The Government introduced the new Employment Rights Bill into Parliament on 10 October 2024. It contains 28 significant employment law reforms which churches and charities will need to be aware of.
When will this become law?
As a Bill being put before Parliament, these reforms are not yet law (although we can expect them to be passed). It is unlikely that any will become law until mid-2025 at the earliest. Employers therefore have time to consider how they might impact upon their current practices and procedures, and what measures may need implementing to ensure legal compliance once they do come into force.
What key reforms should you be aware of?
Some of the key reforms for our clients to be aware of are:
- The removal of the two year qualifying period for employees to claim ordinary unfair dismissal. This is not expected to become law before Autumn 2026.
- The creation of additional automatically unfair reasons for dismissal – one relating to dismissing someone for refusing to accept a variation to their employment contract, and one relating to political opinions or affiliation. It is conceivable that the latter could cover issues touching upon Israel, marriage, euthanasia and abortion. This is not expected to become law before 2026.
- The removal of the 3 day waiting period before someone who is off work can qualify for statutory sick pay, and the removal of the minimum earnings threshold to qualify for SSP.
- A further expansion of the new preventative duty on employers (see our recent article) to prevent the sexual harassment of employees at work, requiring employees to take “all” reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment.
- Liability for any harassment by third parties where the employer failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent the harassment.
- The removal of the qualifying period for employees before they can take parental leave or paternity leave.
- An entitlement of employees to 1 week’s bereavement leave in respect of each person who has died.
- Additional limitations on the use of zero hours and low hours contracts, including an obligation in certain circumstances to guarantee a minimum number of hours (matching the hours worked over a reference period).
- An additional requirement that any refusal to agree a flexible working request must be “reasonable” and there must be a written explanation why it is “reasonable” to refuse it.
- A statement of trade union rights to form part of the contract for employees and workers
- Increased rights of union access to workplaces and reducing of thresholds relating to union recognition within workplaces.
Possible future changes – ‘right to switch off’
The Government has also announced some additional future plans which are being considered but are not included within the Bill.
One of these is the “right to switch off”. The purpose of this is to give employees the right to have a break from work and not be contacted outside of working hours, apart from exceptional circumstances. This may have an impact on ministry and other roles that are more of a vocation and a life calling, rather than confined to particular hours. There will be exceptions, and we do not have the detail of those yet, but it will be something to think through in terms of late night messaging, or phone calls on days off.
An opportunity to love employees well
These new proposals invite Christian employers to consider advanced ways of caring for those who work for them. The Bible tells us to love others as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:39 and Leviticus 19:18). Here we can see that employers are being asked to honour those who work for them, by allowing them time off to be with their family at key life events, and by increasing the obligations on employers to justify decisions they make that impact employees.
These changes will give employees and unions much greater influence and control within the employment relationship. All employers will need to be cognisant of them in order to avoid costly disputes and legal claims. Christian employers will particularly want to honour them as part of their Gospel witness as good employers.
Stay updated
As the laws become clearer, we will update our model document packs in order to ensure they remain legally compliant. We will continue to send information about the changes as they approach their implementation dates, to help you stay up to date.
Those signed up to our Premium service will receive free updates to their purchased packs including any new policies. If you are using any of the following model documents packs – Employment Pack, Worker Pack, Voluntary Worker Pack – and have not signed up to the Premium service, we would strongly recommend doing so for the next couple of years, as these changes and more become law.
Banner photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash
