A few weeks ago, I reported that the Government had introduced several significant amendments to the Employment Rights Bill, affecting fire and rehire, bereavement leave and non-disclosure agreements. For more detail, see: An eleventh-hour shake-up to the Employment Rights Bill: what employers need to know.
What I didn’t mention at the time is that several non-Government amendments had also been proposed by members of the House of Lords. Such amendments rarely succeed without Government backing; however, in a surprising turn of events a number of changes have been voted through by the Lords. If retained, they could substantially reshape key provisions of the Bill. Whether they survive the Bill’s return to the House of Commons in September, though, remains to be seen.
The House of Lords has recently voted through several opposition-proposed amendments to the Employment Rights Bill during its report stage in July 2025. Here are the key changes that were approved:
• Unfair dismissal: in probably the most significant change, the House of Lords voted to reduce the qualifying period for unfair dismissal from two years to six months. This is in contrast to the Government’s Manifesto position to make unfair dismissal a day one right, with an "initial period of employment" for certain types of dismissal.
• Right to request guaranteed hours: instead of a implementing a duty on employers to offer a guaranteed hours contract to eligible workers, the...
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