The Labour government is due to make seismic changes to our employment laws by introducing draft legislation within its first 100 days in office. Just some of these include its promises to:

1. Give employees day 1 rights to sick pay, parental leave and protection against unfair dismissal (although probationary periods may have a special status here).
2. Require that day 1 section 1 statements of the main ts and cs of employment have to inform staff of their right to join a trade union.
3. Ban zero hours contracts which are exploitative (as opposed to all) and replace these with contracts which reflect the minimum number of hours usually worked calculated over a 12 week reference period. Any changes will require reasonable notice. Maternity and sick pay rights will apply.
4. Ban unpaid internships except when they a part of an educational or training course.
5. Categorise people as either an employee or a worker and do away with the current third category of self-employed.
6. Give everyone a right to a written contract.
7. Give all adult workers the same national minimum/living wage, irrespective of age, set in such a way as to take into account the cost of living.
8. Make flexible working a default right unless employers have a good reason to refuse it.
9. Introduce a right to switch off outside working hours, to help promote a healthy work/life balance (or at least to discuss it with their employer).
10. Give all workers an entitlement to reasonable notice of any change in shifts/working time (and a right to compensation if this is ignored).
11. Introduce a right to unpaid bereavement leave (which is currently only available following the death of a child).
12. End firing and rehiring on new (worse) terms and conditions of employment.
13. Give hospitality workers their tips in full.
14. Make it unlawful to dismiss a woman who returns to work after maternity leave for six months after her return (except in specific circumstances).
15. Increase protection for women who report sexual harassment at work.
16. Require employers with more than 250 employees to have a menopause action plan and produce ethnicity and disability pay gap reports.
17. Ban outsourcing of services used to avoid paying equal pay.
18. Afford increased protection and rights for workers subject to TUPE transfers.
19. Change collective redundancy consultation so that it applies to the total number of redundancies across a business rather than within a single workplace.
20. Set up a single enforcement body to enforce workers’ rights, with trade union and Trades Union Congress representation.
21. Improve trade union rights.
22. Make it easier to strike.
23. Extend time limits for taking the necessary step to bring a Tribunal claim from three months (less a day) to six months (less a day).

#Labour #PlanToMakeWorkPay #DeliveringANewDealForWorkingPeople #employmentlaw