Proposed changes to two bills could lead to more claims from employees, says Travlaw’s Ami Naru
| Travel Weekly has teamed up with leading industry employment lawyer Ami Naru for a regular column offering answers to readers’ questions on legal employment/HR matters. In each of her columns, Ami will cover the latest employment issues facing the industry and respond to questions and dilemmas posed by you. In this first column, Ami looks at some of the changes to employment law proposed by the new government. |
The new government’s employment law proposals are wide-ranging. They are certain to bring changes and, as a result, the landscape of employment law is set to undergo a notable transformation.
Employment law is of course not immune to change and we have already seen a bumper crop of employment law changes this year: holiday pay and accrual, paternity leave, flexible working and the introduction of carer’s leave all came into force prior to the election.
The Labour Party has proposed fundamental reform of employment law in its New Deal for Working People, published in May, which it dubbed its plan to make work pay.
Labour has promised to deliver “the biggest upgrade to rights at work for a generation”, which it says will “boost wages, make work more secure and support working people to thrive – delivering a genuine living wage, banning exploitative zero-hour contracts, and ending fire and rehire”.
The plan goes on to say: “Labour will back working people to take their voice back, improve their terms and conditions, and ensure protections at work are fit for the world today.”
During the King’s Speech on July 17, two bills of particular interest to employers were mentioned.
The first was the Employment Rights Bill, unveiled with a pledge to be introduced within the first 100 days of Labour coming to power and said to represent the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation and to “deliver on policies as set out in the plan to make work pay”. The second was the Draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill.
The Employment Rights Bill is likely to cover:
• Banning exploitative zero-hours contracts
• Ending ‘fire and rehire’
• Making parental leave, sick pay and unfair dismissal protection available from day one for all workers (subject to probationary periods for new hires)
• Removing the lower earnings limit and the waiting period from the eligibility requirements for Statutory Sick Pay
• Making flexible working the default from day one for all workers
• Making it unlawful to dismiss someone who has had a baby for six months after their return to work, except in limited circumstances
• Updating trade union legislation, including the removal of unnecessary restrictions on trade union activity, the repeal of minimum service levels, simplifying the statutory recognition process and ensuring a regulated route to access a trade union within workplaces
The Draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill will tackle two main issues:
• Enshrine in law the full right to equal pay for ethnic minorities and disabled people
• Introduce mandatory ethnicity and disability pay reporting for employers with 250 or more employees
Depending on the outcome of the government’s proposals, further changes beckon. When this happens it’s likely that there will be confusion about interpreting and implementing changes. This can lead to risk, and potentially more claims from your employees, so it’s important you’re one step ahead.
| Ami Naru is partner and head of employment at leading travel law firm Travlaw Legal Services and has advised the industry on employment law for 25 years. Since qualifying as a solicitor in 2000, she has focused on building a practice dedicated to serving the industry and works with bodies including Abta, Aito and the Business Travel Association. Ask Ami a question: If you have any questions relating to employment law, or other areas of HR, that you would like to put to Ami, email [email protected] |