Employment Rights Bill
Described as phase one of the Plan to Make Work Pay, the Employment Rights Bill was published on 10 October 2024. To read an overview of our take of it in its original form, please see our article here.
The Employment Rights Bill is making its way through Parliament and is in its very final stages and is anticipated to pass very soon. Significant amendments have been made along the way and it has now almost doubled in size since its first iteration. For our thoughts on the Government amendments made to the Bill on 5 March 2025 please see here and for those made on 7 July 2025, please see here.
The Employment Rights Bill has been going through several rounds of ping pong over the last couple of months – this is where a bill bounces back and forth between the two Houses until the final wording is agreed (see here for more details). This has caused delay to it becoming law. Key areas that have been under debate include unfair dismissal rights and zero hours contracts, and some trade union changes.
Most recently, on 17 November 2025 the Employment Rights Bill faced further setback in the House of Lords. The Employment Rights Bill is scheduled to return to the House of Commons on 8 December 2025. On 27 November 2025, however, the Government unexpectedly announced that agreement had been reached with key stakeholders on the unfair dismissal provisions, with the Government backing down on its commitment to day one unfair dismissal rights, and settling for a compromise position. The Employment Rights Bill is also scheduled for the House of Lords on 10 December 2025 suggesting that the final wording is likely to be agreed on that date. Once these final parliamentary stages are completed, the Bill is expected to receive “Royal Assent” soon after, the last step required for it to become law.
Once the Employment Rights Bill passes and becomes law, for many reforms it simply provides the framework, with much of the detail still to be fleshed out by secondary legislation, codes of practice and guidance. In fact, the Government has recently announced that there will be 26 consultations published after the Employment Rights Bill becomes law.
Given delays to the Employment Rights Bill so far, it was looking likely that the Government’s proposed implementation timeline set out in their roadmap would be delayed. However, the 27 November announcement suggests that the Government intends to keep to its published delivery timeline for now.
Other employment reforms beyond the Employment Rights Bill
Reforms are also underway or anticipated in addition to the Employment Rights Bill, as part of the Government’s plan:
- Some reforms are being delivered via existing powers, and non-legislative routes, such as changes to Minimum Wages.
- Changes in respect of pay and tax were also announced in the Autumn Budget on 30 October 2024 and again in the Autumn budget 2025.
- Additional reforms are promised via the draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill, which is still awaited.
- Longer-term reforms (such as to worker and employment status) are also promised but the Government recognises that these will take longer to undertake and implement.
Separately, the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 (‘DUA Act‘) passed on 19 June 2025, which proposes some reforms in respect of data privacy and AI that, although not necessarily linked to the Plan to Make Work Pay, may be of interest to employers. We discuss aspects of the DUA Act relevant to employers in brief in the Data Privacy and AI page. The DUA Act, however, is not included in the Timings etc part of this reform hub.