Landmark Labour move met with lukewarm reception, with key concerns left unaddressed
The government’s Employment Rights Bill, introduced last week (Thursday 10th October) appears to have fallen flat among the business community, despite being one of the party’s landmark promises before its election.
Billed as a once-in-a-generation overhaul of worker’s rights, the Employment Rights Bill comprises a wide-ranging set of reforms to a number of statutory entitlements, including sick pay, holiday pay and flexible working.
As a bill aimed at improving rights for workers and permanent employees, however, it offers little for the self-employed, raising concerns over the government’s understanding of the challenges facing the sector.
The bill is still in the House of Commons and must go through the House of Lords before it receives Royal Assent and is passed into law. In both Houses of Parliament, it will be subject to several hearings and, potentially, revisions. As such, it may change before becoming law.
Employment Rights Bill: key measures, at a glance
In total, the Employment Rights Bill contains 28 reforms. Of those, only three are of significance to the UK’s self-employed workers:
The right to a written contract:
This measure will give self-employed operators the right to a contract which sets out the terms and payment agreed upon for the work they deliver, offering greater enforcement opportunities in the event that the client fails to adhere to the terms of the agreement.
Protection against blacklisting:
The government has also proposed extending blacklisting protections to freelancers and self-employed operators.
Other measures included in the bill are, generally, of greater relevance to employees and temporary workers engaged on employment contracts. These include the outlawing of zero-hours contracts, the introduction of improved protections against unfair dismissal and earlier access to some rights – including parental leave, which will be available from the beginning of an employment contract.
Bill a “rushed job” that risks “deterring small employers”
Despite the scope of the changes – which have been widely welcomed by trade unions – some business bodies have been less enthusiastic about the measures.
The Federation of Small Businesses’s Policy Chair, Tina McKenzie, labelled the legislation a “hastily cobbled-together Act of Parliament” that was “clumsy, chaotic and poorly planned”.
“Dropping 28 new measures onto small business employers all at once leaves them scrambling to make sense of it all”, McKenzie said.
IPSE has called the bill “controversial”, citing the reaction from the FSB and others across the industry.
While it has partly welcomed the government’s plans to consult on a single ‘worker’ status, IPSE has also suggested this measure in isolation “won’t reduce the confusion and dispute over employment status”.
The association has also raised concerns that the government may have “dropped umbrella companies from its agenda”, as it has not shared “much detail about how” it plans to tackle non-compliance in the umbrella market.
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