New legislation came into force on 6 April 2019 which ensures that all UK workers receive a pay slip.

According to the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, this means almost 300,000 workers who previously did not receive a pay slip will now do so starting from this week, including those on casual and zero-hours contracts.

The new legislation will also ensure that workers are told how many hours they have worked, making it simpler for workers to make sure they are being paid in full, and at the correct rate.

The new law forms part of the government’s Good Work Plan, a package of workplace reforms which promised new rights to millions of flexible workers. The Good Work Plan formed the government’s response to the independent Taylor Review on the impact of modern working practices and includes ambitious reforms.

Last week, Parliament approved the first package of Good Work Plan legislation. This includes the scrapping of the Swedish Derogation, a legal loophole which enables some firms to pay agency workers less than permanent staff. The government said that up to 120,000 agency workers will benefit from the repeal of the Swedish Derogation. The repeal is set to come into effect for agency workers from 6 April 2020.

The package also includes a new entitlement to a day one statement of rights setting out details of a new employee’s leave allowance, which will affect 1.5 million people. The government added that all workers will also be better protected from employers who have demonstrated malice, spite or gross oversight, with the maximum additional penalty that Employment Tribunals can use quadrupling from £5,000 to £20,000.

Furthermore, the package of workplace reforms stated that new agency workers will also benefit from a key facts page before signing up with an agency, which will provide clarity, particularly around their pay.

Employees will also have a “stronger voice in the workplace.” Employees already have a legal right to make a request to be informed and consulted about issues at work but the threshold for them to request these arrangements will be reduced from 10% to 2%.