The Employment Rights Bill cleared the final Parliamentary hurdle on 16 December, when the House of Lords agreed it. The Government had to make a major concession to unfair dismissal rights in order to get the Bill through the House of Lords. This article focuses on that change (and some other late changes to unfair dismissal law) and the possible implications.
Changes to unfair dismissal proposals
In order to get the Bill through Parliament, the Government had to make some last-minute amendments to what was seen as one of the key proposals in the Bill, namely day one unfair dismissal rights. We know from talking to clients that this is one of the proposed changes employers were most concerned about and the good news is that the proposal is no more. However, the approach that has been passed into law still significantly increases risks for employers.
The Government had been struggling to get the Employment Rights Bill passed, due to the House of Lords repeatedly rejecting some of the proposals. They therefore decided to compromise in order for some of the measures in the Bill to come in as soon as possible, rather than risk a substantial delay to all of their proposals.
As a result, there are three key changes to the provisions in relation to unfair dismissal:
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