2024 marked a pivotal period of legal reform, bringing notable changes in areas such as holidays, family-related leave, new regulations on tips, and measures to address sexual harassment. Additionally, it introduced several new statutory Codes of Practice which have laid the foundations for future changes around employment relations in the UK.
On 10 October 2024, the UK government introduced the Employment Rights Bill, which introduced significant reforms aimed at enhancing worker protections.
The government positioned this legislation as a ‘pro-business, pro-worker’ initiative with some of the key changes including:
Day-one employment rights: employees having the right to unfair dismissal protection from their first day of employment, eliminating the current two-year qualifying period. However, the bill allows for a potential probationary period during which different dismissal rules may apply.
Zero-hours contracts: while zero-hours contracts were not entirely banned, the bill introduced requirements for employers to offer a guaranteed hours contract based on regular working patterns. Workers will also be entitled to reasonable notice of shift changes.
Ban on “fire and rehire”: the bill sought to make it automatically unfair to dismiss employees if they refused to accept contract changes,...
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