The Employment Rights Bill has entered its final parliamentary stages this month, with the House of Commons rejecting all but the most straightforward amendments to the Employment Rights Bill proposed by the House of Lords.

The amendments rejected by the House of Commons in this respect, include:

• Replacing the day one right to claim unfair dismissal with a six-month qualifying period on the basis they considered it appropriate for protection from unfair dismissal to apply from day one of employment.
• Altering the requirement for employers to offer a guaranteed hours contract to zero-hours, low-hour, and agency workers, making it a right for workers to request one on the basis they considered it appropriate for workers who meet the qualifying criteria to receive a guaranteed hours offer.
• Defining “short notice” on compensation for shift changes and cancellations for zero-hour, low-hour, and agency workers as less than 48 hours on the basis accepting it would pre-empt consultation and limit the government’s discretion.
• Expanding who can accompany a worker at disciplinary and grievance hearings to include a “certified professional companion” on the basis its acceptance would likely lead to an increase in the cost, complexity and length of such hearings.
• Extending whistleblowing protections and placing a requirement on large employers to investigate protected disclosures on the basis these measures were considered inappropriate.
• Softening trade union reforms on industrial action ballots to retain the 50% turn out threshold on the basis they continued to consider it appropriate to remove this provision.
• The Bill now returns to the House of Lords where peers will vote on whether to agree the Bill or to reinstate some of their previous amendments and thus enter a period of ‘ping-pong’ whereby a bill moves backwards and forwards between the Houses until it is finally agreed. Only once it is agreed between the Houses can it move forward to Royal Assent. 

Given this position, it is now anticipated that Royal Assent will take place in October 2025 although the implementation of the reforms will be phased in over time, beginning in April 2026 and continuing into 2027.