Overhauling workers’ rights could cost businesses around £5bn a year, the government has said.
The Employment Rights Bill, which aims to tackle low pay and poor working conditions, is being debated by MPs today as it passes through its next stage in parliament.
Within the bill are a series of reforms branded the biggest overhaul in a generation,including granting workers protection from unfair dismissal from the first day of their employment, the right to statutory sick pay from the first day of illness and the right to flexible working.
Unions will also be given the right to access workplaces and there will be a ban on “exploitative” zero hours contracts.
But in the government’s own impact assessment published today, the Department for Business and Trade acknowledged that the new measures could cost businesses up to £5bn a year as they adjust to the new legislation and take on administrative and compliance costs.
It also warned that the volume of cases reaching mediation service and employment tribunal could increase by around 15% if there are disagreements between employees and employers over rights.
The impact assessment is the first time the government has revealed the cost of the reforms that are being spearheaded by Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds.
Unions have praised the bill as “life changing” for millions of workers and say it will also benefit employers in the form of a healthier and happy workforce and boosted productivity.
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However, Kevin Hollinrake, the shadow business secretary, criticised the bill as “bad for jobs and wages” and “particularly bad for small businesses”.
He said “day one rights” to sick pay and an employment tribunal as well as the right to demand a four-day weekcould be “existential for many small businesses”.
“Labour need to stop, listen and think again, at the very least exempting SMEs from this catastrophe,” he posted on X.
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5:42
Chancellor on P&O row, growth and workers’ rights
The right to statutory sick pay from the first day of illness will end the current three-day waiting period and remove the lower earnings limit, while the right to flexible working will mean that employers who refuse requests will have to demonstrate why they think their decision is reasonable against eight criteria.
The bill will also introduce day one rights to paid and unpaid paternity leave, meaning 30,000 new fathers will qualify for paternity leave. Currently, fathers have to be employed for 26 or 52 weeks respectively to receive the benefits.
In the economic impact assessment, the government acknowledged there could be “unintended consequences”, including the risk that “higher labour costs could reduce demand for work, damaging the employment prospects of the same workers the package is trying to support”.
The government said that despite such risks, the package will be “significantly positive for society” owing to improved wellbeing and health.
Although the bill is going through its second reading in the House of Commons, the consultation required means officials do not expect many of the 28 measures in the bill to reach the statute book until autumn 2026 at the earliest.
Bosch will cut up to 5,500 jobs as it struggles with slow electric vehicle sales and competition from Chinese imports.
It is the latest blow to the European car industry after Volkswagen and Ford announced thousands of job cuts in the last month.
Cheaper Chinese-made electric cars have made it trickier for European manufacturers to remain competitive while demand has weakened for the driver assistance and automated driving solutions made by Bosch.
The company said a slower-than-expected transition to electric, software-controlled vehicles was partly behind the cuts, which are being made in the car parts division.
Demand for new cars has fallen overall in Germany as the economy has slowed, with recession only narrowly avoided in recent years.
The final number of job cuts has yet to be agreed with employee representatives. Bosch said they would be carried out in a “socially responsible” way.
About half the job reductions would be at locations in Germany.
Bosch, the world’s biggest car parts supplier, has already committed to not making layoffs in Germany until 2027 for many employees, and until 2029 for a subsection of its workforce. It said this pact would remain in place.
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The job cuts would be made over approximately the next eight years.
The Gerlingen site near Stuttgart will lose some 3,500 jobs by the end of 2027, reducing the workforce developing car software, advanced driver assistance and automated driving technology.
Other losses will be at the Hildesheim site near Hanover, where 750 jobs will go by end the of 2032, and the plant in Schwaebisch Gmund, which will lose about 1,300 roles between 2027 and 2030.
Its remaining German plants are also set to be downsized.
While Germany has been hit hard by cuts, it is not bearing the brunt alone.
Earlier this week, Ford announced plans to cut 4,000 jobs across Europe – including 800 in the UK – as the industry fretted over weak electric vehicle (EV) sales that could see firms fined more for missing government targets.
Cambridge University’s wealthiest college is putting the long-term lease of London’s O2 arena up for sale.
Sky News has learnt that Trinity College has instructed property advisers to begin sounding out prospective investors about a deal.
Trinity, which ranks among Britain’s biggest landowners, acquired the site in 2009 for a reported £24m.
The O2, which shrugged off its ‘white elephant’ status in the aftermath of its disastrous debut in 2000, has since become one of the world’s leading entertainment venues.
Operated by Anschutz Entertainment Group, it has played host to a wide array of music, theatrical and sporting events over nearly a quarter of a century.
The opportunity to acquire the 999-year lease is likely to appeal to long-term income investment funds, with real estate funds saying they expected it to fetch tens of millions of pounds.
Trinity College bought the lease from Lend Lease and Quintain, the property companies which had taken control of the Millennium Dome site in 2002 for nothing.
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The college was founded by Henry VIII in 1546 and has amassed a vast property portfolio.
It was unclear on Friday why it had decided to call in advisers at this point to undertake a sale process.
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Trinity College Cambridge did not respond to two requests for comment.
Clothing stores were particularly affected, where sales fell by 3.1% over the month as October temperatures remained high, putting shoppers off winter purchases.
Retailers across the board, however, reported consumers held back on spending ahead of the budget, the ONS added.
Just a month earlier, in September, spending rose by 0.1%.
Despite the October fall, the ONS pointed out that the trend is for sales increases on a yearly and three-monthly basis and for them to be lower than before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Retail sales figures are significant as household consumption measured by the data is the largest expenditure across the UK economy.
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The data can also help track how consumers feel about their financial position and the economy more broadly.
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Business owners worried after budget
Consumer confidence could be bouncing back
Also released on Friday was news of a rise in consumer confidence in the weeks following the budget and the US election.
Market research company GfK’s long-running consumer confidence index “jumped” in November, the company said, as people intended to make Black Friday purchases.
It noted that inflation has yet to be tamed with people still feeling acute cost-of-living pressures.
It will take time for the UK’s new government to deliver on its promise of change, it added.
A quirk in the figures
Economic research firm Pantheon Macro said the dates included in the ONS’s retail sales figures could have distorted the headline figure.
The half-term break, during which spending typically increases, was excluded from the monthly statistics as the cut-off point was 26 October.
With cold weather gripping the UK this week clothing sales are likely to rise as delayed winter clothing purchases are made, Pantheon added.