Post General Election update – How will a Labour Government impact your workplace?

The country has voted and in the aftermath of Labour’s landslide victory at the General Election, there are several major changes to employment law expected in the coming months.

Key proposals include:

Unfair dismissal

• This will be Day One protection for all employees as opposed to the current two year qualifying period.
• This is bound to be winner with employees, but as an employer, you may worry that this will limit options to deal with poor performance and costs in a redundancy situation.  It‘s likely that probationary periods will be used more effectively, but we await further details.

Zero hours contracts

• Labour will introduce new rights to request predictable hours and potentially convert to permanent contracts.
• The new leadership has also pledged to ensure the right to a contract that reflects the number of hours regularly worked based on a 12 week reference period.
• The plan includes measures to ensure workers receive reasonable notice of any change in their shifts or working time, plus compensation if work is cancelled at short notice.

Statutory Sick Pay

• Eligibility extended to all. Those who earn less than the lower earnings limit (currently £123 per week) are not entitled to SSP because they have not paid enough NI contributions.  It’s proposed that SSP will be provided to all.
• Abolition of waiting days. Currently employees have to wait until their fourth day of sickness in order to receive SSP.  Under the new proposals an employee will be eligible from day one of their absence.
• The 3 “waiting days” can cause financial hardship for employees. It could mean that employees prolong their sickness absence either by staying absent longer than necessary until they receive SSP or by not taking sick leave at all meaning they take longer to recover and spread germs around the workplace.  These changes should encourage employers to manage sickness absences more actively.

National Minimum Wage

• Removal of age bands to provide a single “living wage” for all workers over 18. 
• Certain sectors (such as hospitality and retail) are likely to be more affected by the increased costs this proposal will bring about.  Employers should prepare for this by identifying which of their employees fall into this category and ensure their pay arrangements are compliant.