Employment Rights Bill: Where Has It Landed?

The Employment Rights Bill has finished its parliamentary journey and will soon become the Employment Rights Act. Here's our take on where the key topics have landed and what it means for employers.

After almost a year, the Employment Rights Bill is now awaiting royal assent. Whilst many of the key principles remain, wide ranging amendments were made to the Bill in both the House of Commons and House of Lords. These included some significant concessions from the government on topics such as day one rights, collective redundancy thresholds and fire and rehire provisions and (crucially) a last-minute addition of measures to remove the cap on unfair dismissal compensation.

Other amendments increased the scope of certain rights, including the guaranteed hours regime and trade union rights. Some entirely new provisions were also introduced alongside the removal of the cap, most notably miscarriage leave and a whole new section on non-disclosure agreements.