Labours ‘revolutionary’ employment rights bill, introduced on the 10th of October 2024, has finally cleared parliament and is expected to be signed into law, by King Charles, before Christmas. This bill will take affect by April 2026 and provide workers with a plethora of new rights such as:
- Right to claim unfair dismissal against their employer after 6-month of service. For example, if a company fires you because you are pregnant, asking for basic legal rights such as sick pay, holiday pay, and rest breaks, joining and encouraging others to joins a union, whistleblowing unsafe conditions, or taking protected family leave such as maternity, paternity, parental, and bereavement leave; workers can now claim that they were fired unfairly and potentially claim compensation for financial loss during unemployment.
- Right to sick pay, paid maternity and paternity, parental, and bereavement leave from day one of employment. Previously workers were required to work a minimum amount of time, set by the company, to gain these ‘benefits’.
- Right to flexible working. This means that employers must approve requests for flexible working hours for example, if you care for a child or someone with a long term condition, you can request different working hours, typically along the lines of early start / early finish, four long working days, or home working.
- Abolishment of ‘fire and rehire practices‘. This is where an employer fires an employee on a fixed hour contract and rehires them on a zero-hour contract. However, this practice can still be used if the company is in a state of financial distress and at risk of shutdown
- Zero-hour contract reform. Companies are now required to offer zero-hour workers a minimum amount of hours, based on the amount of hours they had worked in a 12-week period. So, if you worked 5 hours, every week, for 12-weeks, you are entitled to a minimum of 5 hours of work in week 13. This ensures that the freedom of zero hour contracts stay intact whilst protecting workers from unpredictable income, inconsistent hours, last minute cancellations, and unpaid on call work. However, this may have a negative impact on some students, who are unable to work during term-time and instead work during breaks.
Unemployment in the UK rose from 4.3%, in October 2024, to 5.1%, in October 2025. The leader of the Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch opposes the bill stating that it will “kill jobs”. Additionally, the shadow business secretary, Andrew Griffith said that “the bill will pile up cost onto small businesses and freeze hiring” potentially exacerbating the UK’s unemployment problem. However, a study by the University of Lancashire, on the affects of insecure work, such as zero-hour contracts, on employees, suggests that “workers in secure work are twice as likely to continue working, over a 4-year period, in comparison to those who started in insecure work”. Additionally, workers who started in insecure work are “more likely to become unemployed or economically inactive due to ill health”. Based on this, the new employment rights bill could reduce unemployment as it improves job security, ensures access to benefits from day one, and reduces the exploitation of workers.
