The Queen's Speech, which will open the new parliamentary year, will be delivered on the 10th May 2022. However, there is some uncertainty as to whether the long awaiting new Employment Bill will be included
Employment Bill
A new Employment Bill has been anticipated for the last 3 years since it was included in the 2019 Queens Speech. It was widely expected that it would materialise in 2021, but ultimately it was not included in the 2021 Queens Speech. At the time, the BBC reported that: “Downing Street said an Employment Bill would be introduced “when the time is right”, citing the pandemic as the reason for the delay.”
Given that the Employment Bill did not appear last year, it has been widely anticipated that the legislation would form part of the 2022 Queens Speech.
If and when the Employment Bill does materialise, it is likely to include the following measures:-
- The establishment of a new single enforcement body for employment rights. This would be a new single all-encompassing enforcement body, which would replace, merge together, and extend the enforcement powers of the HMRC National Minimum Wage Enforcement, the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, and of the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate.
- The extension of protection against redundancy re pregnancy, maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave, including extending redundancy protection to six months post return to work after the end of maternity leave, with similar protection afforded to those returning to work from adoption leave and shared parental leave
- Neonatal leave and pay
- A new right to 1 week’s unpaid leave per year for carers
- New regulations on staff tips. The Government announecd that it is to legislate in order to make it compulsory for businesses in the hospitality, services, and leisure sectors to pass on all tips to staff. The legislation will include the following: (i) a legal requirement to pass on all tips to staff; (ii) a new statutory code of practice setting out rules and regulations on how tips are distributed amongst staff; and (iii) a right for employees to request information from their employer regarding their tipping records, and a legal right for employees to bring a claim before an employment tribunal should they believe that they are owed money relating to tips
- A new right for workers to request a more stable contract after 26 weeks service
- New legislation to enhance flexible working rights. The Government recently consulted on this issue, and whether to make flexible working a day 1 right, and its response is expected at some point in 2022.
- An extension of time required to break a period of continuous service from one week to four weeks
- New legislation making it compulsory for organisations to publish their modern slavery statements on a new government-run registry
Uncertainty
As stated, as the new Employment Bill did not appear in the 2021 Queen's Speech, it has been widely anticipated that the legislation would form part of the 2022 Queens Speech. However, according to the Financial Times, that may not now happen, with a spokesperson for the Government stating: “No. Not everything we want to do can we find space for in one season, we can’t do everything we want to do immediately.“
According to the Financial Times, “three people familiar with the thinking within the Cabinet Office said that officials were not progressing work on the bill, making its inclusion in the Queen’s Speech this year unlikely at best."
Campaign
Nevertheless, a coalition of unions and campaigners are pushing for the Employment Bill to be included in the Queen's Speech. According to the Guardian, "the TUC, which called the shelving of the bill a betrayal of working people, has joined forces with the Fawcett Society, Maternity Action, and the Women’s Budget Group to push for its revival."
The General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Frances O’Grady, contends that: "Everyone deserves to be treated fairly at work. But too many women are discriminated against because they are pregnant, pushed out of work because they have caring responsibilities and too many still experience sexual harassment at work. If ministers don’t announce the employment bill in the Queen’s speech, they are abandoning working women."
When asked as to whether the Employment Bill would make the Queen's Speech, the Guardian reports that: "A spokesperson from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said it could not comment on the content’s of the Queen’s speech. They said the government was committed to creating “a high-skilled, high-productivity, high-wage economy” to deliver on the “ambition to make the UK the best place in the world to work”, which included ensuring women’s rights in the workplace were protected."
