By Angie Newland @ Angels Admin Support
By now I am sure you will have seen or heard that this month Labour are making decisions in parliament in relation to workers’ rights, and the proposed Employment Rights Bill.
What does this mean for Financial Services Firms?? Could these prove problematic for smaller firms? Let us take a look at just 3 of the things that will be coming into force –
- The Zero Hours Contract – Labour is putting a ban on “exploitative zero hours contracts”. Workers on zero or short-hours contracts will have to be offered a contract based on the hours worked in a 12-week reference period, receive notice of shift patterns, and have entitlement to payment for short-notice cancellation of their shifts.
Do you have any Employees on zero hours contracts, have you thought about how you will implement these changes, what this involves for the firm and the employee?
- The Right to flexible working – Where employers say “no” to these requests, they will have to demonstrate that their decision is reasonable for one or more business reasons, as set out in the Employment Rights Act.
Have you requested all your employees work back at the office? Have you checked that this is a reasonable request against the criteria? Have you reviewed and updated your policies and procedures?
- Statutory Sick Pay – The right to statutory sick pay from the first day of illness, ending the current three-day waiting period, and removing the lower earnings limit.
This will at a minimum, need changes to your Employment Contracts and/or Employee Handbooks.
Just on the 3 points we have focused on here, Firms will need to conduct a review of their current processes, and where necessary renew contracts, increase their capital to allow for any changes, the updating of all policies and procedures, contracts, and handbooks, not forgetting factoring in the time and resources to do all of this.
Although it is not clear exactly when all of these measures will come into place, some will be delayed because of the need for further consultation, but they will be happening. I have only mentioned three things here, but there are 28 measures and at least 30 pledges in relation to the Employment Rights Bill to be taken into consideration.
Are you prepared for these changes?
If you would like to see how we at Angels Admin Support can assist you with any of the HR points that have been mentioned in this blog, please do get in touch, we would love to hear from you.
Website: www.angelsadminsupport.co.uk Email: angie@angelsadminsupport.co.uk