If only the growth of the Employment Rights Bill mirrored the growth of my bank account - if it did I may not be so anxious to blog about more amendments, perhaps more intent on settling down in business class on my way to a glamourous holiday destination! From a respectable 158 pages in October, the Bill, which is making its way to the House of Lords, has almost doubled to 301 pages.   

We promised to keep you updated about changes, so here is a summary of the amendments made to the Bill in its final reading in the House of Commons, together with links to the Hub so you can check out the details if you want to.

• The right to a guaranteed hours offer, reasonable notice of shifts, reasonable notice of shift cancellation or curtailment and compensation for those changes will be extended to agency workers. Read our previous update here. 
• The duty to make a guaranteed hours offer (and to provide reasonable notice and compensation for cancelled or curtailed shifts without reasonable notice) can be avoided if there is a relevant collective agreement. This applies to workers directly employed by their employers and to agency workers.
• The Government has further chosen to include additional ‘anti-avoidance’ measures to ensure employers comply with the duty to make a guaranteed hours offer. There will be an additional ground for action if an employer has attempted to manipulate the hours or a pattern of work to avoid the duty applying. 
• Sick pay will now be payable to workers whose earnings are below the lower earnings limit. They will be entitled to 80% of their average weekly earnings from day one of their sickness absence. 
• Regulations may be introduced restricting dismissals during the protected period of pregnancy (and in future other family leave).
• The Government has rowed back on its change to collective consultation where 20 or more redundancies are planned within 90 days. It has reintroduced the one establishment rule for 20 or more redundancies and will introduce a further threshold for redundancies across more than one establishment. 
• There will now be an increased protective award where the collective consultation process has not been complied with. 
• Welsh and Scottish ministers have been given powers to establish their respective social care negotiating bodies. 
• Trade union legislation has been changed further, with details of access agreements for trade union officials (to include digital access) and changes to the statutory recognition process including extending the extent of the Code of Practice on access and unfair practices etc. 
• Amendments to industrial action and balloting legislation including turnout and support thresholds, notices to employers and increasing time after which ballot ceases to be effective etc. 
• Further details of enforcement actions to be taken by a new Fair Work Agency, which will be able to issue notice of underpayments and enforce payment of fines up to 200% of the amount due, bring claims on behalf of employees and enforce new requirements to keep records of holiday entitlement for six years.
• Bring umbrella bodies under regulation to address the avoidance of employment legislation and tax compliance. 

What's next?

The Bill is making its way through the House of Lords and so we wait to see what further amendments, if any, are forthcoming. We understand that the Government may well introduce miscarriage leave (a period of leave for parents who lost their child at less than 24 weeks into the pregnancy) as support was voiced for this during the last House of Commons debate.  

Action points

• Note the aspects of the Bill which will most affect your workforce, audit current practices and discuss new practices going forward to be ready once the consultation documents/draft regulations/commencement dates are released.
• If you are facing calls for union recognition within your organisation or are concerned about increased union activity, contact our team for specific advice on how the ERB will affect this and how we can assist you.  
• Don't forget your mandatory duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of employees - a good foundation and confidence in your current steps will make it easier to ensure that you are complying with the extended duty to be introduced by the ERB. Contact me for more information about our products which can assist you with risk assessments and compliance.
• If you are in the health and social care sector, register for our annual health and social care employment update on 2 April.