The main strands of the Good work plan are as follows:
Right to request a more predictable and stable contract
This new right will mean an employee can request a more predictable and stable contract after 26 weeks of employment.
Examples of what might be requested include a guaranteed minimum number of hours and certainty as to the days on which they will be asked to work.
This new development will predominantly benefit individuals who are employed as casuals or on zero-hour contracts. An employer will have three months to make their decision on any such request.
This is trying to phase out the use of zero hours contracts.
Break in continuous service
Presently, a gap of just one week can break an individual’s continuity of service. Therefore, despite regularly working on and off for the same employer over a long period of time, an individual may not build up any significant length of service.
This break period will be extended from one week to four weeks, helping those employees who work on a sporadic or casual basis to qualify for more employment rights (such as the right not to be unfairly dismissed or the right to statutory maternity pay), which require a particular length of service.
Protecting agency workers
After 12 weeks of service, an agency worker is entitled to receive the same level of pay as a permanent worker, unless the agency worker opts out of this right and instead elects to receive a guaranteed level of pay between their temporary assignments (often referred to as “the Swedish derogation”).
This opt-out will be removed (proposed to take effect in April 2020) because often agency workers are financially worse off taking the Swedish derogation route.
Tips and gratuities
Rules will be implemented to ensure that tips are passed directly to the individual, rather than taken by the employer.
Information and consultation arrangements
Information and consultation arrangements give employees the right to be involved in workplace discussions about an agreed list of topics, such as redundancy proposals.
Currently, support from at least 10% of the workforce is needed for a successful request but we expect that from April 2020 this will be reduced to 2% (although the 15 employee minimum threshold will remain).
