This month’s updates emphasise transparency and fairness in employment practices. The ICO issued guidance for AI recruitment tools, while the Home Office piloted its new ‘Sponsor UK’ system. A House of Lords report urged stronger action on modern slavery, and new Employment Rights Bill factsheets from the DBT clarified worker protections. Government consultations are underway on agency worker rights, fire and rehire, industrial relations, and statutory sick pay, with upcoming deadlines in December 2024.
- Data Protection: Making AI recruitment tools better at protecting jobseekers’ information rights
- Immigration: ‘Sponsor UK’ system rollout commences with GAE private beta pilot, and other guidance updates
- Modern Slavery: UK’s approach to modern slavery falls behind other nations’ progress
- New legislation: The Department for Business and Trade publishes Employment Rights Bill factsheets
- Government Consultations: New consultations launched on the application of zero-hours contract measures for agency workers, on collective redundancy and fire and rehire, on creating a modern framework for industrial relations and on how to strengthen statutory sick pay
Data Protection: Making AI recruitment tools better at protecting jobseekers’ information rights
The ICO has issued a set of recommendations to AI developers and providers of recruitment tools to ensure that jobseekers are not being unfairly excluded from roles or having their privacy compromised.
The ICO audited several providers and developers of AI tools for recruitment and made almost 300 recommendations. These included processing personal information fairly and keeping candidates informed about how the tool would use their information. Ian Hulme, Director of Assurance, said: “Our report signals our expectations for the use of AI in recruitment, and we’re calling on other developers and providers to also action our recommendations as a priority. That’s so they can innovate responsibly while building trust in their tools from both recruiters and jobseekers.” They have published their recommendations in a new audit report available on the ICO website.
Immigration: ‘Sponsor UK’ system rollout commences with GAE private beta pilot, and other guidance updates
Updates to various Worker and Temporary Worker sponsor guidance documents on 24 October 2024 confirm that the Home Office has commenced the roll-out of its new ‘Sponsor UK’ IT system, which will apply initially to invited participating sponsors on a private beta pilot in the Temporary Worker Government Authorised Exchange (GAE) route. Such sponsors are able to use the new system from 24 October 2024, and a new Annex GA1 to the ‘Sponsor a Government Authorised Exchange Worker’ guidance sets out in detail how the new system will work in its private beta form. Related amendments have been made to the general sponsor guidance documents to exclude these sponsors from various aspects (the rest of the general guidance will continue to apply to them), and to add certain additional duties. Details of the private beta pilot, and other guidance updates are set out below.
Modern Slavery: UK’s approach to modern slavery falls behind other nations’ progress
The ‘House of Lords’ Modern Slavery Act 2015 Committee has published a report ‘The Modern Slavery Act 2015: becoming world-leading again‘. This finds that recent changes to UK immigration laws have weakened victim support, while fragmented labour market regulations hinder effective responses to evolving modern slavery issues, particularly in the care sector. Additionally, while the Modern Slavery Act 2015 aimed to enhance supply chain transparency, global best practices now require companies to conduct due diligence and actively eliminate modern slavery in their operations. The report makes the following recommendations regarding these issues:
- Migrants who have been trafficked as victims of modern slavery should lie at the heart of government policy and of any future legislation about illegal migration;
- The Government should establish an arms-length Single Enforcement Body to ensure stronger compliance with relevant labour rights and standards;
- As a minimum, the Single Enforcement Body should act as a single point of contact for labour exploitation across all sectors;
- The Government should introduce legislation requiring companies meeting the threshold to undertake modern slavery due diligence in their supply chains and to take reasonable steps to address problems; and
- It is recommended that the Government consult businesses on potential changes, looking closely at the issues raised in the Report and giving due consideration to small and medium sized companies’ ability to meet any new requirements.
New legislation: The Department for Business and Trade publishes Employment Rights Bill factsheets
The Department for Business and Trade has published factsheets which set out what each policy or framework within the Employment Rights Bill aims to do and explains how it will work. For more details, see the factsheets here.
Government Consultations: New consultations launched on the application of zero-hours contract measures for agency workers, on collective redundancy and fire and rehire, on creating a modern framework for industrial relations and on how to strengthen statutory sick pay
The government has launched a consultation to seek views on the application of measures to address the one-sided flexibility in zero hours contracts. The government is considering to introduce a right to guaranteed hours based on the hours worked regularly and a right to reasonable notice for shifts, along with payment for shifts cancelled or shortened on short notice. The consultation seeks feedback specifically on the application of these measures to agency workers. The government will be consulting at a later date on the implementation of these two measures more generally.
More details can be read here. The consultation closes at 11:59pm on 2 December 2024.
Government launches consultation on collective redundancy and fire and rehire
The government has launched an open consultation seeking feedback on measures to enhance the collective redundancy framework and protect employees from fire and rehire practices. For the collective redundancy framework, the government wants input on a proposal to extend the maximum period of the protective award that a tribunal can award. The government is considering to either increase the protective award that a tribunal can award from 90 to 180 days or to remove the cap on the protective award entirely. The government is also seeking views on whether interim relief should be provided to employees who bring claims for the protective award. For fire and rehire practises, the government is seeking feedback on whether interim relief should be available to employees filing an unfair dismissal claim under the new right which will be introduced by the Employment Rights Bill.
The consultation details can be read here and it closes at 11:59pm on 2 December 2024.
The government begins consultation on creating a modern framework for industrial relations
The government has launched a consultation to modernise the laws governing trade unions and invites feedback on various specific measures. The consultation can be read in more detail here and will close at 11:59pm on 2 December 2024.
The government opens consultation to strengthen statutory sick pay
The consultation asks respondents what the percentage replacement rate should be for those earning below the current rate of statutory sick pay and will close at 11:59pm on 4 December 2024. The consultation was promised in the government’s ‘Next Steps to Make Work Pay’ document which was published alongside the Employment Rights Bill.
Further Information:
If you would like any additional information, please contact Anne-Marie Pavitt or Sophie Banks on: hello@dixcartuk.com
