The Employment Rights Bill (ERB) means that the next 24 months are going to be a busy time for employment lawyers and HR departments. Depending on your line of work, the time immediately after the festive period while everyone gets back into the swing of things can provide a rare opportunity to get your house in order and allow you time to focus on the tasks that quickly find themselves being demoted down the priority list when work becomes busy again. Here are a few areas that we recommend you take the time to review.
Contracts
Are they compliant with Section 1 of the Employment Rights Act? Employment law is a fast paced and ever-changing landscape (as we will see over the next 24 months). Although there may not have been fundamental changes to employment law over the last few years, if you are not in the habit of reviewing your contracts annually, they may well not include the most recent requirements under Section 1 of the Employment Rights Act (eg the right to statutory neonatal care leave) meaning that they are not legally compliant, nor in line with best practice. Although most contracts will not include clauses covering benefit entitlement, paid leave entitlement and training entitlement, they should also include provision for statutory neonatal care leave. Not only do you need to ensure the contract is kept up to date to be compliant, but its contents are also often the first impression a new employee has of the organisation.
Our strong advice is also to ensure your contracts have a “variation clause” in them, which provides flexibility to make changes. It is expected that forthcoming changes in the Employment Rights Bill (ERB) are going to make it more difficult for employers to make contractual changes where employees do not agree.
Although we are going to see a number of changes under the ERB, it is worth getting your house in order before these take effect. Many organisations are anticipating some of these changes in their contracts. A lot of the detail is yet to be determined, however including provision in anticipation of new rights such as day one paternity leave or unpaid parental leave is unlikely to do any harm.
Handbooks
January can also provide an opportunity to review the policies included in your handbook and decide if these are still fit for purpose. Alongside a general tidy up and an update to any named contacts included within the document, it also a time to reflect on whether these policies are still consistent with the messaging that the organisation wishes to put forward to its staff. The handbook is often the first port of call for employees with a query, which can be easily and quickly resolved with an effective handbook.
Looking ahead, you may want to consider if there is a requirement for any new policies this year. The ERB places greater responsibilities on employers when it comes to preventing and handling complaints around sexual harassment. It is too soon to know what the specifics on this will look like, but it is worth considering how you will implement these changes across your organisation.
More generally, we have also noticed a trend of increased whistleblowing complaints, and we recommend revisiting your policies on whistleblowing to ensure that they are robust and workable.
If you would like to discuss any best practices for housekeeping in more detail, please contact a member of the Employment team at Thorntons on 03330 430350.
