When significant law changes are implemented, they need to be done right. This is why the Department for Business has launched the new Fair Work Agency. As the new Employment Rights bill comes into effect, the Fair Work Agency hopes to centralise enforcement of the changes it brings.
The main goal is to ensure that employers have the best possible access to guidance and support, enabling them to remain compliant with legislation, new and old. With new guidelines come changes, and how businesses adapt to them matters most. Having this guidance will allow you to support your employees in a range of new ways, leading to a more satisfied, enthusiastic team.
The basics
If you don’t already know what the new Employment Rights Act is, let’s quickly go through what’s changed so far
Statutory sick pay from the first day of absence (rather than the fourth) for all workers.
- Paternity Leave (as a Day-one Right)
- Parental Leave (as a Day-one Right)
- Bereavement Leave
- Parental Bereavement Leave
- Compassionate Leave
- Sickness Absence and Medical Capability Policy and Procedure
- More flexibility and transparency with flexible/hybrid working requests (requests from day one, and a ‘reasonableness test’ to ensure fairness).
Full employment rights, allowing unfair dismissal claims after six months (rather than two years), effectively comes in from 2nd July.
How can the Fair Work Agency support employees?
For workers
SEEDL is the world’s first on-demand learning platform, with live webinars and courses available constantly, allowing you to join in and interact with the trainer, which helps you to learn actively rather than passively. This, in turn, increases employee engagement and capacity. SEEDL offers over 300 courses, we like to think of it as the Netflix of training tools.
Through our partnership with SEEDL, we can create training packages using our own resources and theirs, grouping workshops to help you get the most out of them and you develop within your role. By curating training packages tailored to your needs, you can engage with the knowledge you already have, serving as a foundation for growth.
Labour exploitation at work
The FSA can enforce protections previously overseen by executive agencies such as the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority. This applies to serious abuse, such as improper licensing safeguards, human trafficking and forced labour. This covers much of the role GLAA previously performed.
The Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate previously protected agency workers and jobseekers from employment agencies/businesses. This helped protect them from malicious practices such as charging worker fees for finding jobs and hiding terms and engagement before their job hunt begins.
By bringing these previously separate organisations under one umbrella, the UK government can streamline their due diligence. Not every negative workplace practice can be considered ‘labour exploitation’. Everyday disputes, such as unfair dismissal and refusals of flexible working requests, are still resolved via the tribunal. Meaning, the changes made in the Employment Rights Act will remain separate from the FSA’s new authority.
Enforcement of rights for underpayment
One of the most important points is that the Fair Work Agency has significant power to recover underpayments more quickly than the current tribunal system. Whether due to confusion or intentional malice, many people find themselves denied holiday pay, sick pay, or overtime pay to which they are entitled. In other cases, they can even bring claims on behalf of employees who are hesitant or unable to do so themselves. This helps support those who may feel intimidated by employers or lack the means to communicate their distress effectively.
For employers
For employees, much of this is incredibly useful. They can have much more confidence going into new roles and industries. Knowing there are protections in place to minimise potential exploitation is encouraging and allows team members to feel safe in putting more into their work.
For employers, the Fair Work Agency provides several protections:
The FWA is intended to ensure that employers who comply with new legislation gain better access to guidance and support. Instead of navigating the red tape of multiple enforcers, employers now have a better understanding of who regulates what. Enforcement will be much more consistent for disputes like minimum wage and labour protection.
Furthermore, smaller businesses that comply with existing and upcoming legislation will ensure larger companies aren’t allowed to undercut them by underpaying their staff or using labour models that exploit employees.
What’s so important?
With the introduction of the FWA comes stronger enforcement of key employment rights, while also shining a spotlight on the importance of everyday employment basics. It isn’t a new set of rules. It’s just a way to ensure the established rules are followed, minimising harm when they’re broken.
Thankfully, many businesses can already promise compliance with employment law. The new agency will mainly crack down on businesses that actively avoid supporting workers, and smaller businesses that don’t have the means to implement a proper HR system yet.
It’s down to the business to ensure its employees’ rights are met. Using HR management platforms like Breathe may help you manage your employees more effectively when opting for in-house HR.
You could also switch to outsourced HR, where HR experts can manage these situations from an unbiased third-party perspective. We can also provide training to your in-house team to ensure you remain compliant with legislation and out of the FWA’s way.
How People Matters HR can help your business.
For many employers, this highlights a changing tide towards stronger enforcement of employment law and protection of workers. By putting previously faced issues under the microscope, both employers and employees can receive better, more effective support. However, if businesses do make errors, it’s much more likely they will face greater punishment than before the introduction.
You must have People Matters HR by your side when changes like this are implemented. With roles and responsibilities constantly shifting, it can be difficult to know exactly how to manage key processes. Working with an experienced HR partner, such as People Matters, can help businesses remain compliant. You don’t just hand off responsibility to a third party; you learn and understand what these changes mean for your organisation. This allows you to put the best policies in place, ready for the FWA’s introduction.
For more info about how the Fair Work Agency might affect your business, or any general enquiries surrounding HR compliance, contact People Matters HR.