On 10 October 2024, the UK government published its Employment Rights Bill. This bill includes many of the measures previously set out in the Labour Party’s “Plan to Make Work Pay” and the King’s Speech. See our July 2024 UK Employment Flash article. The government has described the bill as taking a “pro-business, pro-worker” approach.
The bill, which will now progress through the UK Parliament and may be amended as part of that process, includes wide-ranging proposed changes in 28 different areas which will affect employers, including:
The removal of the two-year qualifying period before an employee can claim unfair dismissal means that the dismissal of any employee (regardless of their length of service) will require an employer to have a fair reason to dismiss the employee and follow a fair process in relation that that dismissal. The government has confirmed that it will consult on the length of a new, statutory probation period (and the government has expressed a preference for this period being nine months) during which a “lighter-touch” dismissal process will be accepted as “fair”. The government has said that it is committed to consulting fully on these proposals and there will be no reforms to the current unfair dismissal regime until at least Autumn 2026.
For workers with no or a low number of guaranteed hours, employers will be required to periodically make an...
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