News Feed

After 6 weeks of campaigning, we now know the outcome of the general election: the Labour Party has won a significant majority.

Attention now turns to what the new government plans to do with the mandate that it has been given by the British public.

In the area of employment law in particular, the Labour Party campaigned on the promise of significant reform, with policies that include:

• Banning zero-hours contracts.
• Reforming the practice of fire and rehire, where an employer makes an employee redundant and then re-engages them on less favourable terms and conditions, to limit the circumstances in which it can be used.
• Making parental leave and protection from unfair dismissal day one rights.
• Increasing the time limit to bring employment tribunal claims to six months.
• Simplifying employment status so that someone is either a worker or genuinely self-employed.
• Increasing the minimum wage so that it is a genuine living wage.
• Removing the age bands so that all adults are entitled to the same minimum wage.
• Taking action to reduce the gender, ethnicity and disability pay gaps.
• Strengthening protections against maternity and menopause discrimination and sexual harassment as well as strengthening protections for whistleblowers reporting sexual harassment.
• Introducing a right to switch off.
• Updating trade union legislation by removing some restrictions on trade union activity, improving access to trade unions within workplaces and strengthening the protections available to trade union representatives and members.

The Labour Party has pledged to introduce legislation to Parliament within 100 days of taking office. This legislation is likely to incorporate many of the proposed changes set out above and will have a significant impact on the way the employment tribunal system and employment law in general operates in the United Kingdom.

This does not mean that the changes will be in force within 100 days: the legislation will have to go through the parliamentary process, and it is highly likely that there will then be an implementation period of some kind to allow institutions and businesses to prepare for the upcoming changes.

Whilst there are still uncertainties over how the legislation will ultimately look or when the changes will come into effect, what is clear is that a Labour government will mean a fundamental change to the world of work.

Our Employment Team at Leathes Prior will keep you abreast of these changes and what they mean for you in the coming weeks and months as the legislation is drafted and progresses through Parliament.

If you have any employment-related issues or would like advice our specialist team would be happy to assist you further. Please email info@leathesprior.co.uk or call us on 01603 281153.

Note: The content of this article is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Specific legal advice should be taken in any specific circumstance.