The long-awaited Employment Rights Bill was introduced to parliament today. At 158 pages long, we have identified 3 key points of interest to recruitment businesses as we familiarise ourselves with its contents.

Key points

• The right to claim unfair dismissal is to become a day one right. This will not be until 2026 at the earliest, with a lighter touch approach allowed during a probationary period. There will be a further consultation on what this looks like but government preference is for 9 months.

• Measures to end exploitative zero hours, and low guaranteed hours contracts do not initially cover agency workers, but this is not necessarily a permanent carve out, as a consultation is expected imminently on how the rules might be applied to agency workers

• The bill does not include specific plans for single worker status, however these are included in wider reforms on which there will be consultation in due course, as set out  in Next Steps to Make Work Pay (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Adrian Marlowe, Chairman of ARC (Association of Recruitment Consultancies) comments: “As with all new law, the devil will be in the detail and it is likely that such detail is some way off yet. However, watch this space. We would welcome your reaction to the steps taken so far, and if you’d like ARC to represent your interest as a recruitment business, please let us know, by emailing info@arc-org.net.“

For more information, or expert advice on any recruitment or employment law matter, please contact us on 01273 236 236 or email us at info@lawspeed.com.