Labour's New Deal for Working People

And it has only just begun...

On 10 October 2024, the Government published the Employment Rights Bill (ERB) 2024-2025 , promised within the first 100 days of the new Parliament with reforms including measures on ‘exploitative’ zero-hours contracts and ‘fire and rehire’ practices, and establishing protection from unfair dismissal, as well as entitlement to sick pay and parental leave rights from day one of employment. The significance of the ERB should not be underestimated.

Progress of the ERB through Parliament*

The ERB completed the initial House of Commons stage and on 14 March and now before the House of Lords. Detailed scrutinisation of the Bill by a Committee of the Lords began on 29 April 2025 and concluded on 24 June 2025.

When introduced in the House of Commons in October 2024 the ERB was 158 pages long. Following numerous amendments from the House of Commons stage, by March 2025 the ERB has approximately doubled in size to 310 pages! The ERB as brought from the House of Commons (version 3) is one of the largest single pieces of purely new employment legislation ever introduced with 157 clauses and 12 schedules (while the Equality Act 2010 was larger with 218 clauses and 28 schedules the majority of the provisions were consolidating existing provisions). One thing for sure, is that extensive employment law changes are on their way!

Many of the March 2025 amendments are simply technical amendments to ensure that the provisions of the ERB actually do what is intended. However, some are more significant such as a watering down of the changes in relation to collective redundancy consultation thresholds - the 'at one establishment' has been saved, though a modified threshold will apply in some cases (detail awaited). We also have some very significant whole new provisions, such as the increase in the time limits for bringing an employment tribunal claim from three to six months and an extension of the zero ours/low hours guaranteed hours contract provisions to agency workers.

Following the House of Lords Committee stage the 24 June version of the Bill (version 4) is now at 318 pages. While there have been a number of amendments, they are all technical changes proposed by the Government which do not make any substantive overall difference to the Bill.

What is next for the ERB?*

The ERB now moves on to the House of Lords Report Stage. This is essentially the last opportunity for the Lords to make any amendments. It usually starts 14 days after committee stage has concluded (taking us to 9 July) and can be spread over several days but is generally considerably shorter than committee stage.

After the Report stage is the Third Reading in the Lords. This is essentially a 'tidying up' stage. The ERB will then be sent back to the House of Commons for consideration of the House of Lords amendments. Given the size of the Government's majority this should be largely a formality.

Whether this can all be completed before the summer recess (as originally suggested) is doubtful - the House of Commons rises on 22 July and House of Lords on 24 July with both returning on 1 September 2025.

As a best guess the final version of the ERB will be passed into law early September after the return from the summer recess on 1 September, but before the conference season recess which runs 16 September to 13 October 2025.

When will the ERB's provisions come into force?*

The vast majority of the ERB's provisions will not come into effect upon its passage into law. Many provisions are simply enabling provisions with much needed detail on how they will actually work being left to future implementing regulations. A small number of the changes relating to trade union law reform, are to come into force two months after the Bill is passed. However, the majority of the changes will not be brought into force before 2026 with the changes to unfair dismissal qualifying periods not before autumn 2026.

Beyond the Employment Rights Bill

In November 2024, the Government published the 'Next Steps to Make Work Pay', outlining the time frame for the reforms set out in the Bill, as well as detailing additional reforms it will look to implement in the future, including:

  • Mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gaps.
  • A ‘right to switch off' Code of Practice.
  • A move towards a simpler two-part framework for employment status: worker or self-employed.
  • Reviews of the parental/carers leave systems.

On 18 March 2025 a consultation on the proposed mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting provisions to be included in the Equality (Race and Disability) Bill was published - see below. We also had an update on other measures outside the ERB, such as the shelving of the proposed 'right to switch off' Code of Practice.

Our employment law tracker

In this tracker, we explore the Employment Rights Bill 2024-25 together with other proposed and recent reforms under the Labour Government keeping a close eye on legislative, consultation and political process and provide a continuous update on what is likely to happen and when, and what this will mean for you as an employer.

Be sure to bookmark this web page to see our regular updates on the latest developments.

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This content is correct and up to date as of 27 June 2025.

We will continue to provide updated on this page when new developments occur. For ease of reference, we have marked recently updated sections with an asterisk.

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