Significant UK Labor Law Reforms on the Horizon: What the Labour Party’s General Election Victory Means for Employers in the UK

Following the Labour Party’s victory in the General Election on 4 July 2024, it is now expected that they will keep their promise of tabling some significant legislative changes to the UK’s labor law within their first 100 days of government.

These planned changes include the following:

• Day 1 rights for employees to statutory sick pay, parental leave and, perhaps most significantly, protection from unfair dismissal (which, in most circumstances, currently requires 2 years’ seniority);
• Making flexible working a “default right”;
• Requiring all employment contracts to inform employees of their right to join a trade union;
• Introducing a right for employees to “switch off” outside of working hours;
• Prohibiting the dismissal of employees for a 6-month period following their return from maternity leave;
• Introducing a statutory right to unpaid bereavement / compassionate leave;
• Extending the limitation periods for bringing claims from 3 months to 6 months;
• New duties on employers with 250 and more employees to (i) produce ethnicity and disability pay gap report and (ii) have a menopause ‘action plan’; and
• Creating a single enforcement body to enforce worker rights with powers to inspect workplaces and bring civil proceedings against employers.

While many of these planned changes will likely take at least a few years to become law, it would be prudent for employers with a UK presence to start considering their implications now and, where practical, formulate plans on how to respond to them.