After years of missed promises and false dawns, there is a new Employment Rights Bill in Parliament.

For the 6.8 million people in severely insecure work – and future workers who could face similar insecurity – this is an important day. Once you get past quotes from Unite saying the Bill has more “holes than Swiss cheese” or cries from the Federation of Small Business saying this is shoddy and rushed, what are the proposals likely to mean for working people?

Will they provide more security and flexibility, and a better safety net when things go wrong ?

The UK has an unbalanced economy that doesn’t work for everyone

The painful truth is that at the end of 2024, too many facets of the UK labour market are not working – in reality, many haven’t been for more than a decade.

Most workers have barely seen pay packets rise since the Global Financial Crash in 2008, and more than 600k people have dropped out of the labour market altogether due to ill-health since the pandemic. Indeed, the UK remains the only G7 country with a smaller workforce than before the pandemic.

The economy has also been characterised by stubbornly low productivity and persistent structural inequalities over the last decade, and it remains the case that if you’re a woman, from an ethnic minority background or disabled or have a health condition, then you’re more likely to be in poor quality, precarious work.

Take Jessica from Manchester as an example. She works in a supermarket, where she is guaranteed just seven hours a week—far less than she needs to make ends meet. After sharing her story with the Work Foundation, Jessica spoke to the Guardian, “I never know what I’m going to be paid each week.”

Will the Bill provide more security?

During the election campaign, Sir Keir Starmer described the kind of insecurity Jessica faces as “the enemy of opportunity”. His Government has today introduced a new Bill to deliver on the Party’s manifesto commitment to ensure that all jobs will have a baseline of security and predictability.

The headline measures will include banning exploitative zero-hour contracts, and ensuring every worker has the right to a contract that reflects the number of hours they regularly work. Recent Work Foundation research found that 1.1 million workers in the UK are on zero-hour contracts, with almost three in four (73.5%) in severely insecure work, meaning they must contend with multiple forms of insecurity such as contractual insecurity, low wages, unpredictable pay, and lack of access to rights and protections.

This measure should benefit people like Urwah, a call agent on a minimum wage zero-hour contract, who says the instability of her current contracts causes her stress and anxiety. She recently told The Independent that, “There’s always that fear of not having hours”. This leaves her feeling that she can never say no to being offering hours at the last minute as she needs to pay her rent and bills. This makes her feel like she is “on call 24/7.”

Does the Bill provide two-way flexibility and shift the balance of power?

Other headline commitments are aimed at redressing power imbalances in the workplace, including ending ‘Fire and Rehire’ and ‘Fire and Replace’ practices – made infamous by P&O sacking 800 workers in 2022 – and repealing the Trade Union Act of 2016.

In addition, the Government aims to tackle ‘one sided flexibility’ in the workplace – meaning workers will no longer have to trade security at work for the flexibility they need.

Charlotte, a mother of one who works on a zero-hour contract at a golf club, felt that insecure work was the only option available to her. “A lot of mums get backed into a corner because it’s the only way to get the flexibility”, she told The Financial Times. She stated that she wants to work longer hours, but shifts were often cancelled due to bad weather making her unable to budget and plan ahead – even putting her off having a second child.

The Government are aiming to make flexible working the default, which will mean there will be more of an onus on the employer to prove that a request for flexible working is not reasonable or that granting it would negatively affect the business. This has the potential to provide new options to workers like Charlotte who feel they can only get the flexibility they needed for their caring responsibilities through insecure work. However, there is a lack of clarity in the extent to which this updated framing will improve the already existing right to request flexible working from day one which was introduced by the previous Government earlier this year.

Other day one rights include making parental leave and protection from unfair dismissal available to all workers. There are also plans to strengthen protections for new mothers by making it unlawful to dismiss a woman who has had a baby for six months after her return to work. In addition, the Government are going to consult on capping probation periods with their preference being six to nine months.

Is there a strong safety net for when things go wrong?

The Government have also proposed improving the safety net for workers. One key proposal is strengthening Statutory Sick Pay by removing the lower earnings limit to allow 1.15 millions workers to access it who are currently not eligible, and removing a four day period.

However, the current level of Statutory Sick Pay of £116.75 is forcing people to decide between their health and their income. Alina suffers from a chronic medical condition which at times prevents her from working. As the amount of money Alina receives as sick pay is substantially lower than her salary, she continues to work to be able to pay her bills. She told Channel 5 News, “At this point, I can't afford to take a week off sick because I have to pay my bills. If I am not going to work a week, who is going to pay me the rent and other bills?”

In addition, the Government intend to establish a Fair Work Agency. The UK’s current labour market enforcement system is fragmented and under resourced. The Government’s own Labour Market Enforcement Strategy highlighted in 2018/19 that employers, on average, could expect an inspection on National Minimum Wage enforcement approximately once every 500 years due a lack of resources.

Will the Bill make work pay and improve the lives of those in severely insecure work?

The 28 reforms proposed in the Employment Rights Bill represent an important step forward in modernising employment and bring the UK in line with other developed economies. It has the potential to significantly improve the employment experiences of millions of people insecure work. However, with key parts of the legislation expected to go out to consultation, the devil will be in the detail – there remain risks that elements of the Bill may be diluted, and its potential impact reduced.

It is time for Government to work closely with workers, unions, business and charities to ensure these reforms remain ambitious and focussed on addressing the big drivers of insecurity in the UK. By doing so, they can provide more security at work for millions of workers in the years to come.

All case studies referenced in this article told their stories to the Work Foundation at Lancaster University before being introduced to the media. To read more about other personal stories, please see worker case studies.

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