On 3 September, the Employment Rights Bill was sent back by the House of Lords to continue its journey in the House of Commons. The Lords had made some significant amendments to the Bill.

In particular, the provisions relating to unfair dismissal had been changed so that employees would need to have six months’ service before having the right to bring a claim for unfair dismissal, rather than having that right from the first day of employment.

In addition, the obligation that the government sought to impose on employers to (in certain circumstances) offer workers on zero hours contracts guaranteed minimum hours was scrapped in favour of giving workers the right to request minimum hours. Many of the changes proved controversial, particularly among trade unions who saw them as an attempt to water down the protections that the government had promised in its manifesto. It is therefore widely expected that these amendments will be reversed at the first opportunity. This is likely to be on 15 September when the Bill will next be before the Commons. The Bill is still expected to receive Royal Assent in the next couple of months.

It is also still the case, though, that many of the key changes that the Bill will introduce are not fully detailed in the Bill itself, and so a whole raft of further regulations will need to be made before the law changes. Consultation on several key measures (including unfair dismissal, “fire and rehire”, redundancy and protection for zero hours workers) is expected to begin this Autumn, and the most significant changes are unlikely to come into force until sometime in 2027. Employers should therefore expect many more developments over the next 18 months.