Make work pay plans: What companies need to know

Under Labour’s plan to Make Work Pay, businesses are facing the biggest changes to workers’ rights in decades.

The Employment Rights Bill was unveiled within Labour’s first 100 days in power as promised, and changes will include:

• Day one right to unfair dismissal protection, with the introduction of a statutory probationary period
• Extending the legal duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment occurring in the workplace (which became law on October 26 2024), to require employers to take all reasonable steps to prevent it occurring
• Making employers liable for third party harassment, unless the employer took all reasonable steps to prevent this
• Complex rules on zero hours contracts which will require employers to make an offer of guaranteed hours to a qualifying worker after the end of every reference period, likely to be 12 weeks, together with a worker
having the right to reasonable notice of being required to work a shift and the right to reasonable notice of a shift cancellation, with compensation payable for breaches
• Changes to the statutory flexible working regime which will oblige employers to state and explain what the ground for any refusal of a request is, and why their refusal is considered to be reasonable
• Statutory sick pay becoming payable from day one of absence, with the lower earnings limit being removed
• Day one rights to paternity and parental leave and the introduction of a right to bereavement leave
• Dismissal protection during pregnancy, maternity leave or following a return to work, with the intention to extend to other forms of
family-related leave 
• Severe restrictions to be placed on an employer’s ability to use fire and rehire to change terms and conditions of employment
• Increased collective redundancy consultation obligations, with the calculation of numbers of proposed dismissals being calculated across the workforce rather than at one establishment
• A variety of changes to legislation governing trade union activity, aimed at empowering workers to organise collectively through trade unions
• An increase in the time limit to bring an employment tribunal claim from three months to six months.

The bill is undergoing scrutiny via government committees and is subject to public consultation, with 54 proposed amendments already on the table. Further amendments are likely, and the Public Bill Committee is due to report to the House of Commons by January 21
2025. The bill will then have its third reading in the House of Commons before passing to the House of Lords.

Many of the finer details are still awaited but employers have been given the gift of time by the government, with many reforms not
anticipated until 2026.

Start 2025 by analysing risk areas for your business and planning how you will navigate the changes. Workforce audits, line manager training and development, embedding good recruitment practices, and implementing robust policies and contractual terms will be key HR
priorities this year.