King’s Speech: Lawyers anticipate employment reforms will cause ‘sea of change’ for business
The highly anticipated Employment Rights Bill will cause a “sea change for employers” as employment lawyers react to what the changes will mean for businesses.
The Bill promises reform including banning exploitative zero-hour contracts, ending fire and rehire, and making parental leave, sick pay and unfair dismissal protection available from day one.
As David Greenhalgh a partner at Excello Law noted, this Bill “signals a new era for employee rights, tipping the scales away from big business towards employees.”
“Union have been unequivocal in welcoming Labour’s pledges, whilst businesses remains more muted in its response to forthcoming tighter regulation,” pointed out by James Townsend, partner at Payne Hicks Beach.
Andrew Taggart, partner and UK head of employment at Herbert Smith Freehills, suggested that the “proposals are likely to cause a mindset change in the way employers recruit, treat and dismiss their staff. “
“Employing and dismissing staff will become more complicated and expensive and some employers will be compelled to explore different staffing structures,” he explained.
Mike Tremeer, Partner at Fladgate noted that the change that will have the most material impact will be the commitment to make unfair dismissal protection a day one right.
He explained that “currently, employers benefit from an unofficial two year trial period as the consequences of terminating in that window are limited. That trial period is going to be reduced considerably.”
Tremeer noted that he expects “the change will lead to employers placing more emphasis on their recruitment processes – perhaps including capability and technical competence tests more routinely.”
Taggart added that “recruitment processes will probably need to be tightened and performance issues addressed early rather than left alone.” He went on to suggest that “employers will need to take more care when terminating recent joiners’ employment if the legislation emerges as anticipated.”
Ross Meadows, Partner at Oury Clark Solicitors also highlighted that employers will need to “invest in robust HR policies and training” in order to “ensure compliance and avoid potential litigation”. He added that “change will increase operational costs and administrative burdens.”
As there are a large number of measures being proposed, Crowley Woodford, head of Ashurst’s European employment practice, stated that “employers will need to be nimble”.
He explained that employers should “review their employment practices and update their policies and procedures”, adding that “as potentially a lot will need to be done in a short space of time.”
Woodfood was clear when he stated that businesses need to get “their ducks in a row now” so that “they are ready for when these measures come into force.”