Reforms in the Employment Rights Bill are expected to boost employee job security and financial wellbeing, according to an analysis by the Work Foundation.
The foundation revisited research on job insecurity, conducted in 2023, which found that 21.4 percent of UK workers (around 6.8 million people) were in severely insecure work. Researchers then estimated what the levels of job security would have been in 2023 if two key reforms in the bill had been in place at that time (the introduction of day one rights and the introduction of minimum guaranteed hours).
Analysis findings show the potential impact of these reforms in the future, researchers said.
The analysis showed that in the theoretical estimate, nearly four million more workers would have had access to secure work.
For example, the introduction of day one employment rights with a probation period of six months and the right to guaranteed hours after twelve weeks on a zero-hour contract would have reduced the number of people in severely insecure work by 1.2 million from 6.8 million (21.4 percent) to 5.6 million (17.7 percent).
Workers in moderately insecure work would also have been reduced from 34.6 percent to 25.6 percent. This is the equivalent to 2.9 million workers being pulled out of job insecurity.
Researchers found that the proportion of workers in secure jobs increased sharply by 12.6 percentage points. It rose from 44.1 percent (13.9 million workers) to 56.7 percent (17.8 million workers).
In total, 3.85 million more workers would have accessed secure employment had these two policies been in place in 2023.
The analysis suggests that the incoming changes could significantly improve employment for disadvantaged groups and sectors where insecure work is most prevalent.
For younger workers, severely insecure employment would have been reduced by 8.3 percentage points, bringing the rate for those aged 16–24 down to 38.3 percent. Black and Asian workers would have seen reductions of 4.6 and 4.5 percentage points respectively.
Impacts in certain sectors would also be substantial. In retail, an extra 150,000 l workers would move into secure employment. In social care, the proportion of workers in secure roles would have increased by 11 percentage points, from 30.8 percent to 41.8 percent.
To maximise the benefits of the bill, which is currently moving through parliament, the report recommends that the government safeguards the core purpose of the reforms in both primary and secondary legislation. It also calls for a smooth transition for employers and workers during implementation, and for guarantees around enforcement and monitoring to ensure the bill achieves its intended impact.
