Employment Rights Bill Seminar: Key takeaways

We recently hosted a seminar on the Labour Government's Employment Rights Bill. The Bill contains some of the most significant changes to employment law for a decade – and will go hand-in-hand with important changes to equality law in the Equality (Race and Disability) Bill.

Employers therefore need to get up to speed swiftly and ensure their businesses are prepared, or risk expensive, time-consuming and public litigation.

Our essential update took a practical, business-focused look at the proposed changes and how business can use their time wisely to prepare. We were delighted to have such an engaged audience and lively discussion following the presentations.

Key takeaways from the session included:

• "Day 1" unfair dismissal rights, what the new rules on probation periods mean and how employers can make intelligent use of recruitment strategies, performance management and contract terms to mitigate risks.
• Substantial changes to rules on redundancies and "fire and rehire" which will effectively be unlawful in all but the most serious financial situations.
• Complex new rights for workers on zero hours contracts, including requirements to offer guaranteed hours and compensate workers for cancelled shifts. This will have significant impact in sectors which use zero hours contracts, such as hospitality, leisure and retail.
• Flexible working where the right to request will become a right to be granted flexible working unless it's reasonable to refuse.
• Workplace harassment where there will be a more onerous duty to prevent sexual harassment going beyond the new duty introduced in October . Steps employers should be taking include: focus on barriers to reporting; risk basement; "zero tolerance" culture; training; and monitoring.

Interested in more detail about the Bill and what it means for employers?

Read our full briefing

As more details emerge through the consultation process, we will be publishing further updates and hosting further events. If you would like to discuss any aspect of the Bill or other recent and upcoming changes to employment law, please get in touch.