The Employment Rights Bill 2024 promises to bring substantial change to employment law across Great Britain, designed to enhance worker protections and promote fair employment practices. We consider the key changes and their implications for employers.
One of the most significant changes is the introduction of day-one rights for unfair dismissal. Currently, employees need to have worked for a company for at least two years to qualify for unfair dismissal protection. This proposed change would mean that employees will be protected from unfair dismissal from their first day of employment. As a result, employers will not be able to circumvent a fair reason or fair process to dismiss staff with short service once this provision is in force.
That said, the Bill does allow for Regulations to be made relaxing the requirements for a fair dismissal during an initial period of employment in order to allow employers to carry out a proper assessment of an employee’s suitability to a role. How long such a ‘statutory probation period’ for new hires will be, and to what degree a ‘lighter touch’ process will be allowed is likely to be the subject of consultation.
Employers should look to introduce probationary periods into contracts of employment for new starters or where these are already in place review and amend existing clauses to ensure they provide maximum flexibility under the new laws.
However, a consequence of the removal of the...
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