomed the announcement, business groups have expressed concerns about how the changes will work in practice.
Under the plans, the current two-year waiting period for protection against unfair dismissal will be removed and workers will benefit from it from their first day in a new job.
Ministers said this would benefit some nine million workers who have worked for their current employer for less than two years.
What else will change?
Statutory Sick Pay (SSP): Workers will be entitled to SSP from the first day they are ill, rather than the fourth day. Lower income limit for SSP: Currently, workers earning less than £123 per week are not eligible for SSP. This limit will be removed, but the bill will set a lower level of sick pay for low-income employees. Paternity leave: Fathers will be eligible from the first day of employment, instead of 26 weeks. Unpaid parental leave: Parents will be eligible from the first day of employment, instead of 26 weeks. of one yearUnpaid bereavement leave: becoming a right from day one for workersFlexible working: bosses will have to take into account any request for flexible working made from day one and say yes unless they can prove that this is unreasonable
As a result, around 30,000 fathers or partners will be eligible for paternity leave, while 1.5 million parents will be entitled to unpaid leave from day one under the changes.
“Too many people are being dragged into a race to the bottom, deprived of the security they need to raise a family while businesses are unable to retain the workers they need to grow,” Ms. Rayner said.
“We are raising the issue of rights at work to ensure a stronger, fairer and brighter future of work for Britain.”
The government will also consult on a new legal probationary period for new recruits.
While Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds previously suggested the new legislation would result in a maximum probationary period of around six months for most businesses, the subject proved sensitive during discussions.
Some unions fear that a short trial period could make companies reluctant to hire new staff, or even cut jobs.
Dominic Ponniah says his cleaning company is delaying hiring plans
Dominic Ponniah, the boss of Cleanology, told the BBC that his company was delaying its hiring plans while being more cautious about who it would hire.
The cleaning company he runs has around 1,300 employees spread from Scotland to Southampton.
“Hiring staff is quite a big, expensive task, and people are worried about the consequences of these announcements,” he said.
“It's just another thing that businesses have to deal with,” he said, adding that new rules around sick pay, unfair dismissals and probationary periods would make businesses “very, very nervous.”
Tina McKenzie, policy chair of the Federation of Small Businesses, suggested the new bill was a “rushed, clumsy, chaotic and poorly planned piece of work”.
She said small businesses would be forced to “scramble to make sense” of the changes and called for in-depth consultation on each individual measure.
The issue of zero-hours contracts was also hotly debated.
Under the Employment Rights Bill, bosses will have to offer workers a guaranteed hours contract based on the hours they have accrued over a 12-week period.
Workers on zero-hours contracts will also be entitled to “reasonable” notice before any changes are made to their role, as well as compensation if a role is canceled or finished early.
Zero-hours contracts have been criticized in the past because factory or warehouse workers, like factory workers, have been unable to enjoy a stable income and certain benefits.
But UKHospitality said it was the preferred policy of workers in their sector.
Ruby, a first-year university student, told the BBC she had a zero-hours contract with her local football club and sold food and drinks on match days.
“In my situation, it's pretty good. I can pick up shifts if and when I need a little extra money, or if I'm home for the weekend,” he said. she declared.
She says this approach gives her more flexibility than a contract specifying a certain number of hours would.
“If I’m here and I want to do it, I can do it.”
'Flexibility'
The Business Secretary said on Thursday it was “vital” to give employers the flexibility to grow, while ending what he called “unscrupulous and unfair practices”.
Gary Smith, general secretary of the GMB union, called the bill “a revolutionary first step in giving workers the rights they have been denied for so long”.
But he added there was “a long way to go” and called on unions and workers to be involved in discussions around the new legislation.
“The legislation must be watertight and free from loopholes that could be exploited by those who want to delay the acquisition of the rights that workers desperately need,” he said.
Some measures included in Labor's “make work pay” plan, published in the run-up to the general election, will also not feature in the bill.
The “right to extinction”, for example, will be part of a “Next Steps” document in which the government will outline its hopes for further reforms.
Conservative shadow business secretary Kevin Hollinrake said the party would look “closely” at the details of what Labor presented.
“But businesses and the economy need certainty, not the threat of a return to the 1970s, triggering waves of low threshold strikes, zero warning strikes, leading to lower growth and a slowdown productivity,” he said.
Additional reporting by Emer Moreau.
