| Employees will have the right to claim unfair dismissal from the first day of employment (currently they need two years’ service). However, this won’t apply for some time – probably Autumn 2026 – so the current law continues for now. Whilst it is relatively low risk to dismiss someone with less than two years’ service currently, we would still advise caution and to call us for support, as there are other types of claim that may be brought (e.g. discrimination, automatic unfair dismissal, etc.)
A statutory probationary period will apply and the Government is proposing that should be 9 months. It is not clear how that will work but it seems very unlikely that you could dismiss someone in that period with impunity as that would go against the idea of unfair dismissal being a day one right. It is more likely that a light touch process will apply. We won’t have the details until the Bill has passed into law, and regulations will be published containing this detail. We will of course let you know when that becomes clear and could then help you to put in place suitable policies and procedures.
Zero Hours Contracts
There will be a new obligation on employers to offer guaranteed hours contracts to those on zero hours, or a low number of guaranteed hours, where they regularly work more hours than guaranteed in their contracts. This will make it illegal to leave people on zero hours or minimal hours contracts whilst requiring them to regularly work more hours.
Detail is still required to set out the relevant reference period to use to assess the hours worked and how often these offers of guaranteed hours will need to be made. But it is clear that workers can reject these offers – so someone who is happy to be on a zero hours contract can’t be forced to accept a contract with guaranteed hours.
This is likely to be a complex process and it is not clear how it might apply to seasonal workers, so we will need to wait for details to be published in due course.
The Government is currently consulting about extending these changes to agency workers.
Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)
Currently SSP only applies when someone has had 4 continuous days off sick. The first three days are unpaid. That means that people who have the odd day off or couple of days here and there are unpaid for that time off, and that can act as a strong disincentive to “throw a sickie” or to go off sick when feeling slightly under the weather.
The Bill makes SSP an entitlement from the first day of sickness absence, so there is a good chance that may have a real impact on many businesses.
However, the level of SSP is quite low – currently it is just £116.75 per week, so that will continue to act as some disincentive to take time off where there is no entitlement to contractual sick pay.
SSP currently only applies to those earning the Lower Earnings Level (currently £123 per week), but that will also change so that all staff will be entitled to it (with the level of SSP reducing for those on very low earnings). The Government is currently consulting about what level should apply to these lower earners.
Flexible Working
Currently employers can turn down a request for flexible working provided the reason is for one of 8 prescribed reasons (including inability to reorganise work among existing staff, detrimental impact on quality and on performance, etc.). The new law will see employers having to consult with the employee before making a decision (which is already good practice) and to explain why they consider it is reasonable to refuse the request based on one or more of the 8 permitted reasons. This is not a significant change but will require a little more work from employers in order to comply. |
