Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Act 2023
The Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Act 2023 has received Royal Assent and is expected to come into force in September 2024. It’s objective is to give workers and agency workers the right to request more predictable terms and conditions of work. This could include hours of work, days of work or period of engagement.
It is not yet clear what period of employment is necessary for workers to be eligible to make a request, although eligible agency workers who have achieved the 12 week qualifying period (as defined by AWR), will be able to make a request to either their labour provider, or labour user and will be able to request a contract of employment consistent with the contracts of their comparators (again, as defined under AWR).
Requests may be refused, on a limited number of grounds:
- The burden of additional costs,
- Detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand,
- Detrimental impact on the recruitment of staff,
- Detrimental impact on other aspects of the labour provider or labour user’s business,
- Insufficiency of work during the periods the agency worker proposes to work,
- Planned structural changes
- Such other grounds as the Secretary of State may specify by regulations.
A maximum of 2 applications can be made in any 12-month period and the application must specify the change being applied for and the date it should take effect.
Employers will be required to deal with any requests in a reasonable manner and notify the worker of their decision within one month.
If a request is granted then employers must offer the new terms within two weeks of granting the request. Employers cannot make detrimental changes to other contractual terms at the same time as making the changes required as a result of the approved request for predictability.
More guidance is expected in the form of Regulations and an Acas draft Code of Practice for consultation in the Autumn.
Once full guidance is available, ALP will produce a comprehensive brief and an accompanying webinar.