UK: Employment Rights Bill: Amendments to Bill and Responses to Consultations
Authors: Frances Ross and Corinna Harris
The UK government has introduced significant changes to the Employment Rights Bill and published the results of its recent consultations.
We cover some of the key developments here – further details are set out in: What employers need to know about the latest updates to the Employment Rights Bill.
Collective redundancy consultation: Originally, the Bill proposed to change the rules so that collective consultation would be required whenever an employer proposed to make 20 or more redundancies, regardless of whether they are employed at one site or not. Under the new proposals, where an employer proposes to make redundancies at more than one site, separate regulations will set out the threshold for deciding whether the obligation to collectively consult is triggered.
The government has confirmed it plans to double the protective award that can be awarded by Tribunals where employers fail to meet their obligations to collectively consult – from 90 days to 180 days’ gross pay per employee.
Fire and rehire: The recent consultation considered whether interim relief should be available to employees who bring unfair dismissal claims in “fire and rehire” and “fire and replace” scenarios. While the government won’t be taking this forward, it is pressing ahead with its plans to make the practice of “fire and rehire” automatically unfair except in very limited circumstances – where an employer is in severe financial distress. In those (narrow) situations, the employer would need to comply with the Code of Practice on dismissal and re-engagement.
Zero hours contracts and agency workers: The response to the consultation confirms that the same protections will apply to agency workers as zero or low hours workers: they too will have a right to be offered guaranteed hours contracts and have a right to reasonable notice of shifts and any changes to their shifts
Another key change is a new provision which will allow a collective agreement to contract out of the rights to guaranteed hours and reasonable notice of shifts, for both workers and agency workers, provided certain formalities are complied with.
Dismissals during and after pregnancy: The government has given further insight into its plans to crack down on dismissals of employees who are pregnant, on maternity leave or within six months of returning to work. An amendment to the Bill provides for regulations to set out specific notices and “other procedures” that must be followed. The explanatory notes indicate that the intention is to ban such dismissals except in specific circumstances. We will need to wait for the regulations to be published to see exactly what will be required in practice.
Enforcement of employment rights and protections: The Bill creates a new state enforcement agency, Fair Work Agency, which will initially take over duties covered by existing enforcement agencies. Amendments to the Bill provide new enforcement powers including, the ability to bring Tribunal proceedings on behalf of a worker where they have the right to bring a claim but it appears the worker is not bringing one.
Key Action Points for Human Resources and In-house Counsel
The latest amendments will not be the final position on the Bill as further changes are likely to be made as it works its way through Parliament. The Bill has now passed its third reading in the House of Commons and will progress to the House of Lords.
We do not yet have a timeline of when the reforms will come into force. Many of the changes require commencement regulations to bring them into force, and much of the detail will be set out in substantive regulations – some of which will require further consultation which is expected later this year.
The ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting consultation has now been published. It seeks views on how to implement mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting for large employers. The consultation closes on 10 June 2025.
