Issue 40 – July 2024
Welcome to summer and this month’s clickable highlights:
Industry and Legislative News
Fast Forward
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The Fast Forward Team
LEGISLATIVE AND INDUSTRY NEWS
The King’s speech: Employment Bill highlights
The King’s Speech on the 17th July 2024 delivered by the Monarch at the State Opening of Parliament, marks the beginning of a new parliamentary year and sets the government’s legislative agenda which included a brief mention of the Employment Rights Bill to implement the Labour Party’s New Deal for Working People. “Our Employment Rights Bill is a significant step towards delivering this Government’s plan to make work pay – the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation.” The Background briefing notes for the speech provide further details, confirming that the Employment Rights Bill will be introduced within 100 days. The notes give commitments to the following:
- Zero-Hour Contracts: Banning ‘exploitative’ zero-hour contracts, ensuring workers have contracts reflecting their regular hours, and providing reasonable notice and compensation for shift changes.
- Fire and Rehire: Reforming laws to effectively prevent ‘Fire and Rehire’ practices.
- Day-One Rights: Making parental leave, sick pay, and protection from unfair dismissal available from day one, while allowing probationary periods.
- Statutory Sick Pay: Strengthening Statutory Sick Pay by removing the waiting period and lower earnings limit.
- Flexible Working: Making flexible working the default from day one, requiring employers to accommodate as much as reasonably possible.
- Protections for New Mothers: Making it unlawful to dismiss a woman for six months after returning from maternity leave, with specific exceptions.
- Single Enforcement Body: Establishing a Fair Work Agency to enforce workplace rights.
- Fair Pay Agreements: Implementing a Fair Pay Agreement in the adult social care sector and reviewing its potential for other sectors.
- Trade Union Legislation: Updating legislation to remove unnecessary restrictions and ensure good faith negotiation and bargaining.
- Union Access: Simplifying statutory recognition and ensuring reasonable access to unions in workplaces.
The Bill will apply to Great Britain, excluding Northern Ireland where these matters are devolved.
FAST FORWARD NEWS
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Supplier (SEP) Training Sessions
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During these 2.5-hour training sessions, your business can gain essential insights on how to effectively navigate your dedicated dashboard and self-paced Core Standards training modules, ensuring you remain well-informed about the latest standards and industry practices.
Our training sessions are open to both SEP subscribers and Brand members.
At each session, we offer dedicated breakouts for suppliers and brands separately. This provides a unique space for peer-to-peer discussions on best practice and challenges.
If you are an SEP subscriber or Member Brand review the full agenda.
Just Good Work
Just Good Work is a free, interactive mobile app giving jobseekers and workers from the UK or abroad critical information and advice on recruitment and employment. The Fast Forward audit requires businesses to display the Just Good Work poster.
Posters are available to download for free in nine languages from the Fast Forward website: Albanian, Bulgarian, English, Croatian, Gujarati, Polish, Romanian, Serbian and Ukrainian.
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