1 October is the first step in the roll-out of autumn employment law reforms, with a second wave of changes set to take place on 30 October. Those changes include reforms to trade union rights which will grant independent unions the right to enter workplaces to recruit and represent staff, as well as stronger legal protections for employees participating in industrial action.
Also coming into force at the end of the month are anti-harassment measures requiring employers to take ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment of their employees, including being pro-active with prevention and placing an obligation on employers not to permit the harassment of their employees by third parties, such as customers clients or service users.
Joanne Thomas – Usdaw general secretary says: “We welcome an increase in the time limit for an employee to make a claim to an employment tribunal, from 3 months to 6 months. It brings it in line with the time limit for statutory redundancy and equal pay claims. This also gives more time to resolve disputes internally or through the conciliation process and to consider the merits of making a claim to an employment tribunal.”
“The Employment Rights Act is the biggest uplift in workers’ rights in a generation and delivers on many of the campaigns Usdaw has been running over the years. The Act is very important to our members and, crucially, helps to protect decent employers from being undercut by the worst who exploit workers. As we get into the details of implementation for the remaining parts of the Act, it will be essential that there are no loopholes for unscrupulous employers to exploit, and that all workers benefit from these new rights.
“A key test for the Government will be on guaranteed hours contracts. Ministers are currently considering their response to the consultation, but have already expressed a preference to narrow the right to workers contracted for less than 20 hours. This threshold does not meet Labour’s 2024 manifesto commitment to ‘everyone’.
“The right to a contract that guarantees the hours you normally work is a matter of basic fairness and security. Many of our members are regularly working hours that aren’t guaranteed in their contract, which has a massive impact on their lives. The right has the potential to provide much greater security for millions of low-paid workers and must apply to everyone, up to and including full-time workers. We absolutely cannot have loopholes that make this meaningless.”
Notes for editors:
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is one of the fastest growing unions in the TUC and the UK's fifth biggest with around 370,000 members. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also represents many workers in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemical industry and other trades www.usdaw.org.uk
Usdaw’s consultation response includes legal rights to:
A guaranteed hours contract for all workers with a contract of up to 48 hours, calculated over a 12-week reference period.
Fair notice of shifts of at least 4 weeks, so that everyone can plan their lives around work.
Compensation, equivalent to the workers’ actual wage, if shifts are cancelled with fewer than 7 days’ notice.
Government consultation on ending one-sided flexibility
Labour’s 2024 manifesto - Page 5 - zero hours contracts and one-sided flexibility
For Usdaw press releases visit: www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Bluesky @usdawunion.bsky.social and Twitter/X @UsdawUnion