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We have recently submitted three consultation responses relating to aspects of the Employment Rights Bill. Our responses examine the implications and workability of these changes for employers and workers.

Creating a modern framework for industrial relations

As we have written about here, the government is proposing wide-ranging reforms to trade union and collective rights. Earlier this month we submitted a response to the government’s consultation on creating a modern framework for industrial relations.

Our response emphasised the need for a balanced approach that considers the interests of workers, businesses, and the public.  We advocated for accountability and fair representation, highlighting the potential issues with reducing the thresholds for trade union recognition and the lack of measures to ensure industrial action is a last resort. 

See our full response here.

The application of zero hours contract measures to agency workers

Although the Bill does not provide a simple ‘ban’ of exploitative zero hours contracts as had been promised, it does contain complex proposals on guaranteed hours and the right to reasonable notice of shifts and shift changes which aim to protect this category of worker. We have written about this in detail here. 

Relating to this, the government has recently closed a consultation on extending these provision to agency workers.  The fundamental question proposed by the consultation was, assuming these rights are extended to agency workers, should the new obligations should rest with the end hirer or agency?

In our consultation response we highlighted the complexities that these scenarios would pose and the risk that this would undermine the benefits of the flexible resourcing model. We suggested that the government could consider other options, such as limiting the amount of time agency workers are used or the reasons for their use, to avoid exploitation without undermining flexibility.

See our full response here. 

Rules on collective redundancy and fire and rehire

Finally, we have also submitted a response to the government’s consultation on measures to strengthen the collective redundancy framework and protections for employees against fire and rehire practices. This focussed on whether the cap on protective awards should be increased, and whether interim relief should be available to claimants in these circumstances.
 
Our response highlighted the complexities and potential unintended consequences of increasing the protective award cap from 90 to 180 days or removing it entirely. We also questioned whether the already overburdened tribunal system could accommodate interim relief applications and the strain this could place on employers.
 
See our full response here.
 

Our dashboard breaking down what’s in the Employment Rights Bill can be found here.
 

 
 

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