Home / What does the Employment Rights Bill mean for your Business?
10th October 2024
Sticking to commitment to introduce the biggest reform to Employment Law in 30 years within the first 100 days in office, the Government has published the Employment Rights Bill late this morning. Spanning 158 pages, the Bill contains wide ranging employment reforms covering the full spectrum of employment rights from hiring to firing.
Whilst the Bill is yet to undergo the usual Parliamentary scrutiny and may therefore be subject to change, given the size of the Government’s majority, significant amendments seem unlikely and there appears to be a real impetus for the legislation to be passed with the second reading of the Bill already scheduled to take place on 21 October. Whilst the Bill does not specify when it will come into force, there is widespread reporting that this is unlikely to be until October 2026 to give employers time to prepare.
Below are the key highlights of the Bill. Given its wide-ranging scope, we will provide more detailed analysis of the bill and the steps you should take to prepare your business for the changes over the coming weeks and months. To receive these updates directly, sign up for our newsletter here if you have not already done so.
In addition to the Bill the Government have also published a “Next Steps” document setting out further ambitions to expand employment law reform covering (subject to consultation):
If all of this is not enough to contend with, announced in the King’s Speech was also an Equality (Race and Disability) bill which is likely to introduce a requirement for large employers (those with more than 250 employees) to produce ethnicity and disability pay gap reports (which you can read more about here).
Please contact the employment team on 0161 832 3434 or email info@kuits.com for advice on how these changes will impact your business and the steps you should take to prepare.