From the right to disconnect, to no dismissal for six months after maternity leave and making unfair dismissal a day one right, the employment law changes promised as Sir Keir Starmer entered Downing Street signalled significant shifts in employment law.
How those changes would take effect was not clear. Two-thirds of the way through the Government’s first year in power, Partner Kate Wyatt takes stock of what we thought we knew, what we now know - and the pointers that HR professionals can take from overseas to help prepare.
The ambition to create a better work-life balance lies at the heart of the headline-grabbing right to disconnect, which aims to ensure unreasonable expectations and obligations are not placed on employees and limit out-of-hours contact.
Although now included in Labour’s Next Steps to Make Work Pay blueprint, there is no timeline for its implementation. The Government has, however, stated that it will be in the form of a code of practice and will not require legislation.
Considering, however, that the process for finalising codes can be lengthy, we should not anticipate that being in place imminently.
What can we expect from the right to disconnect?
In Ireland, where a code of practice already operates, it includes the right not to routinely perform work outside of workers’ normal hours, the right not to be penalised for refusing, and a duty to respect rights to disconnect.
As with the Acas code on discipline and grievances, it’s expected the UK code will not create or lead to a standalone offence but will be admissible in considering whether an employee has been unfairly dismissed, for example. The Irish code also allows courts to refer to the code of their own volition if it appears relevant.
In planning for this, I suggest employers review working practices and consider developing policies on out-of-hours working, along with performance management metrics and training for managers.
Protection against dismissal after maternity leave
Legislative steps are, however, being taken to introduce restrictions on dismissal after maternity leave for six months as part of the Employment Rights Bill.
The detail remains opaque, but the Government has stated that the dismissal of workers within six months of their return to work after maternity leave will become unlawful, except in specific circumstances.
How this will interact with the existing legal rights of redundant employees on - or within six months of - their return from maternity leave is unclear.
It seems unlikely, though, that regulatory approval for dismissals will be required. Legislation may, as in Germany, set a higher bar for a pregnancy or post-pregnancy dismissal other than in redundancy, such as where an employer is insolvent, or the employee is guilty of gross misconduct.
To plan, make sure your HR processes accurately capture sufficient information on returners - and ensure disciplinary and performance management processes are up-to-date and appropriately applied.
Preparing for the day one right of unfair dismissal
One change where we have a better idea of implementation is the day one right of unfair dismissal. It too is part of the Employee Rights Bill and will come into force in autumn 2026.
This will introduce a statutory probation period of up to nine months – but provides that employees can work out notice if dismissed during the initial nine months and remain with the employer for up to one year.
During probation there will be a ‘light touch’ process for dismissal related to conduct and performance. These will be set out in regulation. But bear in mind that the ‘light touch’ won’t apply to redundancy dismissals - even during probation.
The statutory probation period is longer than expected. The proposal for prescriptive probation dismissal processes has sparked concerns over the revival of the generally disliked, and now repealed, statutory dismissal procedures – repealed precisely because they laid down prescriptive steps which increased the risk of getting it wrong.
Drawing on experiences the Netherlands, which has no qualifying period for unfair dismissal, or Spain, where probationary periods are capped, employers can prepare by:
- Ensuring official start dates are clearly defined so the corresponding probationary period is clear.
- Updating contracts so probationary rules, including notice required, are clear.
- Diarising key dates, training managers and keeping records of reviews and issues.
While we might not know everything about the changes, we know enough for HR teams to start laying the groundwork for implementation. Early engagement with employees can go a long way towards helping this process. So too can considering what some of our overseas neighbours do and what we can learn from them.
First published in HR Director on 22nd April 2025
