Employment law in England and Wales has seen significant progression in the last 25 years, particularly, the rights of employees have greatly improved. This is reflective of legal adaptations in response to societal shifts, technological advances and economic challenges.
In comparison to 1998 when Industrial Tribunals were rebranded as Employment Tribunals, the modern-day employee now benefits from an array of enhanced protections.
Minimum Wage & Written Terms
Employees now enjoy improved working conditions by way of increases to the National Minimum Wage, provisions for statutory sick pay, maternity and paternity leave, and enhanced protection against unfair dismissal. Furthermore, the Good Work Plan 2020 aimed to improve rights further by providing the right to a written statement of terms from day one of employment and the right to receive a payslip, itemising hours worked.
In 1999 the National Minimum Wage was introduced and set at a modest £3.60 per hour!
Family-Friendly Rights
Family-friendly rights have vastly improved from the position we were in 25 years ago. At that time, the Maternity and Parental Leave Regulations 1999 provided for an increase in the period of ordinary maternity leave from 14 to 18 weeks, and 29 weeks of additional maternity leave if the employee had at least a years’ service. However, only the period of ordinary leave was paid.
TODAY… Eligible employees can take up to 26 weeks of ‘ordinary maternity leave’ and a further 26 weeks of ‘additional maternity leave’, the majority of which is covered by statutory maternity pay.
As for Paternity Leave, this was not introduced until April 2003 under the Paternity and Adoption Leave Regulations 2002. Beforehand, employees had no statutory right to take paid paternity leave which, by contemporary standards, seems outrageous! Many parents now opt to exercise their right to Shared Parental Leave (SPL) since its introduction in April 2015. SPL provides greater flexibility for families to share their entitlement to paid leave as opposed to the traditional structure of maternity and paternity leave.
Working Hours and Flexibility
Working families can also benefit from the status quo of working more flexibly, widely labelled as the ‘new-normal’ since the pandemic – (COVID-19 had to get a mention!)
Since its introduction in 2003, when it applied only to parents and carers, it was expanded in 2014 to all employees upon reaching 26 weeks’ service.
Hybrid-working was under 2% in the 90s, compared to 62% in 2022.
This year, the Employee Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 received Royal Assent which will, upon its introduction in 2024, allow two requests per 12 months. Employees will no longer be required to suggest how to mitigate the impact of their request. This will fall to the employer to consider who must provide their decision to the employee within two months, not the current three.
Flexible working requests are expected to become a ‘day-one’ right. The above act will not reduce the 26-week eligibility criteria; secondary legislation will be required to implement this change.
Conclusion
The transformation of employment law over the past 25 years reflects our changing values and commitment to a fair and inclusive workplace.
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