The Employment Rights Bill is set to bring about some of the biggest changes to employment law in a generation with the Bill set to gain Royal Assent before the end of the year.
One of the biggest changes comes in the form of the introduction of day one rights to unfair dismissal. The Government is repealing the two-year qualifying period for employee protections against unfair dismissal – ensuring that every employee is protected from day one.
Employment Partner at Knights, John Wood, says it’s the biggest change to employment law he’s seen in his lifetime:
“The Employment Rights Bill is fundamentally changing the entire topic of unfair dismissal.
“Currently, we have a qualifying period of service where, in most cases, you must have at least two years continuous service with an employer before you can bring an unfair dismissal claim. The Bill is completely removing this period.
“Despite the potential ramifications, it’s currently difficult to say exactly how this will play out. Before it is introduced in 2027, there will be a consultation period where we’ll hopefully get some clarification on the changes, but there is clearly a firm commitment from the Government to bring this into focus – with the potential to drastically increase the number of people who will soon be eligible to bring unfair dismissal complaints.
“What’s also being announced is an initial period of employment (IPE) during which a “light touch” process will have to be followed. This is effectively a statutory probationary period and will apply if an employer chooses to give notice within, what we expect, will be the first nine months of employment.
“I’d envisage this would follow a similar path to the current probation system – the employer meeting with the employee to raise concerns and giving them an opportunity to improve. If improvements aren’t made, then a further meeting would be needed and the employee given a written outcome. However, even where employers follow a process, employees will still be able to bring a claim to challenge the fairness.
“Further, whilst the IPE will apply to dismissals for capability or conduct issues, it will not apply to redundancy dismissals. There’ll be some tricky areas around this so I would imagine employers could easily trip themselves up.
“What businesses need to be aware of is that, in common with a lot of the other legislation coming in, it’s going to be harder to use labour flexibly and people will have these rights from day one.
“In future, you’ll need to consider the impact of these new provisions when you’re planning your hiring strategy and in how probationary periods are reflected in your policies, contracts and processes.
“In a nutshell, employers are going to have be much more careful and selective about who they’re bringing into the organisation given the increased risks of terminating employment during the IPE. The knock-on effect of this could be to reduce recruitment and therefore inadvertently increase unemployment – it will be really interesting to see how it progresses.”
Photo: Knights.
