Consultations on aspects of the Employment Rights Bill
We are working with national stakeholders and government to understand the implications of measures proposed in the bill for the NHS workforce, contracts and employment relations to ensure appropriate consideration of these impacts is given, as the bill makes its way through the Parliamentary process.
To help us do this we are seeking the views from members of HR and payroll to provide a response to our surveys on behalf of your organisation or as an individual. This will enable us to coordinate a collective employer response. We have detailed below the four consultations with links to further information and where you can access the surveys.
Organisations are also encouraged to submit their own responses.
The consultations and details on how to respond
Collective redundancy and fire and rehire consultation
The government’s consultation on collective redundancy and fire and rehire practices aims to enhance and strengthen the collective redundancy framework and protections for employees against fire and rehire practices.
Read the full details and how to respond on our web page.
The application of zero-hours contracts measures for agency workers
In the Employment Rights Bill, the government is introducing measures to tackle one-sided flexibility in zero-hours contracts.
It plans to do this through two measures:
- a right to guaranteed hours with a contract that reflects the number of hours regularly worked
- a right to reasonable notice of shifts with a right to payment for shifts cancelled or curtailed at short notice.
The government’s consultation is specifically looking at the application of these two measures to agency workers.
Read the full details and how to respond on our web page.
Creating a modern framework for industrial relations
The Employment Rights Bill will repeal the majority of the Trade Union Act 2016. This will lead to changes to several current practices and provisions including:
- no longer being able to charge for the administration of deduction of contributions at source (DOCAS), also known as check off
- facilities time
- industrial action ballots and mandates.
Read the full details and how to respond on our web page.
Strengthening statutory sick pay for low paid workers
As part of the Employment Rights Bill the government is committed to improving statutory sick pay (SSP) by extending SSP eligibility to those earning below the lower earnings limit (LEL) to make it available to all employees and removing the waiting period so that SSP is paid from the first day of absence.
