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The Labour party has repeated its pledge for unfair dismissal rights to become a day one right in their manifesto.
The manifesto states that a Labour government will implement in full the Labour policy document ‘Make Work Pay: Delivering a New Deal for Working People.’ Legislation will be introduced within the first 100 days, with a promise to consult fully with businesses workers and civil society before legislation is passed.
We have written before about some of the proposals in Labour’s ‘New Deal’ document including the proposed ban of “exploitative“ zero hours contracts and ending fire and rehire. Another is to create a single status of worker, as opposed to (employee or worker) and to transition towards a two-part framework (worker/self-employed). If introduced this is likely to give workers certain rights which are currently only enjoyed by employees. A shakeup of the minimum wage is planned to make it a “genuine” living wage and a proposal to remove age bands, so all adults would be entitled to the same minimum wage.
One of the key proposals is to introduce certain “basic rights” from day one of employment, including unfair dismissal, but there is a suggestion that probationary dismissals will play a role: “We will ensure employers can operate probationary periods to assess new hires.”
Clearly we do not yet know what any final measures may look like, and the promise to consult fully suggests that these changes will not be overnight. Nonetheless, unfair dismissal rights from day one would be a significant change. Currently employees need two years’ service to bring a claim in most cases, this was increased from one year by the Conservative government in 2012.
While much is unclear and uncertain, now may be a good time to review your current practice with probationary periods because these may become more significant if current plans become law. It is usual for probationary periods to last for three to six months, ideally with a right to extend by a further period if you need more time to assess the employee.