Reactions to the UK’s new Employment Rights Bill

Details of the UK’s new Employment Rights Bill were released yesterday. The legislation represents what the government claims is a significant overhaul of workers’ rights, offering more protections and benefits and helping to promote practices like flexible working. Key elements of the bill include granting workers access to statutory sick pay and parental leave from the first day of employment, and introducing a ban on exploitative zero-hour contracts. It also aims to curb controversial “fire and rehire” practices and gives employees the right to claim unfair dismissal from day one, rather than after two years of service. However, businesses will still be allowed to operate probationary periods to ensure fit for roles, with discussions suggesting a maximum of six months.

The bill also seeks to promote flexible working by making it the default option where possible, and mandates that large employers create action plans to address gender pay gaps. Furthermore, it includes provisions for bereavement leave and aims to reform statutory sick pay by removing the waiting period, enabling sick pay from the first day of illness. While the legislation has been praised by unions as a “seismic shift,” some details remain under consultation, particularly concerning the definition of exploitative zero-hour contracts and the exact implementation timelines.

Here are some of the initial reactions to the announcement:

Tina McKenzie, policy chair of the Federation of Small Businesses:

This legislation is rushed job, clumsy, chaotic and poorly planned – dropping 28 new measures onto small business employers all at once leaves them scrambling to make sense of it all. Beyond warm words, it lacks any real pro-growth element and will increase economic inactivity, seriously jeopardising the government’s own 80% employment target.

CBI CEO Rain Newton-Smith:

Politicians and businesses have a shared goal in wanting to raise living standards through higher levels of growth underpinned by investment and increased productivity. The government deserves credit for its willingness to engage with businesses and unions on how to make a success of the Plan to Make Work Pay. It’s that willingness to work together that can ensure we find the right landing zone and improve living standards by avoiding the unintended consequences that businesses have warned against. With a number of critical details still subject to consultation, it’s important the government builds on the good engagement to date to ensure we get the detail right on this decisive piece of legislation.

TUC General Secretary, Paul Nowak:

After 14 years of stagnating living standards, working people desperately need secure jobs they can build a decent life on. The government’s Make Work Pay agenda – delivered in full – can improve working lives for many. Whether it’s tackling the scourge of zero-hours contracts and fire and rehire, improving access to sick pay and parental leave, or clamping down on exploitation – this bill highlights Labour’s commitment to upgrade rights and protections for millions.

Driving up employment standards is good for workers, good for business and good for growth. It will give workers more predictability and control and it will stop good employers from being undercut by the bad. While there is still detail to be worked through, this bill signals a seismic shift away from the Tories’ low pay, low rights, low productivity economy. It is time to write a positive new chapter for working people in this country.”

Vicky Walker, Group Director of People, Westfield Health: 

Flexible working rights becoming a default from day one is a landmark change. By legitimising flexibility as a core employee right, the bill acknowledges the growing need for workers to balance their professional and personal lives without sacrificing productivity. We know that employees who feel supported and trusted in managing their work-life balance are more likely to be engaged, loyal, and committed. For businesses, this helps attract new talent and improve retention—two key objectives for many organisations in today’s competitive labour market.

It’s encouraging to see day-one rights for maternity leave continue as part of the bill. This ensures that expectant and new mothers have immediate job protection and financial support, allowing them to take leave with confidence from the very start of their employment. This guaranteed stability can help retain female employees, reduce turnover and promote diversity in the workforce. The extension of paternity leave and unpaid parental leave from day one of employment is an essential step toward achieving gender equity in caregiving responsibilities. This change not only supports fathers and non-birthing parents but also sets the stage for a more inclusive and engaged workforce, benefiting both families and organisations.

Dr Jonathan Lord, Senior Lecturer in Human Resources Management and Employment Law, University of Salford:

The UK government published its long-promised package of reforms to worker rights on Thursday, billed as the biggest overhaul to employment law in a generation. The legislation presented to parliament today, includes 28 policies such as introducing day one employment rights for paternity, parental, and bereavement leave, abolishing fire and rehire, and modernising trade union laws, as well as the abolition of “exploitative” zero-hours contracts.

In delivering the employment rights bill, Labour has met its manifesto promise to legislate on its “plan to make work pay” within 100 days of the general election. But, in doing so, it has left many of the big decisions for later. The bill will also repeal two Conservative acts that restricted trade unions and strike action. It also introduces new protections for workers, including safeguards against dismissal and blacklisting for union activity, ensures workers are aware of their right to join a union, simplifies the statutory recognition process, and grants union officials greater access to workplaces for organising, recruiting and representing members. The proposed reforms are not expected to take effect for another 18 months and even then, they will likely be modified after further consultations with key stakeholders, such as unions and employer representatives.

Peter McGettrick, Chairman of British Safety Council:

The reforms that have been set out today in the Employment Rights Bill are a major step forwards in ensuring all workers benefit from a more certain and consistent floor of standards and protections in work. Like other successful employment reforms that came before them, if done right, this set of measures can be a win-win for businesses, employees, and the economy.

We would like to see them being part of a new approach to growth and productivity which recognises that people’s wellbeing, health and safety are fundamental to our wider prosperity. Mental ill-health is one of the biggest causes of long-term absence in the UK workplace, and on World Mental Health Day, there couldn’t be a better time to introduce changes which should make work more secure and less stressful for many people in our country.

Whether you work in a small start-up or a large corporate, and whatever the nature your contract, we should all get the same basic rights and protections at work, and employers should then be given the flexibility and scope to do what is right for their business. Clearly, these changes are not all going to happen immediately, and we will have to see how they will look after the Government has consulted, but we need employers to get clarity and certainty sooner rather than later, so that workers can thrive not just survive.