Preparing for the UK Employment Rights Bill

Quick Hits

• The UK Employment Rights Bill has been described as “the biggest upgrade in employment rights for a generation.”
• The scope of the bill covers permanent and agency workers, maternity and bereavement leave, statutory sick pay, flexible working, whistleblowing protections, collective redundancy, trade union reform, outsourcing, and seafaring.
• On 1 July 2025, the government published a roadmap for the delivery of the Employment Rights Bill. Its purpose was to set out implementation phases and key measures.

Unfair Dismissal Qualifying Period Cut to Six Months

A central feature of the original bill was the expansion of day-one unfair dismissal rights. The bill originally proposed that employees would be protected from unfair dismissal from the first day of employment, with some form of statutory probationary period to make it easier for employers to dismiss in the early stages of employment.

However, there was strong opposition to the reform from business groups and the House of Lords (one of the two UK houses of Parliament. Following discussions between government, unions, and business groups, a compromise was announced in late November 2025 to abandon the goal of making protection a day-one right and instead to reduce the qualifying period to bring an unfair dismissal claim from two years’ to six months’ employment. That will likely now be passed and implemented into law sometime over the next year.

Redundancy

The bill would introduce a new threshold test for collective redundancies, although there has been significant change on this point since the publication of the initial bill. Currently, collective consultation is required if there are more than twenty redundancies at one establishment within ninety days. The new amendments maintain this threshold; however, they would also introduce a yet-to-be-defined threshold for multisite redundancies. This alternative threshold is expected to be based on redundancies across entire organisations (rather than per separate location) and may be a specified percentage of employees. The bill also proposes to increase the maximum protective award which can be awarded in cases where an employer has failed to follow collective redundancy consultation from ninety to 180 days’ pay.

The roadmap indicates that the government will consult on collective redundancy measures in winter 2025/early 2026 with the new threshold test being introduced in 2027.

Fire and Rehire

The bill is promoted by the government as placing significant restrictions on the use of “fire and rehire.” However, for those with two years’ service at least, it is already very difficult for employers to justify “fire and rehire” and it is uncertain what exactly will change in practice. In July 2024, for England, Scotland, and Wales, the first statutory Code of Practice on dismissal and re-engagement came into effect. The code prescribes that “fire and rehire” should be a last resort following meaningful consultation with employers. It is understood that this code will remain in place, with amendments for clarification on new measures.

According to the roadmap, changes are likely to take effect in October 2026.

Zero-Hour Contracts and Flexible Working

Under current proposals, workers on zero-hours contracts would have the right to a contract reflecting their regular working hours. Employers would also need to provide reasonable notice for shifts and pay compensation for late cancellations. Employers would be required to offer guaranteed hours to employees or agency workers; however, the House of Lords is advocating for a scheme whereby workers can choose to opt out of receiving these guaranteed hours offers. The House of Lords is also pushing for a provision which would require the secretary of state to take the specific characteristics and requirements of seasonal work into consideration when making regulations relating to guaranteed hours.

The bill would establish an employee’s right to reasonable notice of a shift the employee is required to work, including the day, time, and number of hours required to work. This would apply to employees without a regular work schedule, for example, agency workers (those hired on a zero-hours basis) or on a minimum-hours basis.

With regard to flexible working, employees are currently able to request flexible working as a day-one right. Employers can refuse based on one or more of eight business reasons listed in legislation, penalties can be imposed if the statutory flexible working regime is breached. According to the bill, the eight business reasons on which a refusal can be based would not change, and neither would the penalty (this is usually eight weeks pay, capped at £5,600), however the bill does state that any refusal of a flexible working request must be reasonable and the employer must explain their reasoning in writing and why their refusal is considered reasonable.

According to the roadmap, consultation regarding the above will take place throughout Autumn / Winter 2025, early 2026, and will take effect in 2027.

Family Rights

The bill proposes to remove qualifying periods for some family rights, for example, parental leave would become a day-one right, and a new day-one right for at least one week of bereavement leave would be introduced. However, unlike parental leave, bereavement leave is not required to be paid.

Employees would also receive enhanced protection from dismissal following a return to work after maternity, adoption, parental, or bereavement leave. The bill states that it would ban dismissals for women who are pregnant, on maternity leave, and during their six-month return-to-work period, except in specific circumstances. Further details are yet to be announced, and consultation on this topic is due to close in January 2026, with implementation to take effect in 2027.

Statutory Sick Pay

According to the bill, Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) would be available from the first day of sickness and payable for the first three qualifying days of sickness. Currently, SSP is payable from day four of sickness; employees must also need to be earning over the weekly lower earnings limit to qualify (currently £123 per week). The bill intends to remove the lower earnings threshold, meaning that all eligible employees, regardless of income, would qualify for SSP. Following recent amendments to the bill, employees earning below the current lower earnings limit would receive SSP at a rate equivalent to 80 percent of their weekly earnings.

The roadmap indicates that this will take effect in April 2026.

Ogletree Deakins’ London office and Global Reorganizations Practice Group will continue to monitor developments and will provide updates on the Cross-Border, Global Reorganizations, Leaves of Absence, and Reductions in Force blogs as additional information becomes available.

Roger James is a partner in the London office of Ogletree Deakins, and he is co-chair of the firm’s Global Reorganizations Practice Group.

Carrie-Ann Hosker, an immigration manager in the London office of Ogletree Deakins, contributed to this article.

Lorraine Matthews, a practice assistant in the London office of Ogletree Deakins, contributed to this article.

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