The Bill has been making its way through the parliamentary journey to becoming law over recent months. The Bill is now in the ‘report stage’ in the House of Lords, after which it will return for a third reading and further consideration of the proposed amendments. The latest amended version of the 318-page Bill was published on 24 June 2025.
On 1 July 2025 the government published its UK employment law roadmap for the delivery of changes, so we now have more certainty on implementation dates. The key takeaway is, with the phased implementation, that most changes are going to take longer than expected to become law.
Although a handful of changes will take effect shortly after the Bill receives Royal Assent, most will be implemented during a lengthy phased delivery plan. Some of the most significant are:
What can be seen immediately is that it will take longer than expected for some of the biggest changes to become law, with key measures such as ‘day one’ unfair dismissal rights being pushed into 2027. This means more planning and preparation time for businesses to determine how best to navigate the changes in their organisation. Consultations about the proposed changes will commence shortly and we expect those to continue into 2026.
On 7 July 2025, a number of proposed changes were detailed for the Bill, with some attracting considerable press attention over the last few days. We’ve outlined the most significant updates from the latest draft below, as a summary of the recent amendments. (Not all measures are mentioned in this briefing; we have focussed on what has changed in the latest version of the Bill).
For all of the categories below, it is important to emphasise that these are proposals only. They may not make it into the final Bill and are subject to change.
For those who want some further topical reading, press coverage and commentary can be viewed here.
A statutory right to bereavement leave has been part of the proposals from the early stages, but the latest amendments confirm that bereavement leave will be extended to a stillbirth or loss of a child in the first 24 weeks of pregnancy. This has been referred to as ‘miscarriage leave’ in some press coverage and has been welcomed by many charities and campaigners.
This means that employers may see the right to bereavement leave taken up more than initially expected, given the estimated statistic that more than one in five pregnancies sadly end in miscarriage. Companies will need to update policy and practice accordingly when the time comes.
This is a significant amend for employers to note; non-disclosure agreements and similar deals (including settlement agreement terms) will be void if they prohibit an individual disclosing details of discrimination or harassment. Confidentiality clauses may still be permissible, at the request of the employee only, although the detail of this is yet to come. What’s clear is that this change aims to make ‘cover up culture’ a thing of the past.
Of course, some clients are ahead of the curve on this, and already have a ‘no-gagging’ policy for any settlement or exit terms where there has been a complaint or claim of discrimination or harassment. For others, this will be a real step change. All employers will need to start thinking about their commitment to culture, good training and transparency in preparation for this change.
The amendments include significant changes to the protected disclosure or ‘whistleblowing’ laws, if they are passed and included in the final bill. In brief, these include changes to what qualifies as a ‘protected disclosure’, a tightening of the public interest requirement, a new offence of intentionally or recklessly subjecting a whistleblower to a detriment and a proactive duty on larger employers to take reasonable steps to investigate any protected disclosure.
This is one to watch and the finer detail of the proposed enhanced whistleblower protection, currently scheduled to become law in April 2026, still seems ‘up in the air’ at this time.
The ban on ‘fire and rehire’ (the practice of dismissing an employee for refusing to agree to a variation of their contract and rehiring on the employer’s preferred terms) has attracted criticism that it would make it difficult for employers to make routine organisational changes where needed.
The latest proposals seek to temper the ban, in particular with a proposal that it will only prohibit ‘restricted variations’ to include pay, pension, hours and holiday. There are also proposed changes as to how the proof of financial distress (where fire and rehire is permitted) will be assessed and the consequences of unlawful dismissals in this situation, with this no longer being automatically unfair, but assessed by a reasonableness test.
The amendments importantly allow for variation clauses in employment contracts. Employers could consider checking their contract terms; if their standard templates don’t include a right to vary terms and conditions, it would be advisable to think about updating those now.
Changes to what the Government term ‘exploitative’ zero hour contracts have been a headline change in the Bill. These are casual employment contracts which do not guarantee any minimum working hours. The latest amendments water down an originally proposed ban on these contracts, so that employees can request guaranteed hours, but there is no duty on the employer to offer them. Again these are proposed amends only which may not be backed by the Government, so we could yet see a return to the more far reaching reforms for zero hour contracts as originally outlined in Bill.
Separately from the changes in the Bill, on 1 July the Government also launched a full review of parental leave and pay. The review will look at the whole family friendly leave system, including maternity and paternity leave, shared parental leave; adoption leave and others, and will also review the statutory pay system. We will keep clients updated as the review progresses.
We will continue to track the developments of the Employment Rights Bill and will issue further updates as the Bill gets to the final consideration stage and we have more detail on final proposals and implementation.
Lucy works with a wide range of businesses, from startups to multinationals, and has particular industry experience advising companies in the film, TV and entertainment sectors. She additionally supports individuals at a senior level on workplace complaints and exit arrangements.
Lucy frequently handles complex disputes and employee relations issues, including sensitive grievance and disciplinary processes. As well as supporting employers with such matters, Lucy manages complex employment tribunal claims and has acted as an independent investigator for employers on several high level disciplinaries. Her experience allows her to offer a full range of employment legal support to a business, from day to day queries and providing training, handbooks and policies, through to strategic advice on redundancies, restructuring or business sales.
Alongside her work for the firm, Lucy is a member of the Employment Lawyers Association (ELA). She has sat on ELA working parties responding to Government proposals for employment law reform and volunteered for several pro-bono projects, including Maternity Action.
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