The impact of the new Labour Government's "Day One" rights - Jo Keddie’s views featured in The Lawyer

Head of Employment at Forsters, Jo Keddie, shared her views on the most significant changes that UK employers are going to have to grapple with. Interviewed for The Lawyer’s Election Special podcast, Jo discussed:

• Individual Rights from Day 1
• Probationary and Hiring Going forwards
• The right to disconnect

“Giving all workers more rights from day one will be a significant shift for employers, as is Labour’s plan to do away with the two-year minimum period for bringing an unfair dismissal claim.

We expect this will result in far more litigation in the Employment Tribunal, which is already overworked with cases taking well over a year to be heard, as well as far more focus by employers on recruitment policies and dismissal strategies.

Indeed, the first impact of a Labour government may be a spike in dismissals as the employers look to remove any employees with less than two years’ service where there is any doubt over their long-term future.”

Jo’s insights were also published in The Lawyer’s 2024 election live reaction blog and Law.com’s article ‘Prime Minister Starmer: How Labour Policies Could Disrupt Law Firm LLP’s'.

For further details on the new Labour Government’s 5 key employment law changes, read the Employment team’s article here.