When it comes to employment legislation, the Labour Government under Kier Starmer’s leadership certainly hit the ground running! True to their election promise, within 100 days of taking office the Employment Rights Bill 2024 (ERB) was published.
Initially, it ran to 158 pages (now it’s a lofty 199 pages post first round of amendments) and contains 28 separate provisions. Heralded by the Government as bringing generational change it’s certainly the largest piece of employment legislation in over a decade. It is complex and not without its holes; it promises much but leaves much of the details to subsequent secondary legislation and the promise of consultations. It leaves us with an incomplete road map for the future of employment relations; we have the destination but without the roads we need to follow and importantly the length of time it’s going to take to get there!
For the health and social care sector, the ERB has some key provisions*.
- New right to guaranteed hours contract – this will, the Government intends, eliminate unfair zero-hour contracts from the workplace by ensuring employers have to offer guaranteed hours to workers on those contracts. Whilst the intention may be laudable, it is not such good news for the social care sector where zero-hour contracts are necessary for the provision of care and the administrative burden of ensuring all workers are offering guaranteed hours will be a heavy one.
- Day one right to unfair dismissal – this provision will remove the current two-year qualification period. Whilst the Government promises ‘an initial period of employment’ – something like a statutory probationary period – where a ‘lighter’ fair dismissal proves will apply, we have yet to have more details of that. This will place an added burden on recruitment as providers will no longer be able to rely on previous probationary provisions or the two-year grace period they currently enjoy.
- Adult Social Care Negotiating Body – the Government wants to introduce sector collective pay bargaining and one of its first sectors is social care. Beyond its intention, we have no further details other than the ERB gives the power to make regulations which would create this negotiating body.
- Third-Party Harassment – on the heels of the introduction of the mandatory duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace, the ERB will re-enact the provision of the Equality Act 2010 whereby employers are liable for the harassment of their employees by third parties. This liability will extend all types of harassment under the Equality Act 210 and is not just limited to sexual harassment. In addition, the mandatory duty to prevent sexual harassment will be widened so that employers will need to take ‘all’ reasonable steps. This has implications for providers and ensuring the protection of their staff from harassment from contractors, individuals accessing the services and their friends, families and visitors.
Employment Rights Bill Hub and subscription service
To help providers in the sector navigate this ‘generational change’ and the impact of these key provisions and others, the employment and pensions team at Anthony Collins has developed an Employment Rights Bill Hub. The essential purpose of the Hub is twofold.
- One – provide one landing page for all documentation relating to the ERB and our key insights into the changes. This includes the ERB itself, explanatory documents, consultation documents, and draft regulations (when they are published) together with our guidance as to what will change, how it will differ from the current provisions and the expected time frame for change. Bringing all these together on an intuitive and informative page with easy-to-follow tabs means no need for fruitless searches on the Parliamentary website or trawling through pages of legislation.
- Two – provide a subscription service to users. Given the number of changes, many major and hugely relevant to the health and social care sector, it is key that providers are kept up to date with consultations, draft regulations, amendments to the legislation dates and commencement dates. The subscription service alongside the Hub provides such an update. Free of charge, all subscribers will receive updates on any changes when they happen together with practical insight into specific sector issues. Given the expertise and sector knowledge of the team at Anthony Collins, this will be a valuable resource for providers to ensure they understand the specific ramifications of the changes for their workforce and the provision of services.
For more information
Please contact the team at Anthony Collins for further information or click here to visit the hub and subscribe for updates.
*This is not a comprehensive list – do visit the ERB hub for a comprehensive guide to the changes.