What's coming?
Effective sometime in 2023
A Private Members’ Bill has been sponsored by Labour MP Rt Hon Yasmin Qureshi.
The Bill would make the right to request flexible working - on matters such as including working hours, times and locations - a ‘day one’. The Bill received the backing of the government on its second reading in October 2022 and in December the government issued its proposals for implementing the changes the Bill contains.
It's proposed that employees will be able to make two, rather than one flexible working request in a year, and employers will have a shorter time frame to respond to them.
Further, employees would no longer bear the burden of explaining how to mitigate the effect on their employer.
Millions of Britons to be able to request flexible working on day one of employment! Find out more on the government website.
Click here
Consultation launched 24 January 2023
Following on from the widespread condemnation of P&O Ferries which dismissed its entire workforce in late 2021, the government has just launched a consultation on a new Code of Practice on Dismissal and Re-engagement.
The aim is to prevent or at least curtail the practice of ‘fire and rehire’ where employees who do not accept new terms and conditions are dismissed and then offered their job back on the new terms.
The proposed code will crack down on unscrupulous employers, in particular making it clear that threats of dismissal should not be used.
It will give courts the power to apply a 25% uplift to employee compensation, in the same way as the ACAS Code of Practice is enforced. The consultation launched on 24 January and will close on 18 April 2023.
The Carer’s Leave Bill, introduced as a Private Members Bill by Liberal Democrat MP Wendy Chamberlain and now supported by the Government, passed its third reading in the House of Commons on 3 February 2023.
The vote followed an event in January sponsored by Wendy Chamberlain and Carers UK. MPs heard from unpaid carers who work for Centrica and TSB and already benefit from the support their employers give.
The Bill will introduce the day-one right to one week annually of unpaid leave for employees with caring responsibilities.
This Private Members’ Bill, sponsored by Labour MP Rt Dan Jarvis, would provide employees with additional protection from redundancy during or after pregnancy or after periods of maternity, adoption or shared parental leave.
The protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Bill completed its journey through the Commons, unopposed, on 3 February 2023 and has gone for further scrutiny in the House of Lords.
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Two Private Members Bills are having their second readings in the House of Commons in March, The Fertility Treatment (Employment Rights) Bill and the Miscarriage Bill would both give employees the right to time off, in the first case to attend fertility appointments, the second in the case of miscarriage.
Neither Bill has yet received government backing, generally considered vital for Private Members Bills to progress into law.
You can keep an eye on the Bill as it progresses:
Effective 7 March 2023
The UK ratified the International Labour Organisation’s Violence and Harassment Convention on 7 March 2022. It will come into force on this date in 2023.
This is a first-of-its-kind global common framework for action to eradicate workplace violence and harassment.
In parallel, the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Bill was introduced by Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse as a Private Members Bill in June 2022.
The purpose of the bill is to protect employees from third party sexual harassment in the workplace by imposing new duties on employees.
It has passed its first and second readings and committee stage without amendment and with cross party support. It is likely to become law later this year.
To be confirmed
The government has introduced ‘proposals to reduce ill health-related job loss’. The consultation builds a case for employers to do more to support employees with health conditions. In return the government is committed to providing more help for employers.
The plan includes:
Effective 5 December 2022
Now in force, The Exclusivity Terms for Zero Hours Workers (Unenforceability and Redress) Regulations 2022 widens the ban on exclusivity clauses which restrict staff from working with multiple employers, and makes unenforceable in non-zero hours contracts exclusivity clauses for those whose net average weekly wage is below or equivalent to the Lower Earnings Limit of £123 a week.
The regulations also make it automatically unfair for employees to be dismissed for the reason (or principal reason) that they have breached an exclusivity term in such a contract.
They also create a right for workers not to be subjected to a detriment for breaching an exclusivity term in such a contract and provide remedies through an employment tribunal claim for a breach of such rights.
By 31 December 2023
On 22 September 2022, the government introduced the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill to Parliament. The legislation is intended to ‘put the UK statute book on a more sustainable footing’ post-Brexit, by ending the special status of retained EU law under UK law.
The Bill contains a complex mix of provisions and powers to revoke, amend, replace, restate or ‘assimilate’ retained EU law, with a sunset provision aimed at ensuring the process is completed by a fixed deadline, currently the end of 2023.
The timeframes set out in the Bill coupled with the lack of any requirement for ministers to consult on changes may mean that legislation is made at speed without stakeholder input. Changes brought into effect could impact
TUPE, working time, discrimination law, agency workers, and equal pay. The Bill will need to proceed through all its stages before moving to the House of Lords where it is likely to receive a difficult passage.
With the appointment of Rt Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister, the degree to which the Bill will remain a key plank of the government’s agenda is unclear. However, the current administration has stated an intention to prioritise reforms which have the greatest potential to drive growth.
Of the sectors expected to be prioritised for reform in the next year are:
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 will reduce the time taken for certain convictions to become ‘spent’, and no longer automatically disclosed for the purpose of employment checks. The changes will apply as follows:
Two separate private members bills will seek to grant asylum seekers permission to work, where they have waited six months for a decision on their asylum application. Chris Stephens MP and Carol Monaghan MP (Scottish National Party) are sponsoring the proposals.
This private member’s bill, sponsored by life peer Baroness Kramer, would require regulations to be made establishing an ‘Office of the Whistleblower’ which would support whistleblowers.
For example, by maintaining a fund to assist them and provide financial redress to those whose careers have been harmed.
Find out more