British ministers open fire on landmark labor rights reform

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UK bosses will be able to fire new recruits after being warned of poor performance during a nine-month trial period, a last-minute concession to business that will reduce reduce the impact of Labor’s flagship reforms on workers’ rights.

Draft legislation published on Thursday introduces a series of changes to UK employment law, which together constitute the biggest reform in a generation.

The Employment Rights Bill will form 28 of around 70 measures promised by Sir Keir Starmer’s party ahead of the country’s election. “Plan to pay for work”.

These include controls on zero-hours contracts, stronger rights to flexible working where feasible and restrictions on the use of layoff and rehire tactics by employers.

But the most controversial provision, day one, protection against unfair dismissal, would be significantly watered down under the government’s proposal for a statutory probationary period, in which employers Labor will only have to follow a “lighter” process to justify dismissal.

According to officials, ministers are planning to consult for several months on the maximum probationary period but are ready to opt for a probationary period of nine months.

Many measures will be subject to further consultation to set out the details of the secondary legislation required to implement them, while others will be added to the bill at a later stage or pursued separately in the future. Hybrid by other means.

As a result, the majority of the reforms will not take effect earlier than 2026, the government confirmed.

Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, is presenting the package as a way to “boost wages and productivity” in an “unsettled” economy. Paul Nowak, Secretary General of Trade Union Congressthe umbrella body for the UK labor movement, described it as a “seismic shift” that will improve working life for millions of people.

However, businesses are wary of the cumulative impact of the reforms, especially the scrapping of the current two-year adjudication period for unfair dismissal.

Tina McKenzie, policy chair at trade body the Federation of Small Businesses, described the bill as “a rushed, clumsy, chaotic and poorly planned piece of work”.

The Government says the changes will help more than 1 million people working on contracts with no or few guaranteed hours, who will gain new rights to contracts that reflect their usual working hours. them and be notified or compensated when shifts are canceled.

An additional 30,000 fathers will be entitled to paternity leave from their first day of work, eliminating the current screening period.

The bill would also expand the scope of statutory sick pay, strengthen the role of unions in the workplace, pave the way for collective bargaining in the care sector, and create a new body to enforce enforce workers’ rights and increase workplace protections for new mothers, among other measures. changes.

The nine-month trial period was longer than Rayner initially expected and entailed intense lobbying from businesses backed by business secretary Jonathan Reynolds and prime minister Rachel Reeves.

While employers will still need to demonstrate that they acted fairly when dismissing a new employee, they will not need to follow the currently typical lengthy process when dismissing a tenured employee. working period of more than two years. Officials suggested giving written notice may be enough.

However, details of how the probationary period will be implemented will be subject to consultation and will need to be set out in both secondary legislation and a separate code of conduct. This means that the first date of the rights will be in the fall of 2026 at the earliest.

Other consultations will look at how to determine workers’ regular working patterns to offer them a suitable contract, and how to ensure businesses only fire and rehire when they actually have bankruptcy risk.