Government amendments to the Employment Rights Bill
The Employment Rights Bill is the most extensive revision of employment legislation in a generation. You can find out more about what is in the Bill via the Government's factsheets. We have also shared with you the Government's roadmap that outlines when these provisions will change.
From 14 July the Bill will return to the House of Lords for the Report Stage, this is likely to last until the summer recess.
The Government has laid 63 amendments to the Employment Rights Bill; these are likely to change the Bill.
A number of other amendments have also been laid by other peers; these are less likely to be successful.
What do the Government amendments cover?
New provisions:
- Non-Disclosure Agreements - a new provision will prevent non-disclosure agreements being used to silence people from talking about harassment or discrimination that they have experienced. There will be some consultation on limited exceptions (for example, where the person experiencing abuse requests an NDA). The Government has not confirmed the timeline for implementing this yet. (Government's press release here).
- Bereavement leave for pregnancy loss - the Bill will protect families who experience pregnancy loss before 24 weeks via protected bereavement leave. (Government press release here.)
Major amendments to existing provisions:
- Adult Social Care Negotiating Body for Fair Pay - the Government is amending the Bill to make sure that any Fair Pay agreement (or regulation by the Secretary of State if an agreement is not reached) cannot make workers worse off if their terms and conditions are better than the agreement negotiated. It also doesn't prevent employers from offering more favourable conditions than the agreement. Any guidance or codes of practice on non-compliance with the Fair Pay agreement will also have to go through parliamentary scrutiny.
- Fire and rehire - the amendments soften the earlier position in the Bill so that automatic unfair dismissal will only apply to contract changes that cover 'core terms' (for example, pay, hours, leave, shift patterns) rather than any changes at all. As previously, the exemption for changing core terms is where the employer faces severe financial difficulties if they don't make the changes and have no reasonable alternative. There are also restrictions on dismissals to introduce flexibility clauses into contracts around these core contract terms. We are expecting a consultation on what changing 'shift patterns' in someone's core terms would mean - likely this autumn.
- Fire and replace - replacing employees with agency workers would be automatically unfair dismissal under these new provisions. Again, there is an exemption if the employer has severe financial difficulties. This should not affect genuine business restructuring, outsourcing or seasonal staffing.
- Zero hours / guaranteed hours and agency workers - there are new provisions around how pay and terms and conditions of agency workers can be affected when the end hirer offers them guaranteed hours. If they accept a guaranteed hours contract from an end-hirer, they become a worker, not an employee, in relation to the end-hirer.
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