Opinion: Legal

Legal: How will the employment rights bill affect schools?

There’s a long way to go before these proposals make it onto the statute books, but schools can already begin to plan for their effects

There’s a long way to go before these proposals make it onto the statute books, but schools can already begin to plan for their effects

18 Oct 2024, 17:00

The Employment Rights Bill was laid before parliament last Thursday, in line with the Labour government’s commitment to introduce such legislation within 100 days of taking power. This bill will have a significant impact on all employers, including schools.

The first thing to note is that these impacts won’t be felt immediately. Most of the reforms will take effect no earlier than 2026. The bill will need to progress through parliament, and this process will include a limited number of targeted consultations to be published in 2025.

Here’s what we know about its content and likely implications.

Unfair dismissal

Reforms to unfair dismissal are perhaps the measure causing most concern for employers. However, these will not come into effect until autumn 2026 at the earliest.

After that, unfair dismissal will be a day-one right. Currently, employees need two years’ service to submit a claim of ordinary unfair dismissal, but this qualifying period will be removed.

The government will consult on a new statutory probation period. As such, employers will have time to review their policies and working practices, and develop recruitment strategies to prepare for the changes.

Support staff

In addition to changes that will apply to all employers, one notable update will apply only to schools.

The government will re-establish the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB) to provide a negotiating body exclusively for school support staff, which will replace the National Joint Council.

The SSSNB will be responsible for matters related to terms and conditions, remuneration, training and progression of support staff.  We understand that this will apply to support staff at state-maintained schools, and academies.

The definition of ‘support staff’ is broadly defined, and the bill provides for secondary legislation which is likely to set out categories of staff who are excluded from it.

The key question many are asking in relation to the inclusion of academies here is whether the government intended to use the word “at” in the context of the bill.

Currently, the bill’s definition states that the member of support staff should be employed by the proprietor of an academy under a contract of employment providing for the person to work wholly “at” one or more academies.

It is unclear whether the government intended to exclude central staff in academies from the SSSNB’s remit, as working “at an academy” can be interpretated in many different ways. Stone King is working with various sector bodies in relation to this and we will know more when the secondary legislation is produced.

Zero hours

The other bill provision which has grabbed the attention of schools is in relation to zero-hours contracts, which have come under public scrutiny because of concerns that they can be exploitative in some cases.

In an education context, many would agree that in most circumstances they are far from exploitative. In fact, they act as a tool to provide work for people on a flexible basis that benefits both parties.

The proposed changes could mean a different approach, in that those engaged on zero- or low-hours contracts will gain the right to reasonable notice of shifts, payment for cancelled, moved and curtailed shifts, as well as the right to a guaranteed-hours contract if they work regular hours over a defined period. 

In school terms, this could mean placing invigilators, for example, on short-term, fixed contracts related to the specific tasks of invigilation in an exam period. This would require some additional administration. It could also confirm the requirement to enter people into pension schemes, which could add costs.

On balance, this is unlikely to create large financial issues across the sector, but it will certainly change the approach schools take when engaging low-hours workers.

Overall, the bill will certainly bring changes, but schools have time to plan and to ensure policies, procedures, contracts and people strategies are all correct and amended for the expected implementation date.

Some of the measures are also designed to encourage further use of flexible working options. Proposed measures are so far relatively low-impact, but there is a clear direction of travel. This is something the education sector is trying to develop, and therefore could be beneficial.

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