There are five sections to the Employment Rights Bill:

1. Individual Employment Rights;
2. Collective Employment Rights;
3. Pay and Conditions for School Support Staff and Adult Social Care Sectors;
4. Trade Unions and Strike Action; and
5. Enforcement Action.

This page was first published on 23 July 2024, the latest update was on 29 January 2025.

At the same time that the Employment Rights Bill was announced, Labour published their Next Steps document which lists additional reforms from the pre-election manifesto and outline Labours longer term plans.

Under the new regime the duty will be on the employer to comply, rather than on the employee to request.

The duty will be to provide:

• Guaranteed Hours the employer must make a guaranteed offer of regular hours, which reflects the hours worked in the previous defined period.
• Reasonable Notice of Shifts the employer will be required to provide notice of required and requested hours of hours. 
• Reasonable Notice of Cancellation or Change of Shifts where a shift is cancelled or the day of work or start or finish time is changing the employer will be required to provide reasonable notice to the employee.
• Compensation will payable to the employee for previously agreed shifts that are cancelled, moved or curtailed at short notice.

A consultation was launched in late October and closed on 2 December 2024. The consultation sought views on the extension of the provisions to agency workers and specifically whether agency workers should be offered guaranteed hours by the employment agency, or by the end hirer and who should be reasonable for serving notice of shifts and cancellation or curtailment of shifts.

There are a number of options on what a fair dismissal will look like:

• Dismissal during, or at the end of, the statutory period may be added to the list of 5 fair reasons for dismissal;
• A minimum statutory procedure may be introduced that must be followed to make the dismissal fair. (Remember those Statutory Dismissal and Disciplinary Procedures we all loved!!!).

So, careful monitoring of probationers is going to become really important. Extending probation should be rare and failing to make an assessment at the end so the employee continues in their employment by default should be avoided.

Statutory Sick Pay is currently £116.75 per week. The rate of payment for those below the Lower Earnings Limit will become a percentage of regular pay.

A consultation was launched in late October and closed on 4 December 2024. The consultation sought views on what the percentage rate should be for those who earn less than the Lower Earnings Limit.

Employees who feel they have been unfairly dismissed will be able to make a claim for unfair dismissal.

A consultation was launched in late October and closed on 2 December 2024. The consultation sought views on the maximum protective award a tribunal can provide to an employee where an employer has failed to comply with the consultation obligations (currently 90 days). Views were sought on whether the employer should be instructed to re-employ the individual or pay normal wages and benefits until the date of full hearing or pay normal wages and benefits from the date of the claim to the date of the full hearing.

• There will be a requirement for a 10-day notice period for industrial action (increased from seven days in the initial draft of the ERB).
• The Government will use secondary legislation to provide the CAC with a framework for fines to be issued for non-compliance with the right of access.
• The current ERB proposal to repeal the 50% industrial action ballot turnout threshold will not be enacted immediately but will require separate regulations, the aim being to dovetail this change with the introduction of e-balloting.
• The current mandate for industrial action is valid for six months before it expires. The ERB will be amended to include a provision extending the mandate to 12 months.
• To address the issue of mass recruitment into the bargaining unit to thwart trade union recognition, the maximum number in the bargaining unit will be set at the date when the CAC receives the application for recognition from the trade union. It can go down but it cannot go up for the purposes of the recognition process.
• The ERB will be amended to allow access arrangements to include virtual access (either solely or alongside physical access).
• Unions will no longer need to ballot members every ten years regarding whether they wish to maintain a political fund. This will be replaced with a requirement that unions give members notice of their right to opt out of the political fund every ten years.

The Government’s consultation response also makes clear commitments to industrial relations once the Employment Rights Bill has received Royal Assent. These include:

• Delivering e-balloting and workplace balloting for trade union ballots
• Lowering the admissibility requirements for the statutory trade union recognition ballot process.
• Using secondary legislation to deliver greater rights and protections for trade union representatives and members