PDA welcomes Employment Rights Bill

The PDA welcomes the publication of the Employment Rights Bill which has been delivered within the government’s first 100 days in office, as promised.

As an organisation that helps members understand and exercise their rights at work, the PDA welcomes an approach to improving the rights of working people, including pharmacists, their teams, and their families.?This Bill will be the most significant improvement to rights at work for a generation.

The PDA recognises that, while they were in opposition, the new government engaged with trade unions to determine what should feature in the proposed legislation. The published bill will now go through parliamentary processes before taking effect as an act of parliament in due course.

The PDA believes that once implemented, the proposals will have a significant impact on working people’s lives, which in turn is good for business and the wider economy.

The government’s commitments include:

• Ending the two-year qualifying period for protections from unfair dismissal to ensure that all workers have a right to these protections from day one on the job.
• Ending exploitative zero hours contracts and giving those on low hours contracts the right to a guaranteed hours contract if they work regular hours over a defined period,
• Making flexible working the default for all, unless the employer can prove it’s unreasonable.
• Setting a clear standard for employers by establishing a new right to bereavement leave, with the entitlement sculpted with the needs of employees and the concerns of employers at the forefront.
• Delivering stronger protections for pregnant women and new mothers returning to work including protection from dismissal whilst pregnant, on maternity leave and within six months of returning to work.
• Tackling low pay by accounting for cost of living when setting the Minimum Wage and remove discriminatory age bands.
• Establishing a new Fair Work Agency that will bring together different government enforcement bodies, enforce holiday pay for the first time, and strengthening statutory sick pay. It will create a stronger, recognisable single organisation so that people know where to go for help – with better support for employers who want to comply with the law and tough action on the minority who deliberately flout it.

The government has also reiterated that their plans for improved rights at work extend beyond this particular bill and subject to consultations, this will also include:

• A Right to Switch Off, preventing employees from being contacted out of hours, except in exceptional circumstances, to allow them the rest and get the recuperation they need to give 100% during their shift.
• A strong commitment to end pay discrimination by expanding the Equality (Race and Disparity) Bill to make it mandatory for large employers to report their ethnicity and disability pay gap.
• A move towards a single status of worker and transition towards a simpler two-part framework for employment status.??This is something of particular interest regarding Locum pharmacists.
• Reviews into the parental leave and carer’s leave systems to ensure they are delivering for employers, workers, and their loved ones.

Paul Day, PDA Union Director said, “PDA members will welcome improved rights in their workplace and the PDA will continue to assist members in understanding and exercising their full rights appropriately.? We encourage employers to ensure their businesses comply with these requirements as soon as they take effect.”

Learn more

• Business leaders and unions to work hand in hand to deliver new plans to Make Work Pay
• GDP: Government plans for public investment can put economy “back in the fast line”

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