Employment Rights Bill – Amendments Proposed

On Wednesday 5th March 2025, a series of amendments to the Employment Rights Bill were tabled. Some of these amendments arise as a result of responses to consultations undertaken by the UK Government; and some are non-government amendments. Both categories of amendment will be considered and debated in Parliament in the same way. Not all will make the final Act, but their tabling gives a useful indication of public opinion and the general direction of travel.

Fair Work Agency

The UK Government has called the current system of state enforcement “fragmented and inefficient”. Their proposals are for the Fair Work Agency to take on enforcement of a wider range of employment rights and to become a single place where workers and employees can go for help. The bill confers additional powers to “investigate and take action” against businesses who are not complying with the law and suggests, amongst other things, that it will have the power to bring Employment Tribunal proceedings on behalf of a worker where that worker has the basis to bring a claim, but is not going to.

Sick Pay

Removal of the lower earnings limit for eligibility, instead making provision that employees are to be entitled to 80% of their weekly salary or the Statutory Sick Pay Rate (whichever is lower) from their first day of sickness absence.

Zero hours contracts

A ban on ‘exploitative’ zero hours contracts in favour of contracts which provide that end hirers must guarantee a minimum number of hours per week; with notification of shifts and compensation when shifts are cancelled at short notice. These proposals will also apply to agency workers and there are provisions for the agency to be liable for the failure to provide notice of cancelled shifts (although recoupment can be negotiated with the end hirer).

Umbrella companies

Workers who operate through umbrella companies will be able to access comparable rights and protections to those taken on directly by a recruitment agency.

Collective redundancy/fire and rehire

Provisions to double the protective award for failure to collectively inform and consult with the workforce to 180 days’ pay and abandoning interim relief suggestions. Although the Bill removes reference to the “one establishment” requirement (meaning employers need to include any other sites/workplaces when determining whether collective consultation requirements apply), we may see a change to the current threshold of 20 employees where there are going to be redundancies across multiple sites. Separately, and likely to be welcomed, the Government has committed to providing clear guidance on consultation requirements.

Moden framework for industrial relations

Proposals are, broadly, to update the legislative framework for trade unions to align it with ‘modern working practices’. The proposals include extending the Code of Practice regulating recognition and derecognition ballots to cover the whole of the recognition process; and simplifying some of the information and temporal burdens in the course of organising industrial action.

Other proposals

As noted above, there are several non-government amendments from MPs from all political parties. These are probably less likely to make it into the final Act. These amendments include:

• Domestic abuse victims’ leave and a preventative duty on employers to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent domestic abuse of their employees
• Reintroduction of the statutory discrimination questionnaire
• Amendments to family leave provisions including e.g. protected paternity or partner leave; doubling the rates of statutory maternity leave; and a requirement for large employers to publish information about their family leave and pay policies
• Paid carer’s leave and the introduction of ‘caring’ as a protected characteristic
• Extension to unfair dismissal rights in whistleblowing cases
• Right to be accompanied by a certified companion
• Duty to prevent violence and harassment in the workplace via amendment to the Health and Safety at work Act 1997
• Establishment of a Working Time Council for the purposes of exploring the feasibility of a four-day working week
• Amending the rate of Statutory Sick Pay in line with the National Living Wage
• Prescribing that any forthcoming statutory probationary period should be between three and nine months in duration
• Specific provisions in relation to special constables

What’s missing?

The “Right to Switch Off” was one of Labour’s most headline-grabbing proposals in the election, but it appears to have fallen by the wayside. It did not form part of the first draft of the Employment Rights Bill, but it did form part of the ‘Next Steps’ agenda and wider ‘Make Work Pay Plan’ with commitments to consult on the proposal at some point in the near future. It was expected to appear amongst further amendments to the Employment Rights Bill – but it hasn’t, leading some to suggest it that the proposal has been abandoned. However, when questioned, Angela Rayner refused to confirm that suggestion and said instead that a code of practice may follow.

Labour’s rationale for the Government amendments

Labour’s press release of 4th March 2025 states the amendments seek to ensure the Plan to Make Work Pay is “firmly pro-business and pro-worker”.

It appears Labour is trying to strike more of a balance now than they were during the election campaign particularly given the challenging economic conditions facing the UK economy. It has braced businesses for tax increases; significant rises to National Minimum Wage rates and employer national insurance contributions and, although paired back, potentially onerous changes to employment law for which there will be associated costs (both for compliance and breaches). The press release is at pains to emphasise the importance of collaboration between stakeholders, and Labour’s desire for further, thorough consultation with those stakeholders. However, the raft of amendments and passing off of detail to further regulations has been met with criticism from the opposition. They state that business and employees alike crave certainty, which this piecemeal approach to legislation does not provide.

If you or your business would benefit from guidance on the upcoming changes to employment law, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our specialist Employment Law team. We’ll continue to publish regular updates and also discuss changes at our six-monthly Employment Matters webinars, with the latest upcoming on 30th April 2025.