An Amendment Paper for the Employment Rights Bill was published on 27 November 2024. The proposed amendments will be considered by the Public Bill Committee. In this blog, we will briefly summarise the key government-backed and non-government proposals put forward in the Amendment Paper.

Government-backed amendments

Increasing time limits to bring tribunal claims

The Government has proposed to include a Schedule in the Bill that would increase the time limit to bring all tribunal claims from 3 to 6 months. This will apply to all types of claims including unfair dismissal and discrimination.

The Labour Party said they planned to extend the time limits in such a way in the ‘Plan to Make Work Pay’ so we anticipated this proposal would have been included in the Bill. To much surprise it was not, however we now see it by way of an amendment.

There has been much discussion in recent years on extending the time limits. A particular talking point has been the affect the current time limit (3 months) has on those bringing discrimination claims. It has been said that potential claimants may have failed to bring a claim in time as they are recovering from ill health or have recently given birth. Labour say in the ‘Plan to Make Work Pay’ that increasing the time limit will “particularly support those who are seeking to make claims for pregnancy discrimination, as evidence suggests women struggle to make funds available to lodge claims within the time limit.”

Unfair Dismissal - Initial period of employment

Clause 19 of the Bill proposed to remove the qualifying period of service (2 years) for the purposes of ordinary unfair dismissal. This means employees will have the right to claim from day one of their employment.

The Amendment Paper suggests the Secretary of State will be able to “specify the maximum amount of the compensatory award available where an employment tribunal finds that an employee has been unfairly dismissed during the initial period of employment”. The amendment proposes to set the “initial period of employment” between 3 and 9 months, however the exact duration will be confirmed in future regulations.

If the amendment is accepted this means an employee who is dismissed within the first 3 – 9 months (exact duration to be specified) of service will have a cap applied to their compensatory award.

This amendment provides detail on the protection available to employees whilst they are within the initial period of employment that was missing from the original Bill. Essentially, the compensatory cap makes a lower maximum award available to those dismissed during the initial period of employment. This may offer some comfort to employers, however we await further details of the definition of “initial period of employment” in the coming regulations.

“Initial information period” relating to guaranteed hours

Clause 1 of the Bill proposed if a worker is under a zero-hours or minimum hours contract, the employer has an obligation to offer a “guaranteed hours contract”. The “guaranteed hours contract” will be based on the number of hours the employee worked during the previous “reference period”.

The Amendment Paper proposes to place a duty on employers to “ensure workers who have the potential to qualify for a guaranteed hours offer are aware of, and continue to have access to, certain information”. This information should be provided to workers who could reasonably be considered to be qualifying workers in any reference period.

The content of “certain information” for the purposes of this duty is unclear at present and shall be specified in upcoming regulations. We expect the information will need to brief workers about their rights to be offered guaranteed hours and notify them of any exceptions.

This amendment suggests the duty on employers to provide information to potentially qualifying workers should be ongoing. The Amendment Paper states that once the “initial information period” ends, the worker should continue to have access to the specified information providing they are still employed and it could reasonably be considered that they might become a qualifying worker.

The proposed “initial information period” is 2 weeks starting from either:

• The worker's first day of employment.
• The date it is reasonable to consider they could become a qualifying worker.
• The day the provision comes into force, if a qualifying worker is already employed on that date.

Other key amendments

• Extension of Statutory Sick Pay provisions under the Bill to Northern Ireland, ensuring a unified approach to sick pay across the UK.
• Requirement for employers to include an explanation in their annual equality action plans how they are supporting workers experiencing menstrual problems/disorders.
• Clarification that trade unions must have a certificate of independence to access workplace provisions set out in Clause 46 of the Bill.

Non-government amendments

The following is a list of key non-government amendments proposed in the Amendment Paper:

• Render any non-disclosure provision in an agreement void if it prevents workers from making a disclosure about harassment under s.26 Equality Act 2010.
• Prohibit substitution clauses in contracts between employers and employees, workers or dependent contractors that allow the individual to appoint someone to do the work on their behalf.
• Double statutory family pay rates (maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental and parental bereavement pay). Also extend paternity leave to 6 weeks. Leave can be taken up to 52 weeks after birth.
• Regulations imposed by the Secretary of State that require employers with a minimum of 250 employees to publish information regarding their parental leave and pay policies.