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ARTICLE · 15 OCTOBER 2024

Employment Law Changes Are Coming!

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Labour is introducing its flagship "Plan to Make Work Pay" in the form of the new Employment Rights Bill into Parliament today.

United StatesEmployment and HR
Brigitte Weaver
Brigitte Weaver
Christopher Hitchins
Christopher Hitchins
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Labour is introducing its flagship "Plan to Make Work Pay" in the form of the new Employment Rights Bill into Parliament today. The Government is proposing a raft of nearly 30 employment law changes, including enhancing family leave protections and controversially, introducing unfair dismissal protection from day one of employment.

When and how many of these reforms will take effect and how they will actually work in practice is not clear. 2025/2026 is currently being touted but it's not been confirmed. In the meantime, here is a summary ofsome of the key proposals which are likely to affect professional services firms:

  1. Unfair dismissal - Removing the current two-year qualifying period for protection from unfair dismissal to make it a day one right. The government has said this will coincide with a statutory probation period of nine months for new hires, but employees will still be able to claim for unfair dismissal. The government says there will be a "lighter

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