The results are in, and the surprise factor is akin to UK’s “nil pointe” on Eurovision night! Number 10 has a new inhabitant.  Whatever your political persuasion, it’s a momentous result but in the words of the great (and fictional) West Wing President, Jed Bartlett – what’s next?   We know from the Labour Manifesto and their New Deal for Working People that the new Government has much planned and much to keep us all busy.  For further details on this do read our blogs.

• Labour's Workforce Plans - the headlines you need to know
• What's Ahead for HR?

We still have no further details; we don’t know whether all zero hours contracts will be banned; we don’t know when unfair dismissal will become a day one right; or when fire and rehire will be “outlawed”.  What we do have are key dates when we would expect to see some more detail and get a clearer picture of changes and their timeline. 

17^th July – King’s Speech 

We are hoping that the King’s Speech will include details of the Employment Bill.  This is the cornerstone of the New Deal for Working People and has been promised within the first 100 days of office and so it is expected to be high up on the billing.

We would hope it will give the following.

• How the changes outlined in their campaigning are to be introduced.  Whether the changes will be part of the new Employment Bill or whether they will be made using existing powers in existing legislation. 
• This is key as changes using existing powers in existing legislation can happen more quickly.  Conversely a new Act of Parliament or changes to an existing Act of Parliament will take longer to go through the parliamentary process, even with the Government’s sizeable majority.  For example, it would be relatively easy to change the Employment Rights Act 1996 to remove the qualifying period for unfair dismissal under existing powers.  However, that would leave the issue of whether easier dismissals are still permitted probationary periods in unanswered.  These supplementary changes could take longer.   
• We would hope for more detail on the changes.  The clarification on zero hours contracts would be welcome for many employers but that’s only one of many issues.  It’s unlikely that the speech itself will provide such detail but we may get to see an initial draft of the Bill (we can hope!) or we may have an indication of when it will be laid before Parliament.  Given the 100-day pledge, and even with the Hardie family holiday booked, they do not have much time to delay. 

September/October – Budget

Whilst the announcements on 17^th July will probably be the most important, we will be keeping a close eye on this budget announcement.    It’s the first indication of how the Government is going to secure their pledge to change the one-sided flexibility within employment relationships and introduce their “securonomics”.  Given that this sounds a lot like “Trussonomics”, we hope it makes more sense and potentially outlives salad vegetables! 

How can we help?

• Continue to follow our blogs as we will update you with information, commentary and practical guidance at all the relevant points.
• Keep Anthony Collins website on your favourites tab for wider input from across our teams and sectors on the new Government and its plans.
• Sign up to our Employment Law Update in the autumn where we will spend time addressing how to prepare for changes and what more we can expect.
• Watch out of our podcasts on Spotify Have we got employment law news for you for update and commentary.