After a long period in which the UK government has promised several employment law changes contained in an Employment Bill without bringing forward such a Bill, it has now announced it is supporting certain private members’ bills which include developments in these areas. These include expanding the right to request flexible working, a new right to request more predictable working conditions, a number of changes to family leave entitlements, and protection for those facing harassment by third-parties such as customers at work.
The private members bills as they stand at present is set out below. In most cases, these laws are not expected to come into force until 2024 at the earliest.
The government has announced it is backing the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Bill, which is now at its report stage in the House of Commons.
If passed in its current form, it would not remove the current 26 weeks’ threshold required for employees to request flexible working arrangements (as was recommended by the Unequal Impact of Coronavirus report) but would require employees to consult with employees before rejecting their flexible working request, and would increase the number of statutory requests an employee can make each year from one to two.
It would also reduce the period within which the employer must decide on the request from three months to two months from receiving the request, and would also drop the...
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