Employment Bill to fall away?
No Employment Bill. The Queen’s Speech sets out the government’s legislative programme for the new Parliamentary session, which began on 10 May 2022. It outlined 38 Bills, but notably there was no Employment Bill (see Follow up ). This Bill was first promised in December 2019, but its publication had been delayed due to the pandemic. It was expected to: (1) introduce a new right for workers to request a more predictable contract; (2) extend the maternity redundancy protection period from when an employee notifies their pregnancy until six months after their return from maternity leave; (3) provide for tips to go to workers in full; (4) introduce new rights to neonatal leave and pay and carers’ leave; (5) make flexible working the default unless the employer has a good reason not to implement it; and (6) create a new single labour market enforcement body. Its omission from the Queen’s Speech 2022 means it’s currently unclear when these employment law reforms will be introduced.
Pro advice. It’s now likely the Employment Bill won’t be published until at least spring 2023, and it may then not contain all of the promised provisions.
Other Bills. A number of other Bills were, however, announced which could have employment law implications, including: (1)Brexit Freedoms Bill - will ensure retained EU law can be more easily amended, repealed or replaced, and will remove the supremacy of retained EU law over UK law; (2)Data Reform Bill - will reduce the burdens on businesses by designing a more flexible, privacy outcomes-focused approach to data protection rather than “tick box” exercises, and will modernise the Information Commissioner’s Office; (3)Harbours (Seafarers’ Remuneration) Bill - will ensure ports have powers to refuse access to ferry services that don’t pay an equivalent to the national minimum wage to seafarers while in UK waters; (4)Modern Slavery Bill - will strengthen the requirements on businesses with a turnover of £36 million or more to publish an annual modern slavery statement and will mandate the areas to be covered in such statements, requiring businesses to publish them on a government-run registry; and (5)Bill of Rights - will amend the human rights framework.
Queen’s Speech 2022: background briefing notes
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