Employment Rights Bill Unveiled

The much-hyped and long-awaited Employment Rights Bill has finally been published along with a Next Steps paper explaining how Labour is putting its Plan to Make Work Pay into practice. Here's our take on the Bill and what it means for employers.

Labour promised it would introduce legislation to reform employment law within 100 days of entering government. It has now published its Employment Rights Bill (on day 98) and – as many of us predicted – this self-imposed deadline has resulted in compromises and fudges. Some measures have not made it into the Bill, others need fleshing out through consultation and accompanying regulations and the government is at pains to reassure businesses that most reforms (including those to unfair dismissal) will not actually take effect until 2026.