Change is coming, what can you expect?

Last week, the Labour party were successful in securing a majority to form a new government with ambitious plans to tackle employment challenges.

There are a lot of potential changes on the way, and these changes will have a significant impact on the way we work and the way that we manage our businesses.

In the first 100 days, the Labour party plans to tackle the following:? banning zero-hours contracts, an end to fire-and-rehire tactics, strengthened trade unions, raising the minimum wage and statutory sick pay eligibility moving from the fourth day of sickness to the first.

What are the other proposed changes?

Enhanced Day 1 Rights

Currently, an employee needs to have a minimum length of service to receive parental leave (over 1 years continuous service) and to bring an unfair dismissal claim (2 years continuous employment).

However, the proposed new laws will allow these rights to apply from Day 1 of employment.

The right to default flexible working will also become available from day 1.

Family Friendly Rights

A review of parental rights is to be undertaken, including whether the new carer’s leave (being entitled to a week of unpaid leave per year) should be paid rather than unpaid, and whether bereavement leave (which is currently limited to the bereaved parents of children) should be extended to all employees.

Removing the compensation cap

There are?plans to remove the cap of compensation for an unfair dismissal claim. The cap on compensation is currently ￡115,115 which means that if a claim was successful, the compensation amount would become unlimited.

With this in the pipeline, we would encourage businesses to review their performance management processes to ensure they are hiring well and managing performance so as to avoid falling foul of this change.

Other Proposed Changes

These include reforming employment status (turning employee, worker and self-employed into a two-tier system of “employee” and “worker" both entitled to the same basic rights such as holiday etc), extending the deadline for tribunal claims, and changes to collective consultation rights in redundancy situations.

We would also encourage you to review your employee statuses and check whether your freelancers are operating inside or outside of IR35 as their status may be challenged under these proposed changes.

More than 250 employees?

There may also be a new requirement for employers with over 250 employees to produce:

• A Menopause Action Plan – a comprehensive strategy implemented by employers to support their employees going through menopause/suffering from menopause symptoms. It aims to creative a supportive and inclusive environment that acknowledges the challenges associated with menopause and provides appropriate support.
• Ethnicity Pay Gap Reports – The UK government has been considering introducing mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting (similar to the existing requirements for gender pay gap reporting) for some time. This policy would require employers to analyse and publish data on the pay disparities between employees of different ethnic background. It aims to identify and address any inequities in pay that might exist.
• Disability Pay Gap Reports – Just like the Ethnicity Pay Gap report, this would help address any pay disparities that may exist for those with disabilities.

Do you currently publish any pay gap reporting or conduct organisation-wide salary reviews to ensure everyone is being fairly compensated? Do you have a menopause/perimenopause policy in your handbook to provide and signpost support to those experiencing symptoms in your business? If not, it may be time to consider reviewing your offering.

Change is coming

It’s time to start thinking about your policies, practices, ways of working, and reporting. JourneyHR are a team of 21 HR experts working with founder owned SMEs to help them create people first cultures. If you need advice or would like support in these areas, please get in touch at [email protected].