The UK Government has announced the launch of a review that is intended to clarify and potentially strengthen the employment protections available to up to a million British workers.
The announcement follows a review that was recently carried out into the use of zero hours contracts, which revealed a growing use of ‘worker’ contracts which provided fewer basic employment law rights (such as unfair dismissal or maternity pay) than those who work under contracts of employment receive.
The review aims to determine how clear the current employment framework is, what options are available to extend employment rights to the wider category of “worker” and whether there is scope to streamline this very complex area of employment law.
Currently, many individuals cannot be certain what their employment status is short of raising proceedings before an employment tribunal, says the Government. It would only be after a tribunal has determined employment status and confirmed whether the individual in question is either an employee or a worker, that the individual could then ascertain what rights were available to them.
The Government wants to prevent this from happening where possible, so both the individual and employer are clear at the time of recruitment what rights are available. This should also encourage workers and employers to discuss problems instead of heading to the tribunals.
“Workers should not be finding out that they are not protected by law once they get to employment tribunal,” said Business Secretary Vince Cable. “We need a system that is fair, simple and transparent - an environment where businesses feel more confident knowing what type of contracts to hire staff on and where individuals know their rights and have the security they deserve.”
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