The new Employment Rights Bill will end zero-hour contracts and the ease of ‘fire and rehire’, establishing rights to bereavement, paternity and parental leave from the first day of employment, and abolishing the two-year qualifying period for protections from unfair dismissal. However, the issue of any probationary period remains in the air. The bill will introduce 28 individual employment reforms, including strengthening statutory sick pay, removing the lower earnings limit for all workers and cutting out the waiting period before sick pay entitlement comes into effect.
Employers will have to make their workplace more compatible with people’s lives, establishing a default in terms of flexible working, where practical. Larger employers must establish action plans to address gender pay gaps and support employees through menopause, while protections against unfair dismissal for pregnant women and new mothers will be augmented. This will be enforced by a newly instituted Fair Work Agency which will also be open to guide employers through this major transition.
Although only just past its second reading, the bill is likely to come into force in the Autumn of 2026, enabling employers to overhaul their HR policies and practices, train their management, and implement these sweeping reforms which cover all aspects of the working environment from harassment, the right not to be contacted outside of hours, to equality.
