On 24 June the Employment Rights Bill (the Bill) completed its Committee Stage in the House of Lords. A new updated version has since been published and will proceed to Report Stage, scheduled for 14 and 16 July. Then there will be a third reading in the Lords before it passes back to the House of Commons for consideration of amendments before it receives Royal Assent. We had anticipated that the Bill would become an Act in the summer but given that there's still quite a lot to fit in before Parliament's summer recess it's looking increasingly likely that it won't receive Royal Assent until the autumn.
The government has promised an "implementation road map" to be published "imminently", setting out the government's planned timetable for future consultations and the implementation of the measures under the Bill. Welcome news for employers seeking clarity on timings.
So, what's changed in the new version of the Bill? Not a great deal, but here are the key updates:
Zero hours, low hours and shifts
The Bill provides for the right to reasonable notice of shifts and of shift changes or cancellations, plus protection from detriment for exercising these rights.
Technical tweaks have been made, including expanding the definition of movement of a shift to deal with changes to the start time of part of a shift or a division of a shift into two parts.
Payment for cancelled, moved or curtailed shifts will be preferential debts for insolvency purposes.
Automatically unfair dismissal categories now include cases where the employer incorrectly withdraws a guaranteed hours offer.
For detriment claims, it does not matter whether the relevant proceedings brought by a worker were well-founded, provided that the worker acted in good faith.
Consultations will flesh out the detail of the new zero hours regime. But remember the Bill provides that a collective agreement can contract out from the right to reasonable notice of shifts provided that it is incorporated in a worker's contract. Given the complexity of this new right, many employers are likely to do this.
For a reminder of the detail on this, see our bulletin 'Zero hours: ending one-sided flexibility'.
Trade unions
An employer must now provide worker information - worker's name, their date of birth and the category of worker to which they belong - within 5 working days of being notified that the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) has received a trade union's application for recognition. A failure to provide this may result in the CAC issuing a remedial order. Failure to comply with the order may result in the CAC issuing a declaration that the union is recognised as entitled to conduct collective bargaining on behalf of the workers constituting the bargaining unit.
The period of 15 working days during which a union and the employer can attempt to agree arrangements by which the union can access workers in the proposed bargaining unit has been increased to 20 working days, or such longer period as the CAC may specify (with reasons) in a notice.
There is also a new provision allowing the parties to apply to the CAC for it to decide whether the bargaining unit remains appropriate after recognition, including where there has been a substantial change in the number of workers employed in the existing bargaining unit. This ground will not apply for three years where the CAC has declared recognition to a trade union for collective bargaining on behalf of the bargaining unit.
For a reminder of the detail, see our bulletin 'Trade unions: increasing worker empowerment'.
What's next?
The Bill continues its Parliamentary journey and the awaited implementation roadmap should finally provide the planning certainty employers desperately need.
Needless to say once the road map has been published we'll let you know what it says!
