This article has been updated to reflect recent developments as at 18 November 2025.
Summary
The Employment Rights Bill (‘ERB’) is in its final stages, going through what is known as Parliamentary ‘ping pong’ where a bill bounces back and forth between the House of Commons and the House of Lords until the final wording is agreed. The ERB will only go on to receive ‘Royal Assent’, the formal stage by which a bill becomes law, once it has completed these final stages in Parliament. This Parliamentary stage has become increasingly protracted as the Houses continue to disagree on key provisions. Consequently, the passage of the ERB has been further delayed. This may impact the Government’s proposed implementation timeline set out in their roadmap.
‘Ping Pong’!
On Tuesday 28 October 2025, the Government suffered several defeats as the House of Lords voted again to include opposition amendments to key reforms in the ERB. As a result, the ERB then ‘ping ponged’ its way back to the House of Commons for consideration on 5 November 2025.
The opposition amendments up for debate related to some of the ERB’s key reforms and, in brief, included:
- Continuing to oppose a ‘day one’ right to unfair dismissal, instead again pushing to reduce the current two-year qualifying period down to six months.
- Changes to the Government’s reforms to zero hour contracts which would give qualifying zero or low hours workers the opportunity to opt out of receiving a guaranteed hours offer (‘GHO’) at the end of the applicable reference period or to opt out entirely, so the employer does not need to make GHOs at all (unless the employee opts back in).
- An amendment requiring the Government to have regard to seasonal work when making regulations to add detail to some of the ERBs reforms, including in relation to zero hours contracts and unfair dismissal.
- Amendments to the Government’s reforms of trade union laws, including an attempt to retain the 50% turnout threshold required in a ballot for industrial action.
On 5 November 2025, as anticipated, the House of Commons voted against the above amendments. It also proposed some amendments in lieu, including of note to employers:
- In respect of unfair dismissal – a new statutory commitment to consult on key details of the framework for how the laws will operate in practice (although this does not add much as the Government had already promised to consult on the detail in its roadmap).
- In respect of the 50% turnout threshold for industrial action ballots – including a new provision requiring the Government, when it is deciding whether and when to make regulations to remove the turnout threshold, to consider the effects electronic balloting has or is expected to have on the proportion of those eligible to vote choosing to vote in industrial action ballots.
The ERB returned to the House of Lords for reconsideration of the Commons’ amendments on Monday 17 November 2025. Again, the House of Lords voted against the above amendments in lieu proposed by the Commons on 5 November and voted to reinstate their proposed amendments to unfair dismissal, GHOs, seasonal work and trade union turnout thresholds. (The Lords also put forward a new amendment in lieu in respect of contributions to union political funds).
Accordingly, the ERB must now return to the House of Commons. Given the delays, and the impending budget on 26 November 2025, we wait to see how the Government responds. In particular, to the House of Lords’ concerns about a lack of consultation and detail on key reforms and the potential impacts of the changes for employers. Will a raft of consultations be published to help push the ERB through before the New Year? We will be keeping an eye on developments.
Four New Consultations Launched
Separately, on 23 October 2025, in the first wave of consultations promised in the Government’s roadmap to implementation (which we wrote about here), the Government has launched four consultations. The consultations include:
- In respect of trade unions (which both close on 18 December 2025):
- Make Work Pay: enhanced dismissal protections for pregnant women and new mothers (which closes on 15 January 2025)
- Make Work Pay: leave for bereavement including pregnancy loss (which closes on 15 January 2025)
We will be writing about each of these in more detail soon.
Keep up to date on the developments in the ERB via our Reform Hub. If you wish to understand the impact any of the changes may have on your business, please reach out to your usual Littler United Kingdom contact.
