In this edition of 鈥業n Conversation With鈥︹�� interviews, we talk to Laura Tracey, Partner - Freeths.
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Laura is a seasoned employment law expert with over 16 years of experience, advising on all areas of employment law. She provides valuable support to employers of all sizes, including national and international operators, with a focus on 蜜桃直播 based businesses and GMCC members.
She has specialist experience of advising on acquisitions and disposals, guiding businesses, individual shareholders and investors through the employment aspects of transactions. Her practical and straightforward approach, supports clients to navigate complex employment issues efficiently.
Whether it's managing day-to-day HR issues or addressing employment law challenges, her dedication to providing clear, actionable guidance makes her a valuable resource for Chamber members seeking to achieve their business goals.
We caught up with Laura to pick her brain on the ever important and evolving topic of employment law, something which is crucial for a business to operate smoothly whilst maintaining a positive working environment.
In this conversation we鈥檒l be covering a range of topics surrounding employment law including hybrid working, employment law updates, diversity & inclusion, workplace safety and more.
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Laura, It鈥檚 great to have you here to provide some valuable insight into the subject. Could you give us a brief overview of your background and journey into employment law and your time at Freeths so far?
鈥淚 had quite a traditional route into the legal profession because I studied law at university, specifically employment law. I find it interesting because of the interaction between people, humans and their stories with commercial and business considerations; balancing those is challenging and also means the work is really varied , no two days are the same.
I head up the 蜜桃直播 Employment Team at Freeths and we cover the full range of employment issues.鈥�
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And, what are the key challenges you're seeing businesses facing in the current employment law landscape?
鈥淚 think the world of work has changed so much in the last few years. In particular, the increase in demand for flexible working and what that means for businesses. Over the last few years, our clients have needed advice on getting people back into the office post COVID or moving people to remote roles or trying to effectively manage a hybrid way of working.
So that's been challenging and the law in that area has changed this year as well because since the 6th of April this year [2024], there's been a right to request flexible working from day one of employment, so we expect to see the number of requests rising.
I suppose that's one of the challenges, I think the other rising challenge is supporting employee鈥檚 health and well-being. There are reported long wait times on the NHS, and more people who are perhaps on long term sickness-absence because they can鈥檛 get operations and procedures. It can be hard for employers to strike the right balance between managing absence and ill-health as an operational issue, whilst also maintaining an appropriate level of support. Long-term sickness is something that we advise on quite regularly."
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And off the back of that, what would you say has been the most significant employment law update in 2024 so far?
鈥淚n 2024 some of the legal changes we鈥檝e seen so far are to flexible working, carer鈥檚 leave and protection against redundancy for employees who are pregnant or have been on maternity leave. The proposals by the Labour government under the Employment Rights Bill are likely to effect significant change. In particular, the removal of any minimum service requirement to bring an unfair dismissal claim (currently two years) has employers concerned about the impact, and in particular the increase in Tribunal claims. We don鈥檛 have much detail around timing yet so it鈥檚 a case of 鈥榳atch this space鈥�. 鈥�
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Another major priority for businesses regarding employment law is Diversity and Inclusion. What are the current requirements on diversity and inclusion and equal opportunities and are they likely to change under new government?
鈥淭he current requirements on diversity inclusion are primarily governed by the Equality Act, which is the legislation that protects individuals from discrimination based on protected characteristics, and that also imposes certain duties on employers. For example, employees who are pregnant or on maternity leave have got enhanced protections. Employers have duties to make reasonable adjustments for people who have disabilities.
Labour did also set out some proposals to change discrimination law, such as to extend equal pay claims based on ethnicity and disability, whereas, at the moment equal pay is only based on sex. The other proposal was to introduce mandatory ethnicity and pay gap reporting for employers that have got over 250 employees, and again, that's only based on gender at the moment.
Diversity, inclusion and equal opportunities should be a core focus for employers.鈥�
What would you say are some of the common pitfalls businesses face in promoting equal opportunities, and how can they avoid them?
鈥淚 think that the main issue [for businesses] is when there are superficial efforts to promote D&I and they adopt a 鈥榯ick box鈥� approach.
A real lack of commitment from a business to promote equal opportunities is fatal to any success, there needs to be commitment from leadership and very clear actions and measurable goals. An equal opportunities audit is a great place to start here and we have conducted these for clients. This helps a client consider where they are up to in their equal opportunities journey, identify where the areas of focus should be and set out how they might get there鈥�
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Is this something Freeths can support with?
鈥淵es, Freeths have developed different tools to support employers and in particular one of the things we did was we developed an e-learning programme specifically for diversity, equality and inclusion, which can be rolled out to workforces and covers topics like creating inclusive workforces, preventing sexual harassment and preventing bullying. This programme can be done on desktops and mobiles which is useful when you have quite a dispersed workforce with employees at home or across multiple sites. The e-learning helps support with culture change and minimises legal risk arising from these issues鈥�
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Yeah, that's great. Another thing we touched on earlier was about home working, how during COVID, home working was the norm. I think a lot of employers would want to know how to deal with requests to work from home and do they need a policy in place?
鈥淪ince April, it's become a day one right for employees to request flexible working and there is specific legislation that governs how a statutory request should be made and responded to. There are stipulations around the time frames for responding and the reasons it can be rejected. Whilst it's not mandatory to have a flexible working policy, it's a good idea to have a written policy in place so that you are making sure that you are following the legal process
correctly. This obviously then reduces your legal risk, but also supports employees in understanding how to make a request and what the process will be.鈥�
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Thank you for that insight. Another hot topic at the moment for businesses and employers alike is the rise of sexual harassment cases on the agenda. What steps can a business take to protect their employees and ensure safe workspace?
鈥淵es definitely, Sexual harassment is a really, really hot topic at the moment, that's subject to new legislation from October as well. From October, there'll be a new duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. This means an employer needs to take positive steps to prevent it, rather than just deal with it properly when it happens. So that's really quite a fundamental change.
And the first thing I'd recommend for employers is to conduct a risk assessment to understand where there might be particular areas of risk for sexual harassment in their business.鈥�
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What are some potential areas of risk assessment?
鈥淏ig power imbalances between senior people, supervisors and subordinates, a big gender imbalance, for example, if this field is quite male dominated, it can be more likely.
Activities with alcohol potentially carry a higher risk (whether the events are inside or outside of work) or in certain sectors, for example in retail and hospitality or you've got employees coming into contact with third parties such as customers, all those things increase the potential risk of sexual harassment and need to be considered. You can't really tackle it until you know what your risk factors are.鈥�
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It鈥檚 also important to have a transparent workplace culture.
鈥淵es a safe workplace and making sure you've got the processes in place to allow people to report harassment easily and without fear of recrimination.
A study by the TUC found that 79% of people of women who experience sexual harassment don't report it, so we鈥檝e got to think about making it easier.
What part can everybody in the organisation play? We need employees to know the importance of bystander intervention. I think that sometimes gets overlooked and is a really effective way of tackling sexual harassment and creating a positive and open culture which is free of harassment.鈥�
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How can businesses remain vigilant and aware of what's happening within their organisations to identify the risk factors?
鈥淚鈥檇 say training and education is a big one, we've done a lot of work helping employers prepare for the new duty on sexual harassment such as the HR Matters webinar with the Chamber on preventing sexual harassment. We also offer bespoke training to workforces on what's acceptable behaviour and what they should do if they're a victim of sexual harassment.
Another thing would be listening to your workforce, using feedback reviews and anonymous surveys to help encourage a more open, collaborative culture. It鈥檚 also important to conduct exit interviews, you can really learn valuable information about what you could be doing as an employer to improve.鈥�
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That makes sense. So, looking to the future, are there any other key challenges, opportunities you see for businesses, HR professionals in 2025?
鈥淭here's so much legislative change coming. I think one of the challenges is just keeping up with that and your legal obligations. Looking to the future, I find the increase in use of technology and AI and the impact on people a really fascinating development.
Some of the questions are how do you use AI in a safe, non-discriminatory way? What does it mean for people's jobs? Are they going to be displaced? Do they need new skills? Will retraining be important? I think that's all really, really fascinating to see how that plays out and what the impact will be. And I'm sure it's on the agenda for a lot of HR people.鈥�
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And can people stay up to date through Freeths?
鈥淵es. HR professionals can sign up to our mailing list, which means that they receive a monthly update on the significant employment law changes in the previous month. That might be new cases which have significant importance, it might be government consultations, or it might be new legislation that's come in. It's a quick read so it's not too onerous for busy HR professionals. Similarly, attending our bi-monthly webinars 鈥淗R Matters鈥� with the Chamber are a great source of practical guidance on areas of employment law.鈥�