What to expect from Labour's plans for workers' rights – and why the 'devil will be in the detail'

When Keir Starmer became prime minister, he pledged to table “once-in-a-generation” reforms of worker’s rights within 100 days.

The Labour government will hit that milestone on 12 October – and, if reports are to be believed, ministers will table an Employment Rights Bill on Thursday (10 October).

The legislation will grant millions of workers sick pay, maternity pay and protection against unfair dismissal from day one in a job. But reports also suggest that the government will ditch a statutory “right to switch off” after consultation with business leaders.

• The ‘right to switch off’ law will be a litmus test for Labour’s plans for workers’ rights
• Labour’s workers’ rights plan slammed as ‘unrecognisable’ and a ‘betrayal’ by Unite union boss

Additionally, key pledges – such as creating a single status of “worker” to protect gig economy employees and strengthening employment tribunals – may be delayed pending further consultation.

The “devil will be in the detail”, says Rebecca Florisson, principal analyst at Lancaster University’s Work Foundation think tank.

“The bill definitely represents a very marked change to the current employment legislation landscape,” she said. “But just to caveat, that follows on decades of inaction and policy drift. So it’s really got a lot of catching up to do. There are still quite a few unanswered questions.”

What will be in the Employment Rights Bill?

One-in-five (21.4%) of Brits are in severely insecure work, a category that includes zero-hour contracts, low pay or temporary work.

The Work Foundation’s UK Insecure Work Index 2024 showed that women are 2.3 times more likely than men to experience severely insecure work, with young workers (18-24) twice as likely as older age workers (50-65) to be in this position.

It’s holding the economy – and workers – back. “Insecurity is the enemy of opportunity,” then opposition-leader Keir Starmer declared last year.

If the Employment Rights Bill follows the promises set out in Labour’s Make Work Pay plan, it will tackle some of these issues.  

The plan outlined a universal entitlement for sick pay from a worker’s first day in a job. At present, employees are not entitled to sick pay until the fourth day that they are unwell, and people earning less than £123 a week cannot claim.

The new legislation will likely remove both requirements – but questions remain over how much workers will receive.

Business lobbyists have reportedly convinced ministers to set a lower rate of sick pay for those who earn below the £123 per week threshold.

“When you get sick, some people have occupational pay, and so they’re fully covered, but that’s about half of workers. The rest rely on statutory sick pay,” Florisson said.

“Something to look out for, when the legislation is tabled, is if statutory sick pay stays at current levels, which are incredibly low. It’s an income replacement of about 17% of average weekly earnings.”

Other new rights include ­the day-one entitlement to maternity pay and protection against unfair dismissal.

Employees currently need to have two years of continuous service with the same employer to be eligible to claim unfair dismissal, explained Ewan McGaughey, a professor of law at King’s College London.

“One of the first things that the Conservatives did when they got into power in 2010 was increase the qualifying period, which cuts out millions of people from protection for job security,” he said. “There was all this pro-business rhetoric, with absolutely no evidential basis. Day one rights are pretty standard if you look around continental Europe.”

Labour will get rid of this so-called qualifying period. But, McGaughey explains, they need to make sure that you still get protection from unfair dismissal during your probation period.

“What the employers’ lobby wants is for a probation period to mean a qualification period. They want to conflate the two things,” he said. “Which means you wouldn’t have day-one rights.”

Labour will ban “exploitative” use of zero-hours contracts and fire and rehire practices. That’s  a “really important” step, says Florrsion. But again, questions remain regarding implementation.

“There are a million people in the UK on zero-hours contracts. The changes will really be quite significant,” she explained. “But the devil is going to be in the detail there. Will people have guaranteed hours? How quickly will they get those? That sort of thing.”

What won’t be in the Employment Rights Bill?

TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak called for Labour’s workers’ rights pledges to be “delivered in full”.

The call comes after weeks of speculation about what elements of the plans could be dropped or watered down.

In its New Deal for Working People, Labour promised to “move towards a single status of worker”. This would grant all workers – including gig economy workers and freelancers – rights to sick pay, holiday pay, parental leave and more.

Any delay to these reforms would be “very disappointing,” said McGaughey.

“When it comes to the single status of workers, there’s not anything that needs to be debated anymore. Anyone who has done any labour law knows that,” he said.

“We’ve got lots of examples around the world: it’s very easy to write an amendment to the existing law to make sure that everybody, including Uber drivers, Deliveroo riders, people in the gig economy, that they’re all covered by all employment protections. So I think it will be very disappointing if there’s yet more consultation.”

The “right to disconnect” may also be dropped after talks with business leaders, the Times has reported. In countries like France, companies must draw up a code of conduct setting out when managers are not allowed to contact staff. The UK guidelines, by contrast, could be voluntary.

Will Stronge, director of research at The Autonomy Institute described the possible policy switch as an “embarrassing U-turn”.

“[It] lets workers down and suggests once again that this government is bending over backwards to appease the corporate and business lobby,” he added.

Another thing to look out for will be the presence – or lack thereof – of Fair Pay Agreements in the legislation. Under these collective bargaining arrangements, representatives of workers and employers negotiate minimum standards for pay and terms and conditions for their sector.

In its New Deal for Working People, the party promised to “establish a Fair Pay Agreement in Adult Social Care, to drive up pay and conditions” and to “assess how and to what extent Fair Pay Agreements could benefit other sectors and tackle labour market challenges”.

What that means for workers remains unclear, McGaughey said.

“We don’t know whether, in this act, they will have legislation for a fair pay agreement across the social care sector, or they will have a framework for rolling out sector wide agreements across all sectors, but they’ll only trigger it for the social care sector,” he said. “That’s something really important to watch for on Thursday morning.”

Labour’s workers rights plans could provide the government an opportunity to claw back lagging public opinion – or to deeply disappoint campaigners and unions. Only time will tell.

Big Issue is demanding an end to extreme poverty. Will you ask your MP to join us?

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. Big Issue exists to give homeless and marginalised people the opportunity to earn an income. To support our work buy a copy of the magazine or get the app from the App Store or Google Play.