22 Jul 2024 South East
Employment law will likely undergo the largest overhaul under the newly elected Labour government. The party seeks to boost wages, make work more secure and support people to thrive. Nick Hobden, Head of Employment at Thomson, Snell & Passmore, explores the key changes to be expected over the coming months and how you can prepare your businesses and workforce for them.
Labour wants to introduce a two-tier system for identifying employment status whereby everyone is categorised under a single ‘worker’ status, except for those who are genuinely self-employed. This differs from the current three categories of 1) employees, 2) workers and 3) the self-employed, the first two of which have different levels of employment rights and protections and the last category has no employment rights and protections.
If implemented, all individuals regardless of sector, contract and wage would be entitled to receive the same rights and protections including sick pay, parental leave, unfair dismissal protections and holiday pay. Employers are likely to incur greater costs to comply with the requirement to pay statutory entitlements to all ‘workers’. Currently, even the self-employed may have worker rights if they are workers giving their own personal service under a personal service contract for an ‘employer’ with no right of substitution.
Employers should pay particular attention to this proposal over the next coming months....
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