Following on from the Taylor Review, the government have released their plans to ensure “good quality work for all” with a significant focus on part-time and flexible workers.

At present, the “Good Work Plan” is a list of proposals rather than a piece of legalisation. The main proposals are:

• Providing a day one right to a written statement of terms and conditions for workers, including eligibility for sick leave, pay levels and maternity and paternity leave;
• Increasing the reference period when calculating a weeks’ pay for holiday purposes from 12 weeks to 52 weeks.
• Streamlining the employment status test to avoid the misclassification of employees/workers as self-employed;
• A right to request a fixed working pattern after 26 weeks of working on a non-fixed pattern;
• Ensuring all workers are provided with a clear breakdown of who pays them and any deductions from wages;
• Changing rules surrounding the continuity of employment so that a break of up to four weeks does not interrupt continuity (the break is currently one week);
• Increasing the penalty that tribunals can award for employer’s aggravating conduct;
• Abolishing the “Swedish Derogation” which, in certain circumstances, allows employers to pay agency workers less than their own workers; and
• A request to the Low Pay Commission to consider the impact of a higher minimum wage for workers on zero hour contracts.