The Employment Rights Bill will bring sweeping changes to many areas of employment law once its provisions come into force. Its reforms will affect unfair dismissal, flexible working, statutory sick pay (SSP), family leave, fire and rehire, zero hours contracts and trade union law.

Between October and December 2024, the government consulted on four areas of the Bill: zero hours contracts, fire and rehire, trade unions and SSP. In March 2025, the government published its response to those consultations and also announced a series of amendments to the Bill.

The amendments include:

• Zero hours contracts – the right to request contracts with guaranteed hours will apply to agency workers. Employers will have a duty to provide workers with a range of information about their right to guaranteed hours.
• Flexible working – there will be a new requirement for any refusal of a flexible working request on one of the statutory grounds to be reasonable. Employers will also have to explain their reason for refusal.
• SSP – low paid workers will no longer need to earn above the lower earnings limit to qualify for SSP. They will receive either 80% of their average weekly earnings or the current rate of SSP, whichever is lower. SSP will be payable from the first day of sickness absence.
• Workplace harassment – employers will have a duty to take all reasonable steps to prevent harassment of their employees by third parties. Employers could face civil claims for harassment where they have failed to take such steps.
• Redundancy collective consultation – the maximum period of the protective award will increase from 90 days to 180 days.
• Trade unions – there will be a series of changes to trade union and strike rules, such as changing the current notice period for industrial action from 7 to 10 days. Industrial action mandates will expire after 12 months instead of after 6 months.

We continue to monitor for further amendments.

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