What to expect in 2025 for employment legislation
Monday 23rd December 2024
There will be more legislative change in April 2025 increasing costs for employers. There will be an annual uplift in Statutory Sick Pay, the annual increase to National Minimum Wage and an increase in National Insurance Contributions.
We are also expecting more family friendly legislation to come into force.
We expect the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023 to come into effect in April 2025. It will provide for 12 weeks of statutory leave and pay if a child is admitted to neonatal care.
The Paternity Leave (Bereavement) Act 2024 is set to be implemented soon, although no date has been set. This Act aims to close the gap for fathers and partners who have no automatic right to paternity leave following the death of their partner. The Act will make paternity leave a ‘day one’ right by getting rid of the service eligibility criteria (currently 26 weeks of continuous employment prior to the 26th week of pregnancy/surrogacy or when adopting parents are matched with a child).
Employment Rights Bill
The Employment Rights Bill, the first step in the government’s “Make Work Pay” plan, is likely to hit the statute book by the middle of 2025 although many of the changes and new rights are unlikely to come into force until further regulations are made, perhaps not until early 2026. The aim of the Bill is to introduce many quite fundamental changes which employers need to consider and prepare for.
The Bill will introduce Day one rights for employees to bring unfair dismissal claims (currently, an employee needs two years of service). There will be a consultation on a new statutory probation period, where a lighter touch dismissal procedure should apply. The suggestion is that this probation period is likely to be three to nine months, but this is yet to be confirmed.
The Bill will also make it automatically unfair to dismiss an employee for refusing a contract variation. This is to try and address the practice of fire and rehire where employees are dismissed because they refuse to accept a change in their contract and then the employer rehires them on the new terms. This will have significant impact on the way an employer can implement changes to the terms and conditions of employee contracts leaving consent as the only way of achieving such changes.
Redundancies happening at the same time across different locations in a business will now be taken into account when it comes to collective consultation requirements and protective awards, as the Bill removes the requirement for redundancies to take place “at one establishment”. Currently, collective redundancy requirements are triggered by a certain number of employees affected by employment in one establishment.
Workers will be able to demand guaranteed hours if they work regular hours over a defined period or choose to remain on zero hour contracts. Any zero hour contracts that are “exploitative” will be banned. If not complied with, workers will be able to bring a claim to the Employment Tribunal, with the award being compensation and/or a declaration. Employers will also need to give workers “reasonable notice” of a shift, cancellation of a shift or changes to a shift.
Employers will still be able to refuse a flexible working request relying on one of the eight statutory grounds, but they must also be able to show that it is reasonable for them to do so.
The Bill will make an employer liable if they fail to take all reasonable steps to prevent third party harassment on those working for them.
Statutory Sick Pay is currently paid from the fourth day of sickness absence. The Bill provides that statutory sick pay is to be paid from the first day of sickness. All employees will be eligible, as the lower earnings limit will be removed.
The ones to watch
There are several other Bills that are proposed, or are making their way through parliament, which may have some impact on employment law in the future.
The Bullying and Respect at Work Bill looks to introduce a Respect at Work Code, setting out minimum standards for work environments. It would also see a statutory definition of bullying at work being introduced and enable claims relating to workplace bullying be considered by an employment tribunal.
The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (Amendment) Bill seeks to make provisions for the protection of women and girls in the workplace and impose a legal obligation on employers to take steps to prevent violence and harassment in the workplace.
In the King’s Speech, the Government said that they plan to introduce the Equality (Race and Disability) Bill. The Bill intends to extend the legal requirement of equal pay to ethnic minorities and disabled people and also give them the right to bring an equal pay claim. It will also introduce mandatory reporting requirements for employers with 250 or more employees.
If these Bills make their way into law, they will impact employers in terms of their duties, obligations and the risk of potential claims so, watch this space!
