Employment Law Update

Guest blog – Winckworth Sherwood LLP

In this article, Winckworth Sherwood LLP conducts a recap of the recent changes to employment law and what is on the horizon.

Recent Changes

Sexual harassment in the workplace

New legislation has come into force requiring employers to take “reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment of their staff, including risk assessments, policies and procedures and training.

Hire and Refire

After 800 unlawful redundancies were carried out by P&O Ferries in 2022, a new Statutory Code of Practice was introduced in July 2024. The code makes it clear that ‘firing and rehiring’, whereby an employer dismisses an employee and then offers them a new contract on new, and often less favourable terms, should only be used as a last resort. The code also recommends a procedure for employers considering changes to employment contracts, including information sharing and meaningful consultation.  

Neonatal care leave and pay

Since 6 April, all parents now have a right to leave if their baby needs neonatal care after birth. The new legislation allows eligible parents to take up to 12 weeks of leave and 12 weeks of statutory pay.

Forthcoming Changes

Paternity Leave (Bereavement) Act

The Paternity Leave (Bereavement) Act will provide bereaved fathers and partners with a ‘day one right’ to take leave if their child’s mother dies.

Ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting 

The Equality (Race and Disability) Bill will require employers with 250 or more employees to report ethnicity and disability pay gaps, using the same six measures as used in gender pay gap reporting, such as average hourly pay, and bonus pay differences.   The Government is currently seeking views on how to implement this reporting with the consultation closing on 10 June 2025.  

Employment Rights Bill

The Employment Rights Bill is currently progressing through Parliament and represents the biggest overhaul of UK employment law in decades. We have set out the key proposals below:

• Unfair dismissal – the right to claim unfair dismissal will be a ‘day one right’, removing the current two-year qualifying period. There will be a ‘statutory probationary period’, expected to be nine months, in which employers will be able to fairly dismiss employees for performance or conduct (not redundancy) using a ‘lighter touch standard’.
• Zero hours – workers on zero hour contracts, agency workers or those with a low number of guaranteed hours, who regularly exceed them, will be able to move to guaranteed hour contracts reflecting their actual hours over a reference period, anticipated to be 12 weeks.  
• Fire and rehire – it will be automatically unfair for an employer to dismiss an employee for failing to agree to a variation in their contract of employment, or because an employer wants to replace them with another employee on varied terms to carry out the same role. This is subject to a limited exception where an employer can demonstrate that the variation is to significantly mitigate financial difficulties.
• Sexual harassment – employers will be required to take “all reasonable steps”, not just “reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment. Employers will also be liable for third party harassment related to protected characteristics if the harassment occurs in the course of employment and the employer failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent it.
• Flexible working – employers will still be able to refuse flexible working requests on the existing grounds, however they will need to demonstrate that the refusal was “reasonable”.  
• Statutory sick pay (SSP) - SSP is currently only payable to employees earning more than £123 per week and from the fourth day of sickness. The Bill makes SSP payable from ‘day one'. The new level of SSP will be the lower of the prescribed rate of £118.75 or 80% of an employee’s weekly earnings.
• Family friendly rights – paternity leave and unpaid parental leave will be a ‘day one’ employment right.  
• Collective consultation – currently, employers proposing 20 or more redundancies “at one establishment” within 90 days must go through collective consultation. Under the Bill, the trigger for collective consultation will be either the current threshold or in a case where redundancies are occurring at more than one establishment, a higher threshold number. This will involve the counting of proposed redundancies across the entity, regardless of location and the specific number will be determined in regulations.

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