Government announces legislative plans for 2009

In December 2008, the UK government announced its legislative agenda for the new parliamentary session in 2009. This included several items of employment-related legislation, among them a major Equality Bill, legislation reforming education, training and apprenticeships, and a bill modifying the welfare system. The government also confirmed that it would extend parents’ rights to flexible working. The social partners gave the plans a mixed reaction.

Each new session of the UK parliament is opened by the Queen’s Speech, written by the government and delivered by the monarch, which sets out the government’s legislative plans. The Queen’s Speech delivered on 3 December 2008 included several employment-related bills that the Labour Party government plans to introduce in 2009. These include a major Equality Bill, legislation concerning education, training and apprenticeships, and a Welfare Reform Bill. The government also confirmed that it would be granting flexible working arrangements for parents of older children.

Equality Bill

The Equality Bill will consolidate nine major pieces of legislation and about 100 statutory instruments into a single act, with the aim of making the law more accessible and easier to understand, as well as clarifying rights and responsibilities. The bill will also make a number of substantive amendments to existing legislation, including:

• measures to increase transparency and reveal workplace inequality. In response to earlier consultations on the Equality Bill (UK0807059I), the government stated that this will involve prohibiting clauses in employment contracts that prevent workers from discussing their own pay;

• extending positive action to allow employers to make their organisation more representative. This will mean that, when selecting between two equally qualified candidates for a job, employers will be allowed to take into account the underrepresentation of disadvantaged groups, such as women and people from ethnic minorities.

Flexible working for parents of older children

Although not mentioned in the Queen’s Speech, the government confirmed on the same day that the parents of children up to the age of 16 years will be given the right to request flexible working arrangements from their employer. This right currently applies only to parents of children under six years of age or to those of disabled children under 18 years of age, as well as to employees with adult dependants.

Although the government had made a commitment (UK0806049I) to extend the right to parents of older children, there was speculation that this would be postponed as part of a recent review of pending legislation, which aimed to ease burdens on businesses during the current economic downturn. However, the extended right has survived this process and will come into force in April 2009.

Education, training and apprenticeships

A Children, Skills and Learning Bill will reform education, training and apprenticeships. With regard to vocational training, the bill will provide a new statutory basis for the apprenticeship system and introduce an entitlement to an apprenticeship place for all suitably qualified young people from 2013. The legislation will also implement a previously announced increase in the minimum age until which young people are required to participate in education and training – that is, from 16 to 17 years of age in 2013 and to 18 years of age in 2015.

To help workers obtain the time off needed to engage in studies to advance their careers and realise their potential, the bill will also give employees a right to request time off for training, which employers must consider properly. This right is modelled on the aforementioned right to request flexible working. Earlier government consultations indicated that the right would apply to employees with at least 26 weeks of service and to training aimed at improving productivity and performance. Employers would have to consider requests seriously and could refuse them where there is a good business reason to do so.

Welfare reform

A Welfare Reform Bill will modify social security and benefit systems to improve support and incentives for people to move from benefits into work, and to provide greater choice and control for disabled people. The central objectives of the bill are as follows, namely to:

• achieve an employment rate of 80%;

• reduce the number of incapacity benefit claimants by one million persons;

• help 300,000 lone parents and one million older people into work;

• provide ‘equality for disabled people’ by 2025.

Reactions to measures

The Deputy Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), John Cridland, criticised the decision to implement the extended right to request flexible working in April 2009, rather than later, referring to it as a ‘mistake’, which will ‘place an extra administrative burden on companies at a difficult time’. While Mr Cridland conceded that the new right to request training will build on existing company good practice, he added that it ‘must ensure employers only accept requests for business-relevant training, to help build a stronger skills base and a more competitive economy’. CBI is also relieved that the government does not plan to introduce mandatory pay equality audits.

By contrast, the Trades Union Congress (TUC), while welcoming the Equality Bill and the extended right to request flexible working, expressed disappointment that the bill will not require employers to perform equal pay audits. The General Secretary of TUC, Brendan Barber, commented: ‘Until employers are made to show why they pay different workers at different rates, and justify any discrepancies based on gender, the pay gap will never close.’

Mark Carley, SPIRE Associates/IRRU, University of Warwick