Since the Employment Rights Bill (the Bill) was published on 10 October 2024, it has been amended significantly from the original draft, including various amendments that take into account the government's response to the four consultations that concluded in early December 2024, as well as further amendments that were agreed in the House of Lords. The bill is expected to complete its passage through Parliament and get royal assent in autumn 2025 (see our timeline, tracker document, and alerts on the progress of the Bill in our dedicated page).
For further discussion of the Bill's proposals, you can listen to our podcast series, which covers key aspects of the Bill. The first episode in Series Two, (Where are we now?), is out now with further podcasts to be released throughout autumn 2025. New episodes will be added to this page once they are published. Please also scroll down to access the podcasts in Series One.
Series Two
Episode One
8 September 2025
In this podcast, our experts, partners Nick Chronias and Louise Bloomfield, take stock of where we are now both on the content of, and next steps for, the Employment Rights Bill:
- The parliamentary process, including the potential for "ping pong" between the House of Lords and the House of Commons before the Bill receives royal assent.
- The likely timing of royal assent and of the consultations and regulations that will be required to bring the Bill's provisions fully into force.
- Key government amendments that were made in the House of Lords and are therefore likely to be taken forwards.
- Significant amendments that don't have government backing, so are unlikely to make into the final version of the Bill.
Click here to view the transcript.
Series One
Episode One
28 October 2024
Partners David Speakman and Stuart Craig, and Knowledge Lawyer Sara Meyer, focus on four of the Bill's proposals and their implications for employers:
- Making protection from unfair dismissal a day one right, and the lighter touch regime that will apply during the initial/probationary period of employment.
- Changing the trigger point for collective redundancy consultation to remove the reference to one "establishment" and focus on the number of proposed dismissals across the employer's business.
- Broadening rights to statutory sick pay (SSP) by making it payable from the first day of sickness absence and removing the lower earnings limit for eligibility.
- Creating a new single enforcement body for employment rights.
Click here to view the transcript.
Episode Two
11 November 2024
Partners Anjali Sharma and Sarah George, and Knowledge Lawyer Joanne Bell, discuss the family-friendly, equality and harassment related provisions of the Bill and their implications for employers, including:
- Making flexible working "the default" from day one of employment and how this differs from the current right to request flexible working.
- Providing protection from dismissal for employees who have taken maternity leave during the six months after their return.
- Making paternity and unpaid parental leave day one rights, and introducing a new day one right to statutory bereavement leave.
- Requiring large employers to publish action plans on gender equality and supporting employees through the menopause.
- Strengthening employers' duty to prevent sexual harassment at work.
Click here to view the transcript.
Episode Three
25 November 2024
Partners Nick Chronias and Philip Harman, and Knowledge Lawyer Sara Meyer, consider the Bill's trade union and industrial relations related proposals and their implications for employers. These include:
- Repealing key provisions of the Trade Union Act 2016, such as industrial action ballot thresholds, the requirement to provide 14 days' notice of industrial action, and union supervision of picketing.
- Giving unions a right of access to workplaces to meet, represent, recruit or organise workers and to facilitate collective bargaining.
- Making it easier for unions to obtain statutory recognition.
- Increasing legal protections from detriment and dismissal for workers who participate in protected industrial action.
Click here to view the transcript.
Episode Four
9 December 2024
Partners Louise Bloomfield and Tim Gooder, and Knowledge Lawyer Joanne Bell consider the planned restriction of "fire and rehire" practices (by making it automatically unfair to dismiss an employee for refusing to agree to a change to their terms and conditions, except in very limited circumstances). They also discuss the proposals targeted at ending what the government refers to as "one sided flexibility", which include:
- Requiring employers to offer a contract for a guaranteed number of hours to zero and low hours workers, based on the hours they actually work over a reference period
- Introducing a requirement for employers to give eligible workers reasonable notice of shifts, and of any cancellation of or changes to their scheduled shifts
- Providing such workers with a right to compensation for short notice cancellations of or changes to their scheduled shifts.
Click here to view the transcript.
