On 12 February 2024 the House of Commons library posted an update on how the Employment Rights Bill (the Bill) has progressed since its introduction on 10 October 2024, and subsequent second reading on 21 October 2024.
The Bill has since been going through the ‘committee stage’ discussing the provisions, which involved 21 sittings between 26 November 2024 and 16 January 2025.
There have been 264 proposed amendments, of which 149 of these (all government amendments) were agreed to by the committee. Proposed amendments from other parties that have not been accepted included an exemption from key rights for small employers.
The most significant amendment made has been the increase of time limits within which people can make a claim to an employment tribunal (for almost all claims), from three months to six months.
There have also been four consultations, asking for feedback from stakeholders on specific aspects of the Bill:
- Making Work Pay: strengthening Statutory Sick Pay – focusing on what the percentage replacement rate should be for those earning below the current rate of Statutory Sick Pay (SSP). Ran from 21 October to 4 December 2024.
- Making Work Pay: collective redundancy and fire and rehire – focusing on what stronger remedies should be where rules on collective redundancy and fire and rehire were broken. Significant proposals here include moving back to a 90-day consultation period (currently 6 weeks) in large-scale redundancy situations (100 or more roles at risk) and increasing the maximum protective award from 13 weeks’ pay to 26 weeks’ pay. Ran from 21 October to 2 December 2024.
- Making Work Pay: creating a modern framework for industrial relations – focusing on various rule changes around trade union ballots, access and notice of industrial action. Ran from 21 October to 2 December 2024.
- Making Work Pay: the application of zero-hours contracts measures to agency workers – focusing on what the balance of responsibility could be between employment agencies and end hirers if zero-hour contract protections were extended to cover agency workers. Ran from 21 October to 2 December 2024.
The Government is currently considering its response to these consultations which may mean further amendments to the Bill and the creation of new regulations to be made under powers that would be granted by the Bill.