Mini Masterclass – Preparing for a Labour Government

Mini Masterclass – Preparing for a Labour Government

Mini Masterclass – Preparing for a Labour government

Labour’s election manifesto contained a pledge to implement their “Plan to Make Work Pay” in full. This separate 23-page plan includes numerous aspects of employment law which they intend to change.

This mini masterclass will look at the practical consequences, and how to prepare for, the changes Labour have said they are going to introduce in the first 100 days of government. These changes include:

Unfair dismissal

Possibly the change which will have the biggest practical impact will be the plan to give all workers unfair dismissal protection from day one. The Plan does go on to say they will ensure employers can operate a probationary period, but it does not go into any further detail. Whether the right to claim unfair dismissal does start on day one, or whether the practical implementation will be a serious shortening of the service needed to claim, this change would allow many more people to bring claims that are currently able to.  The shortest this right has been for qualification historically has been 6 months.

Day One

As well as the plan to introduce unfair dismissal protection from day one, they also plan to make a number of other rights and entitlements “day one” rights. These include the right to make a flexible working request, the right to parental leave and the right to SSP from the first day of absence.

Fire and rehire

Following negative headlines concerning “fire and rehire”, where employers such as Tesco and P&O Ferries either tried or did give notice to terminate contracts and offered continued employment on worse terms (or replaced the staff with agency staff), the current government issued a Code of Practice. Labour say businesses must still be able to restructure where there is genuinely no alternative but say a proper process must be followed. Therefore we suspect that “fire and rehire” will not be removed completely, rather they say they will introduce their own strengthened code of practice, which would need to be followed.

Single status of worker

Whilst not something planned for the first 100 days but for the first year, Labour have said they plan to remove the distinction between employees and workers, meaning there will be a single status of worker with the rights currently enjoyed by employees. Self-employed status would remain. This means those who are workers would have the right to claim unfair dismissal.

New or extended rights

Labour say they plan to introduce a number of new rights, such as the right to bereavement leave for all workers, the right to switch off and the right for self-employed individuals to a written contract. Whilst women are already protected from maternity discrimination, they have also said they will make it unlawful to dismiss a woman who is pregnant through to six months after she returns to work (except in specific circumstances).

It will take place from 8-10am on Wednesday 24 July. Sign up now for practical advice and guidance on dealing with these changes, as well as menopause action plans and treatment of tips.

Follow this link to register. Pastries, tea & coffee will be provided.