The Employment Rights Bill: the latest news on the Amendment Paper

Payroll Legislation Manager, Cybill Watkins, talks about the latest updates to the amendments of the Employment Rights Bill.

On 4th February the House of Commons has produced an Amendment Paper of 25 pages of amendments to the Employment Right Bill. This bill is currently in the house of commons at report stage – which is the penultimate stage in the commons before going across to the Lords. These amendments will be presented and voted on to bring them into the bill.

Key amendments to be aware of

Domestic Abuse

Bringing forward domestic abuse leave and create a duty on employers with 5 or more employees to have a policy outlining the support they provide to workers who are victims of domestic abuse.

Carers Leave

The new clause will make carers leave a paid entitlement, and that being a carer to someone who fits the legislative description of needing long term care will become a protective characteristic under the Equality Act 2010.

Statutory Parental Pay

Increased rates to £368.06 a week from £184.03 (2024-25 rates). Introduce reporting requirements for all companies with over 250 employees to publish information about their parental leave and pay policies.

Paternity Leave

Increasing paternity leave from 2 weeks to 6 weeks over 1st 52 weeks post birth.

Whistleblowing

Slightly extend the circumstances in which an employee is considered as unfairly dismissed after making a protected disclosure.

Statutory Adoption Pay

Extending SAP to self-employed and contractors.

Kinship Care Leave

Bringing in and subsequently expanding to a new clause on kinship care leave.

Right to be accompanied

Expanding the right to be accompanied by a certified companion at disciplinary and grievance hearings.

Health & Safety

Legal right for workers in a workplace to be protected from gender-based violence and harassment.

Statutory Maternity Pay

Replacing £184.03 with an hourly rate of £12.60 in the UK, and £13.85 per hour in London.

Maternity / Bereavement Leave & Pay

This amendment requires that any regulations made under section 80EA of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (as amended by the Bill) must include conditions framed by reference to those bereaved by pregnancy loss. This will ensure that those who suffer pregnancy loss will be covered by bereavement leave and pay.

Unfair dismissal

This will fix the initial period of employment (probation period) to between 3 and 9 months.

Further Amendments 4th March

It has been announced by the government this week that agency workers will be brought into the zero hour contract changes. It is reported that there are 900,000 agency workers in the UK on these contracts. These workers will have to be offered guaranteed hours contracts based on an average of previously worked hours and receive reasonable notice of shifts and proportionate pay when shifts are cancelled, curtailed or moved at short notice.

SSP will be a day one payment, and those who earn below the Lower Earnings Limit will get 80% of their average pay or the current rate of SSP – whichever is lower.

The Government will increase the maximum period of the protective award from 90 days to 180 days and issue further guidance for employers on consultation processes for collective redundancies. Increasing the maximum value of the award means an Employment Tribunal will be able to grant larger awards to employees for an employer’s failure to meet consultation requirements.

Umbrella Workers will also gain comparable rights and protections as they would had they been taken on by a recruitment agency.

Author’s comment

Overview

This document is giving us welcome information, but it is also bringing in further burdens and costs to already struggling businesses, plus more reporting requirements that will put additional pressure on already overburdened HR and payroll teams.

There is also a contradiction within this document for SMP. It states both a weekly amount and an hourly amount. Although employers can claim 92% back from the government, they will have to find an additional £14.72 a week if it’s at the higher weekly rate, and £22.58 for an average 37-hour week if they took it to an hourly rate. Then there is the employers NIC to consider.

Zero-hour contracts – will this be the end of small agencies?

There are some small agency owners who have a couple of staff who manage their temporary workers, who they either:

1) Supply directly to businesses for short term contracts or

2) Support other larger agencies who supply into the much larger employers but who are unable to cover the odd shift.

These small agencies are the backbone to supporting the wider economy, but with these changes, they may not be able to afford to give fixed hour contracts, and will have to put their staff into redundancy and only deal with permanent vacancies. They reportedly will ensure the temporary workers will receive reasonable notice of shifts and proportionate pay when shifts are cancelled, curtailed or moved at short notice – this is inevitable in this world, so who will cover these costs? Will it be the end user who will pass on these costs to us the customer, or will it be the agency?

Statutory Sick Pay

They will remove the waiting days which will make the payrollers life slightly easier. However, again this will pass more costs to already tight budgets that the employers have to operate on. I do wonder if this will do as the government think – in that they say it will mean employees can take time to recover and not pass germs around.

However, could many medium- and high-earning employees afford to receive £23 a day in replacement of their wage? For those on low wages who are already living hand to mouth on NMW, could they afford to lose £62 to take a day off sick? It seems unlikely it will make the big changes that the government are saying it would, but we can review when the statistics are shared in 12 months’ time.

These changes will be taken into account during the 3rd stage and may be brought in – which I expect that there will not be much objection as each item has a lot of support already.

What’s next?

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