Employment Rights Bill: recent amendments and where we are now
Since being introduced in October 2024, the Employment Rights Bill has undergone significant amendments, introducing new provisions and revising existing ones to enhance worker protections and clarify employer obligations.
Further reforms
The Bill continues to evolve, with recent Government-backed amendments following responses to consultations on zero-hours contracts for agency workers, collective redundancy remedies, trade union law and statutory sick pay. We summarise below the key amendments that are most likely to become law.
Agency workers: guaranteed hours and shift rights
The Bill introduces a new framework for agency workers, ensuring they receive guaranteed hours and compensation for cancelled shifts. The responsibility for offering guaranteed hours will rest with the end hirer, except in specific cases to be set out in secondary legislation. Both the end hirer and agency will be responsible for providing reasonable notice of shifts, cancellations, and changes. Agencies must make payments to workers affected by short-notice cancellations but may recover these costs from hirers where they have the contractual right to do so.
Guaranteed hours
The Bill has now been amended to suggest that it will be possible to contract out of the requirement to offer guaranteed hours through a collective agreement. Employers and trade unions would therefore be able to negotiate alternative arrangements, provided that the new terms are contractual. This amendment introduces a degree of flexibility for employers that might otherwise have been required to offer guaranteed hours under the Bill’s original provisions.
Collective redundancy: 'at one establishment'
Another significant change concerns the provisions on collective redundancy consultation. The original proposal to remove the words 'at one establishment' from the collective redundancy thresholds had raised concerns that collective consultation would be triggered whenever the total number of redundancies across an organisation reached 20 or more, regardless of whether each individual site was making fewer than 20 redundancies. The government has now altered this approach. The amended proposal reinstates the concept of 'at one establishment' but introduces an additional provision allowing regulations to set a higher threshold (above 20) for situations where redundancies are taking place across multiple sites. This revision represents a concession to employers who had expressed concern about the potential administrative burden of the original proposal.
Collective redundancy: increased penalties and further consultation
The maximum protective award for failure to comply with collective redundancy consultation requirements will double from 90 to 180 days' pay. The Government will also gather further views on strengthening collective redundancy rules and update the Code of Practice on Dismissal and Re-engagement to reflect the Bill’s provisions on ‘fire and rehire’. However, interim relief will not be made available for employees bringing protective award claims or unfair dismissal claims in a fire and rehire scenario.
Trade union relations: key reforms
Several amendments aim to 'modernise' industrial relations, including:
- Strengthening protections against ‘unfair practices’ during the statutory recognition process
- Removing the ten-year ballot requirement for trade unions to maintain a political fund
- Simplifying the information required in industrial action ballots and notices
- Extending the validity of a trade union’s mandate for industrial action from six to twelve months
- Providing digital access to workplaces for collective bargaining, in addition to physical access
- The Government has also confirmed plans to consult further on e-balloting for industrial action.
Statutory sick pay (SSP): changes to eligibility and payments
The lower earnings limit for SSP eligibility will be removed, meaning all employees will be entitled to SSP regardless of earnings. However, employees earning below a certain threshold will receive the lower of 80% of their average weekly earnings or the statutory SSP rate.
Notices of underpayment
A further amendment introduces a new enforcement mechanism for underpayment of statutory entitlements. Under this proposal, the Secretary of State will have the power to issue a notice of underpayment covering a period of up to six years where an employer has failed to pay a worker an amount due under certain legislation, such as the National Minimum Wage or statutory sick pay. The notice would require the employer to pay the outstanding amount, reinforcing existing compliance measures.
Requirement for secondary legislation
Many of these amendments will require further regulations to set out the details. The Government has confirmed that:
- Further details on agency worker protections will be implemented via secondary legislation. Regulations will specify exceptions where the agency, rather than the end hirer, is responsible for offering guaranteed hours. They will also clarify the requirements for reasonable notice of shifts, cancellations, and compensation for changes.
- Consultation will take place on the delivery of e-balloting for industrial action. While the Bill simplifies ballot notice requirements, the Government has committed to seeking further views on how e-balloting should be implemented.
- Further details on collective redundancy consultation requirements will be set out in regulations. The Government has confirmed that it intends to update the Code of Practice on Dismissal and Re-engagement to reflect the Bill’s provisions on fire and rehire. However, no specific consultation has been announced at this stage.
Key takeaways for schools
The proposed amendments, if enacted, will have wide-ranging implications for schools. Schools with agency workers, trade union relationships, and collective redundancy obligations should monitor developments closely and prepare for policy changes once secondary legislation is introduced.
The Bill has now been passed across to the House of Lords for debate.
Bookmark our Employment Rights Bill tracker to keep up with the latest on the Bill. We will continue to report on developments.