Business seeks clearer timetable on UK worker rights overhaul

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UK business leaders have pressed ministers to publish a clearer timeframe for their sweeping reforms to employment law, as unions and employer groups received a first glimpse of the measures to be set out in draft legislation later this week.

The Financial Times revealed on Friday that many of the measures in “Making Work Pay”, a package the Labour government has billed as the biggest upgrade of workers’ rights for a generation, will not kick in until as late as 2026 or even — in a couple of cases — until 2027.

Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner and business secretary Jonathan Reynolds met unions and business groups on Tuesday to brief them on the broad content of the employment bill they will publish on Thursday. 

But business groups said that while they now had a clearer view of which measures would be included in the bill or implemented in other ways, there was still scant detail available on how central measures — such as the “ban” on zero-hour contracts or the right to day one protection against unfair dismissal — would be implemented.

Measures that are a priority for unions — including new rights for them to access workplaces — also have yet to be worked out. 

“Almost all [the measures] will require a lot more work,” one business lobbyist said.

The government is racing ahead with the legislation in order to meet its political promise to deliver the changes “within 100 days”.

Yet in reality, the imminent employment bill will be “skeleton legislation” and many of the biggest reforms will require further consultation and secondary legislation before it will take effect in workplaces — pushing implementation back by months or even years for certain measures. 

The government is expected to set out its thinking in more detail in a commentary to be published alongside the bill. But it was not yet ready to publish consultations on the regulations that would be needed to bring crucial measures into effect, attendees said. 

Business groups want ministers to publish a clear timetable for consultations and implementation alongside the draft bill, in order to reassure employers they will not be hit by a sudden avalanche of rule changes and will have time to prepare.

They argue that combined uncertainty over the Budget and employment law changes are already making employers wary of committing to new hires.

“There needs to be time to absorb it . . . it needs to be well communicated and well understood,” the lobbyist said, adding: “We need to try to ensure whatever comes through doesn’t increase the challenges of recruitment.”

Ministers were warned that small businesses, which often employ people seen as higher-risk hires, were particularly concerned about the impact of the package, according to people who attended or were briefed, with Rayner returning to this point more than once during the discussion. 

“There’s been a lot of meetings but it feels as if things have not really been set out,” said one person who has been involved in weeks of talks with ministers and officials over the draft legislation.

However, people present at the meeting said the mood was broadly positive, with unions and businesses reassured that their main concerns had been factored in.

“There’s no horror stories out of today’s meeting, no shocks,” one union figure said, adding: “Outside the revolutionary left, most of us are pretty happy with how much progress we have made.”

A government spokesperson said: “The majority of employers support our proposals to strengthen employment rights and boost productivity. This can only be achieved by working in partnership . . . with both business and unions to ensure we get the balance right.”