Horizon scanning snapshot

A summary of the Labour Government’s key workplace policies and estimated timescales for implementation. Transitional arrangements or phased implementation may apply, depending on the nature of the change, to support employers as they respond.

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Short-term

Long-term

Policies that may be implemented in the short-term (potentially in the first year)*

Minimum wage: Extend the Low Pay Commission’s remit to include the cost of living when recommending minimum wage rates each year and begin to close the gap between the rate for workers aged 18 to 20 and the National Living Wage rate (as a first step towards equalising the rate)
Tips: Implement the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023 and related code of practice to address the fair distribution of tips
Industrial action: Repeal some industrial action regulation (e.g. the 2016 legislation which increased requirements for ballot thresholds, strike notices and picketing supervision)
Statutory sick pay: Remove the lower earnings limit and waiting period
Enforcement: Establish the legal powers of a new Fair Work Agency to enforce workplace rights (creating the infrastructure and commencing work are expected to take longer)
Flexible working: Make flexible working a day one right, except where it is not reasonably feasible
Unfair dismissal: Remove the qualifying service to allow all workers to claim unfair dismissal from day one (subject to probationary periods) and strengthen protection from unfair dismissal for pregnant women until six months after their return from maternity leave
‘Fire and rehire’: End most fire and rehire practices, unless there is genuinely no alternative to allow the employer’s business to remain viable (by increasing penalties and strengthening the Code of Practice among other steps)
Zero-hour contracts (ZHCs): Ban “exploitative” ZHCs; introduce a right to a contract that reflects hours regularly worked, based on a 12 week reference period; require employers to give reasonable notice of any change in shifts or working time; and, require employers to pay compensation, proportionate to the notice given, for any shifts cancelled or curtailed
Diversity: Introduce draft legislation providing for mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting and a right to equal pay for ethnic minorities and disabled people
Collective bargaining: Give trade unions a new reasonable right of access to workplaces, change the statutory recognition process to make it easier to secure recognition and establish a Fair Pay Agreement covering adult social care (a form of sectoral collective bargaining)
Pensions: Undertake a review to consider what further steps are needed to improve pension outcomes and increase investment in UK markets
Immigration: Set up Skills England to create a formal link between worker migration data and a skills policy to better meet the needs of the labour market

*This is based on the King’s Speech and related government announcements and is provided as an estimate (reflecting parliamentary consultation and legislative timescales, if applicable), it is not for the purpose of providing legal advice and therefore should not be relied upon. The content may change as it is updated to reflect developments.

Policies that may be implemented in the longer-term*

Diversity and inclusion:

Require employers to implement action plans to close gender pay gaps and include outsourced workers in pay gap and pay ratio reporting
Require employers to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, introduce protection from harassment by third parties and strengthen whistleblowing protection
Act to prevent the outsourcing of services “defeating” equal pay obligations
Require employers with more than 250 employees to produce Menopause Action Plans

Family-friendly rights:

Review the parental leave system
Consider introducing paid carer’s leave (it is currently unpaid)
Introduce bereavement leave as a day one right

Trade unions and collective labour law:

Introduce further measures to support collective bargaining (e.g. create new rights and protections for union reps and officials)
Ensure the right to trade union representation includes gig and platform workers
Strengthen the law on “blacklisting”
Introduce electronic balloting
Require employers to inform all new employees of their right to join a union
Provide for employees to raise collective grievances to Acas

AI in the workplace

Require employers to consult trade unions or worker representatives on proposals to introduce AI and surveillance technologies
Strengthen discrimination law to keep pace with the use of algorithms at work

Business immigration:

Cut net migration by improving the training and working conditions of British workers
Reform the Apprenticeship Levy into a flexible Growth and Skills Levy to support upskilling
Restrict entry to the immigration system for those employers breaching employment law
Review the April 2024 changes to minimum salary requirements for skilled migrant workers
Introduce legislation to prohibit employers from defaulting to hiring under Skilled Workers visa route

Worker status:

Consult on creating a single status of worker for all but the genuinely self-employed (this could give ‘workers’ the same rights as ‘employees’, by merging the two tiers into one)
Enhance the rights of the genuinely self-employed

National minimum wage:

“Ban” unpaid internships (unless part of education or training)

Enforcing workplace rights: by the state and in tribunals

Extend the time limits for bringing tribunal complaints to six months
Commence the work of the Fair Work Agency (the new single enforcement body)

Dismissal:

Widen the duty to collectively consult on redundancies (by changing the trigger from 20 or more employees at one establishment, to that number across the employer)
Strengthen TUPE rights and protections (including introducing a new public interest test before a service is outsourced, reinstating a strengthened two-tier code and extending the Freedom of Information Act to apply to private contractors providing public services)

Health, safety and wellbeing at work:

Introduce a new ‘right to switch off’, aimed at protecting workers from potentially blurred lines between work and home life
Review existing health and safety (H&S) regulation, including the rights of the self-employed

Pensions:

Adopt reforms to ensure workplace pension schemes take advantage of consolidation and scale to deliver better returns for UK savers and greater productive investment for UK plc
Require pension schemes to develop and implement credible transition plans that align with the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement

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