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Tag: statutory sick pay

Consultations on Key Provisions of the Employment Rights Bill

The new Employment Rights Bill 2024 is likely to take 12-18 months to progress through parliament.  Key provisions are unlikely to come into force until at least 2026 so the government is now commencing a series of consultations to speed up the implementation process.  It is an opportunity to respond and ultimately influence changes to the Bill.

All the consultations outlined below close on 2 December 2024.

Collective Redundancy Consultation / Fire and Rehire

The Employment Rights Bill contains provisions which are intended to:

  • Increase the number of situations when collective redundancy consultation will be necessary.  20 or more redundancy dismissals in a 90-day period will trigger collective consultation (regardless of whether the redundancies are taking place at one or multiple locations); and
  • Limit an employer’s ability to fire and rehire (or replace) its workforce.

Making Work Pay: Consultation on strengthening remedies against abuse of rules on collective redundancy and fire and rehire. This consultation is looking for opinions on:

  • Increasing penalties for non-compliance with collective consultation obligations.  Proposals are to increase the penalty from 90 to 180 days’ pay or, remove the upper cap entirely; and
  • Whether interim relief should be available to employees in claims (these claims would be for the protective award and/or unfair dismissal claims) related to breach of the new restrictions on fire and rehire.

The government also intends to further consult next year on strengthening the collective redundancy framework.  This will include consulting on increasing the minimum consultation period for 100 or more redundancy dismissals from 45 to 90 days (which would revert it to the minimum level of consultation required prior to April 2013).

Zero Hour Contracts

The Employment Rights Bill aims to tackle zero hours contracts which were too ‘one-sided’ by introducing:

  • A right to guaranteed hours, where the number of hours offered reflects the hours worked by the worker during a reference period (this is to be confirmed but 12 weeks is expected); and
  • Introduce a new right to reasonable notice of shifts and a right to compensation payments where shifts are cancelled or reduced without much notice.

‘Making Work Pay: Consultation on the application of zero hours contracts measures to agency workers’. This consultation seeks views on how to apply the above to agency workers.

Sick Pay

Two provisions are aimed at increasing the number of workers eligible for statutory sick pay (SSP). The first is the removal of the lower earnings limit (LEL) which is currently £123 per week.  Those employees earning less than this currently do not qualify for SSP.

Making Work Pay: Strengthening Statutory Sick Pay. This consultation proposes introducing a taper to the current SSP rate of £116.75 per week for those earning below the LEL.  This would mean they are entitled to whichever is the lower of 1. a set percentage of their average weekly earnings or 2. the current SSP flat rate.  Rates ranging from 60% to 80% of average weekly earnings are under consideration for these low earners.

Trade unions

The government have made no secret of their intention to modernise Trade Union law.  This newly launched consultation heralds the beginning of that:  Making Work Pay: Consultation on creating a modern framework for industrial relations.  Opinions are sought on several changes:

  • Simplifying the amount of information unions are required to provide in industrial action notices;
  • Strengthening provisions to prevent unfair practices during the trade union recognition process;
  • Removing the 10-year ballot requirement on political funds;
  • Securing a mandate for negotiation and dispute resolution;
  • Extending the expiry of the strike mandate;
  • Reducing the industrial action notice period;
  • Updating the law on repudiation of industrial action;
  • Updating the law on prior call (unofficial calls to take industrial action); and
  • The enforcement mechanism for right of access.

 

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