Protection from unfair dismissal will become a day one right removing the current two-year qualification period. The Government will consult on a statutory probation period for new hires to assess an employee's suitability for a role.  Existing day one rights protecting employees from unfair dismissal including for discrimination or whistleblowing will not be affected by the statutory probation period.

The Bill allows employers to operate probationary periods by providing an initial period during which there will be "a lighter-touch process" for employers to follow to dismiss an employee who is not right for the job.  The Government will consult on the length of the statutory probation period, but it has indicated that its preference is nine months, longer than the six months which we were expecting.

It will also consult on how the probationary periods will operate to ensure meaningful safeguards are in place.  The Government suggests as a starting point that it should consist of holding a meeting with the employee to explain the concerns about their performance (at which the employee could choose to be accompanied by a trade union representative or a colleague).  There will also need to be consultation on how the new probationary periods will interact with the ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures and on a compensation regime for successful claims.

We still await details through the consultations, but this represents a sea change in employment protection and will bring greater costs to employers, making recruitment and dismissal more difficult.

The current three-day waiting period for statutory sick pay (SSP) will be removed as well as the lower earnings limit for all workers.  The lower earnings limit is £123 per week and SSP is currently £116.75 per week so removing the lower earnings limit could be problematic for employers where someone earns close to or below the current lower earnings as it could represent an incentive to take sick leave.  The Government will therefore consult on what the percentage replacement rate for those earning below the current SSP rate should be.

Again, this new day one right will increase the cost burdens for employers.

The Bill will ban "exploitative" zero hours contracts.  Those on zero hours or low hours contracts who regularly work more than these hours will have the right to a guaranteed hours contract which reflects the hours they regularly work over a 12-week reference period.  If more hours become regular over time, subsequent reference review periods will provide workers with the opportunity to reflect this in their contracts.  Those who wish to remain on zero hours contracts will still be able to do so.

Measures will also be introduced to ensure workers get reasonable notice changes in shifts or working time, with proportionate compensation for any shifts cancelled or curtailed at short notice.  The Government also wants to adapt and extend these measures to agency workers and will consult on this and the measures to end zero hours contracts.

The Bill will make paternity leave a day one right by removing the current qualifying period of 26 weeks for fathers.  Measures will also be introduced to make unpaid parental leave a day one right instead of parents only being eligible if they have been with the company for more than one year.

The Government will also establish bereavement leave (going beyond the existing parental bereavement leave) as a day one right.  A "bereaved person" will be defined under separate regulations.

The Bill will strengthen protections for pregnant women and new mothers returning to work including protection from dismissal whilst pregnant, on maternity leave and within six months of returning to work.  This extends the current protection from redundancy during or after a protected period of pregnancy to apply to redundancy or dismissal during or after a protected period of pregnancy.

The Government wants to make flexible working the default, but it will develop the detail of the approach through consultation with business, trade unions and third sector bodies.  Flexible working requests may only be refused if it is reasonable to refuse on the ground or grounds of:

(a) the burden of additional costs.

(b) detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand.

(c) inability to re-organise work among existing staff.

(d) inability to recruit additional staff.

(e) detrimental impact on quality.

(f) detrimental impact on performance.

(g) insufficiency of work during the periods the employee proposes to work.

(h) planned structural changes.

(i) any other grounds specified by the Secretary of State in regulations.

Employers will be required to explain why their refusal is reasonable in writing to the employee.  But there will be no change to the penalty for a breach of the requirements, currently 8 weeks' pay.

This will make refusal of flexible working requests more difficult for employers as the employer has to be reasonable in its reliance on the factors.  Currently it only has to deal with the request in a reasonable manner and base the refusal on one of a list of reasons.

The practice of fire and re-hire or fire and replace will be automatically unfair except in very limited circumstances where an employer has no alternative but to use fire and rehire to remain a viable business.  An employer will also be required to consult with employees, trade unions and employee representatives as any consultation or offers made in return for agreeing the variation will be taken into account in deciding whether the dismissal is fair or unfair.

This does not represent an outright ban on fire and re-hire, but it will be more difficult for employers to use the practice save in very much last resort circumstances.

The Bill also makes provisions for the creation of a single enforcement body which will have under its remit matters such as National Minimum Wage, Statutory Sick Pay and holiday pay enforcement.

The Bill will amend the Trade Union Act 2016 and repeal the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023. Trade Union rights will be strengthened under the Bill, including:

• A new duty on employers to inform workers of their right to join a trade union in the written statement provided to them under section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and to inform them of their right to join a trade union regularly thereafter.
• A new right of trade unions to make applications to access the workplace for the purposes of meeting, recruiting or organising workers and to facilitate collective bargaining.  If an employer refuses such a request the union can apply to the Central Arbitration Committee to determine if access can be granted.
• Strengthening the ability for unions to seek and achieve recognition.  Unions will no longer need to show that at least 50% of the workers in the bargaining unit supported recognition.  The Government have sought to reserve the power to reduce the requirement for the union to show that at least 10% of workers in the bargaining unit are union members and support for recognition only needs a simple majority vote.  
• A strengthened access to facilities for trade union representatives taking time off to carry out their duties.
• A new statutory right for trade union equality representatives to strengthen equality at work.
• In respect of industrial action, rather than requiring a majority of those entitled to vote, voting in favour, the unions would only need to have a majority of those who actually voted to vote in favour, to satisfy the voting requirements.
• The Bill also confirms that if employees are subjected to a detriment for taking part in industrial action, it will be unlawful.  It will also remove the cap on the number of weeks that an employee is protected for when taking industrial action, where the reason for the dismissal is taking protected industrial action.
• Update blacklisting legislation to protect a wider range of people from blacklisting due to trade union membership or activity.

We are also expecting the launch of a working group looking at allowing the use of modern and secure balloting for trade union statutory ballots before the end of the year.

The Bill also proposes to strengthen the new duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace which comes into effect on 26 October 2024.  The Bill will require employers to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, currently legislation will require employers to take reasonable steps.

There will also be new whistleblowing protections for women reporting sexual harassment with allegations of sexual harassment becoming protected disclosures.

Even more significantly, the Bill will also reintroduce employer liability for third party harassment in relation to all relevant protected characteristics into the Equality Act 2010, save for where an employer can show that they took all reasonable steps to prevent the harassment.  This is a significant amendment and will be a concern to employers particularly where employees regularly come into contact with customers, contractors, members of the public etc.

The threshold for collective redundancy consultation is to change.  The current duty arises where an employer is proposing to dismiss as redundant 20 or more employees at one establishment within a period of 90 days or less.  The Bill will remove "at one establishment" so that the number of proposed redundancies for collective redundancy consultation purposes will be determined across the business.

The Bill will require businesses with 250+ employees to produce action plans on how to address their gender pay gap and how they will support employees through the menopause which will be supported by a Regulatory Enforcement Unit for equal pay created through the Equality (Race and Disability) Bill.

The Equality (Race and Disability) Bill is one of the measures expected in "Autumn 2024 onwards".  Reforms to be included are:

• A requirement for large businesses with more than 250 staff to publish information on their ethnicity and disability pay gaps.
• Extending equal pay rights to protect workers suffering discrimination on the basis of race or disability.
• Ensuring that outsourcing of services can no longer be used by employers to avoid paying equal pay.

This is not included in the Bill.  Instead, the Government will take this forward by introducing a statutory Code of Practice.  Previously the Government has commented that a new code of practice would not create its own compensation claim but could mean that workers who are repeatedly contacted outside normal working hours may be able to claim uplifted compensation when bringing certain claims.

Reports over the summer suggested the Government plans would not be a "one size fits all", but policies would be developed specific to each workplace through agreement between a business and its workforce. The Government has also acknowledged that the new right would have a disproportionate impact on smaller businesses and it had said that it was considering a range of approaches.

Measures to extend time limits for bringing employment tribunal claims will be added to the Bill via amendment during the Bill passage.  The original suggestion was to extend the time limits to six months (many limits are currently 3 months), but we will wait to see what will be put forward via the amendment.

Many of the Government's reforms do not need further legislation to be actioned.  They include:

• Removing the age bands to ensure every adult worker benefits from a genuine living wage.
• Supporting workers with a terminal illness through the Dying to Work Charter.
• Modernising health and safety guidance.
• Enacting the socioeconomic duty.
• Ensuring the Public Sector Equality Duty provisions cover all parties exercising public functions.
• Developing menopause guidance for employers and guidance on health and wellbeing.