In the first of our series about Labour’s proposed workers' rights, we’ve found out about their positions on zero hours contracts, and the status of ‘Worker’, and how these could affect your business if they were put into effect.
A single ‘Worker’ status
One of the key changes that Labour set out in their Employment Rights Green Paper is the establishment of a single ‘Worker’ status. Currently workers’ rights differ depending on what category of worker you fall into. The categories are ‘worker’, ‘employee’ and ‘self-employed’.
An employee is a person who has entered into a contract of employment and has full statutory rights and legal protections, such as Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) and statutory annual leave entitlement. People who are self employed run their business themselves, and take responsibility for whether it succeeds or fails. They have no statutory employment rights, but they are protected by discrimination law.
A Worker is a person who works for a company irregularly, works casual hours and/or are not required to work for their employer when they don’t want to. They have the status of a self-employed person and have no statutory employment rights, but they are protected against wages being deducted and discrimination, and they must earn the national minimum wage.
Labour’s position is that some employers and organisations exploit Workers, and that these people are being denied their legal rights whilst working in the same way an Employee is expected to - in uniform, regularly working for the organisation and working regular hours. In their Employment Rights Green Paper, they say that a single category of Worker will be created, and all Workers will be entitled to the same statutory rights and legal protections.
What could this mean for businesses?
For organisations that currently employ people under the category of Worker, if this passes into law, they will likely be expected to offer Workers contracts of employment. They would then be legally obliged to offer them sick pay, annual leave, parental leave, and all of the statutory rights and legal protections offered to Employees.
Banning zero hours contracts
Many of the political parties took a stance on zero hours contracts in the election. Zero hours contracts are contracts of employment where an employer is not obliged to offer an employee work. Typically, employees submit their availability, and employers divide their available work between all their available employees.
Labour’s position is that zero hours contracts offer, ‘one sided flexibility’, that benefits the employer more than it benefits the employee. In their Employment Rights Green Paper, Labour stated that they would ensure that employers offer a ‘minimum number of guaranteed hours’. They also stated that they would require employees to be given ‘reasonable notice’ in regard to shift changes, or the hours that they are working.
How could this affect businesses?
Within the paper, Labour states that firms would still be able to operate with flexible work forces and variable shift patterns. However, an end to zero hours contracts would mean that businesses would legally have to offer casual workers a minimum number of hours, either per week or per month. Currently, there is no information available as to what this minimum number might be.
What do businesses have to do now?
At present, these proposals were only put forward in Labour’s manifesto. As such, businesses do not need to take any action. If and when Labour pushes forward on these proposals, a bill will be put forwards in the House of Commons which will need to progress through the full legislative process in parliament before it becomes law.
