Employment rights bill passes into law, bringing 'work into the 21st century'

The Bill gained Royal Assent last week on 18 December after a period of wrangling over some key details with the House of Lords.

Luke Bowery, partner at law firm Burges Salmon, said: “In passing the Employment Rights Act, Parliament has fired the starting gun on the biggest overhaul of employment law in decades.

“The Act will reshape almost every aspect of the employment relationship — from contracts to dismissal - creating new rights for workers and significant obligations for employers.”

The government said that more than 15 million people would benefit from the new worker protections. Photograph: iStock

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak called it a “landmark day for millions of workers”, with the Act representing the biggest upgrade in workers’ rights in a generation.

“It will deliver common sense changes like banning exploitative zero hours contracts, protecting workers from harassment and sick pay for all – and so much more. These are hard-won rights that the union movement and workers have long campaigned for,” he said.

Peter Kyle, business and trade secretary, said: “This landmark legislation will drag Britain’s outdated employment laws into the 21st century and offer dignity and respect to millions more in the workplace.”

The Employment Rights Act introduces rights to guaranteed hours and payment for short-notice cancellation of shifts. It will bar fire-and-rehire practices in most circumstances, grant paternity and parental leave from day one, and strengthen workplace trade union rights.

The day-one right to protection against unfair dismissal has been removed as a concession to business and replaced with a shortened qualifying period of six months, down from two years.

New rights will start to be implemented from April, with the government publishing a roadmap on which reforms are planned to be introduced in a phased approach over the next two years.

In its announcement, the government said that more than 15 million people across the UK would be set to benefit from the new worker protections.

This includes 32,000 more dads and partners each year who will have the right to take paternity leave and 1.5m more parents to take unpaid parental leave. The government said this will support working families to "juggle the modern demands of work with raising children."

Employees who are going through the toughest personal circumstances will also be afforded dignity at work, with up to 2.7m employees a year to gain the right to the new bereavement leave entitlement.  

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “Today we have proved what a pro-business, pro-worker government can achieve – a modern framework for worker’s rights.” 

This Act sets in motion an increase in living standards, supporting productivity and importantly, more security and dignity for people in work.” 

When we said we’d bring work into the 21st century, we meant it – and today we’ve delivered it.”