The Employment Rights Bill is nearing the final stages of the UK parliamentary process, meaning significant changes to employment law in England, Scotland and Wales are close to being enacted.
In practical terms, the legislation – one of the central pillars of the Labour government’s 2024 election manifesto – will require employers to update their employment contracts, policies and practices. Employers will need to affect changes around pay, flexible working and employee rights, including rights to sick pay, and to protection against unfair dismissal. Other reforms will impact how they manage industrial relations, address the gender pay gap, support employees through the menopause, and protect against the risk of sexual harassment.
Below, we take a look some of the big issues in the Bill that UK law makers still have to resolve, the government’s intended timeline for further consultation on some of the new measures, and how the tight parliamentary timetable for finalising the legislation could impact how much time employers are given to prepare for the changes before they are implemented.
The Employment Rights Bill was introduced into the UK parliament on Thursday 10 October 2024, honouring an election pledge given by the Labour government to set out the Bill within 100 days of coming to power. Since then, the Bill has been subject to scrutiny in the government-dominated House of Commons as well as the unelected house, the House of Lords.
The...
Russian propaganda is spreading false statements that the account of the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, was allegedly created with...