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Businesses and unions say they are in the dark about when the Labour government will bring in sweeping new measures intended to tilt power from employers to workers.
Sir Keir Starmer’s government pledged to bring in its “new deal” for workers within 100 days of being elected in July.
The policies, which include reversing all of the anti-strike laws introduced by the last Tory government, have been pitched as the biggest package of employment reforms in a generation.
But the “Employment Rights Bill” expected in October will only lay out the bones of the plan, which includes allowing staff to “switch off” outside of work hours and restricting zero-hours contracts.
Instead employers could have to wait for months — potentially until next year — to find out exactly how some of the policies will impact them.
That is because many of the measures will require further “secondary legislation” and consultation — but ministers do not appear to have yet decided which ones.
“I’ve asked that question and they don’t seem to know the answer yet,” said one union official.
Alex Hall-Chen, principal policy adviser at the Institute of Directors, said businesses have so far welcomed constructive engagement from Labour over the package.
But she added: “Given the timescales we are getting to the point we need to see more detail about what the different consultations are going to look like, there are still big question marks around every element of this package.”
Some of the measures can be carried out quickly, such as reforms to statutory sick pay and changing the remit of the Low Pay Commission to take account of the cost of living.
But Labour has indicated that some policies, such as “creating a single status of worker” and conducting a review of parental leave, will take as long as a year to come into force.
Measures that come in through “secondary legislation” will require further consultation with experts, unions and employers.
But the government will not say which of the policies will require secondary legislation, whether there will be separate consultations on each policy, or how long each of these is expected to take. Other measures in the package include higher sick pay and ending “fire and rehire”.
A government spokesperson said: “The Employment Rights Bill, which will be introduced within 100 days, will be a vital step in the delivery of the ‘make work pay’ plan and there is also work under way to identify ways to deliver measures through other mechanisms.”
Craig Beaumont, chief of external affairs at the Federation of Small Businesses, said business needed further reassurance that there would be lengthy and in-depth consultations on most of the significant measures.
“Small businesses will struggle the most with changes and costs, and so we want time for ministers to consult properly and in-depth on each measure. There’s a real risk of unintended consequences if there’s a rush,” he said.
“The government has given a broad steer but has not yet set out precisely which measures will need secondary legislation and more consultation and how long that will be.”
One senior union figure said the government had not provided any detail yet on the consultation, which could slow down the implementation of the policies. “We will be pushing for an ambitions implementation period,” they said.
In general business leaders have welcomed the fact that there will be consultations on parts of the package. “We know some of the unions were dismayed when Labour promised to consult, and that’s something of a win from our perspective,” said one leading business figure. “The unions don’t like the consultation.”
Ministers are seeking to balance the competing interests of unions, which have long provided donations to the Labour party, with their desire to be a pro-business administration.
Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner and business secretary Jonathan Reynolds met union and business leaders a week ago to discuss the New Deal, but attendees left without knowing the fine details of how the programme will be implemented.
Law firm Lewis Silkin predicted that “significant change is not going to happen this year” given the legislative process.
“Before being signed into the law . . . the Bill would need to go through both houses of parliament and could be amended along the way. This will take several months,” it said. “Even after the Bill becomes law, many measures still won’t take effect immediately because they may need substantial secondary legislation or codes of practice — or both — to put them into practice.”
One business leader said that executives could live with many of the individual policies in the package. “But there are concerns about the implications of doing so many changes in aggregate at the same time,” they said. “They have to be careful of unintended consequences.”
