By Natalie Feeley, Operations Manager | 3 min
In the UK, the much-anticipated Employment Rights Bill was introduced to Parliament on 10 October 2024, described by the government as the first phase of delivering the plan to ”Make Work Pay”.
Unions 21 have been closely watching developments which has resulted in round tables and discussion papers for unions internally. The thrust of this has been around making sure unions can positively impact on the consultation processes.
However, we are also keen to help unions think through what this means for them as employers.
The bill “represents the biggest upgrade in employment rights for a generation” with a particular focus on the following objectives:
addressing one-sided flexibility ensuring that jobs provide a baseline of security for workers
supporting family friendly rights by improving flexibility and security
prioritising fairness, equality and wellbeing of workers
ensuring workers get fair pay for a fair day’s work
modernising trade union legislation giving trade unions greater freedom to organise, represent and negotiate on behalf of their workers
improving enforcement of employment rights
The CIPD, which is the professional body for HR professionals, has responded positively to the bill stating that this is “the greatest shift in employment legislation in decades” and produced a handy tracker table for its members to monitor the progress of the proposed changes in real time. They also positively highlighted the following changes which they particularly welcomed including the following which we think will be important for unions to consider as employers:
a day-one right to unfair dismissal
flexible working to become the default
parental rights to be strengthened with expanded leave entitlements
employees will get sick pay from their first day of illness
employers will need to take ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment of workers
publish their intentions around improving equality
While many unions will be understandably concentrating on the impact of the Bill in terms of their wider operations and membership, I wanted to get unions thinking about this legislation as employers themselves. Given the impact and scale of the bill, its many complexities and the careful planning will be required.
For example, unions as employers will need to consider workforce planning and ensure that they are in the best position possible to operate within the new parameters such as the changes to zero hour contracts.
Through our HR roundtables, Unions 21 will be supporting unions thinking through these changes. We can also offer practical support such as planning, webinars and training programmes.
