The 2022 Queen’s speech was widely expected to be the moment when the government finally announced its intention to implement a number of significant employment law reforms, including the long-anticipated Employment Bill. Instead, there is no mention of the Bill and only two provisions that touch on employment rights at all. Does this signal the demise of all these changes, or are they simply delayed?

Remember December 2019? When there was no thought of a global pandemic or war in Europe, and all we had to worry about was Brexit and the intentions of a new Conservative government. The 2019 Queen’s speech announced that the government was planning a new Employment Bill. Overtaken by events, the next Queen’s speech in May 2021 did not mention the Bill at all, but the government later confirmed it would be introduced when Parliamentary time allowed. Fast-forward to May 2022, and none of these employment law changes have been included in the 38 Bills set out in the latest speech.

What was due to be in the Employment Bill?

The Employment Bill was due to cover the following reforms, which have all been under discussion since at least December 2019.

• Making flexible working the default. The government had already backtracked on this somewhat by proposing a more modest new right to request flexible working from day one, and consultation on this proposal closed in December 2021. This forms the backdrop to discussions about “new normal” working arrangements, so it would be...

Read Full Story: https://www.lewissilkin.com/en/insights/the-queens-speech-2022-the-death-of-t...