Government tables amendments to Employment Rights Bill

All British workers, including nearly a million agency workers, will be entitled to a contract which reflects the hours they regularly work, according to amendments tabled by the government to its flagship employment legislation.

The Employment Rights Bill, which the government says is the biggest upgrade to UK workers' rights in a generation, was set out in October.

Having consulted with business groups and unions, who traditionally fund the Labour Party, the government on Tuesday published amendments to the bill ahead of the next stage of the parliamentary process.

It said one of these will ensure that agency work does not become a loophole in its plans to end exploitative zero hours contracts, which do not give workers' guaranteed hours.

Some business groups oppose guaranteed hours, arguing it will make part-time jobs less viable and businesses less competitive as they pay for hours they don't need.

Government said the amendments will offer increased security for working people to receive reasonable notice of shifts and proportionate pay when shifts are cancelled, curtailed or moved at short notice – whilst retaining the necessary flexibility for employers in how they manage their workforces.

Other amendments to the legislation will make statutory sick pay a legal right for all workers, strengthen remedies against employer abuse of rules on redundancies and create a modern industrial relations framework.

“For too long millions of workers have been forced to face insecure, low paid and irregular work, while our economy is blighted by low growth and low productivity,” deputy prime minister Angela Rayner said.

“We are turning the tide – with the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation, boosting living standards and bringing with it an upgrade to our growth prospects and the reforms our economy so desperately needs.”

The substance of the reforms proposed in October remains intact, including plans to end fire-and-rehire practices and granting new rights on parental leave.

The legislation will be one of prime minister Keir Starmer's biggest reforms since Labour's election victory in July. The government has framed the plans as the best way to avoid the industrial action that has disrupted services over recent years.

Business lobby group, the Confederation of British Industry, welcomed the government's engagement but said it remained concerned.

"There is a real risk that this legislation imposes a thicket of regulation across all businesses which prevents them from creating the high-quality, secure jobs which we all want to achieve," CBI chief executive Rain Newton-Smith said.

The government will increase the maximum period of the protective award from 90 days to 180 days and issue further guidance for employers on consultation processes for collective redundancies.

Increasing the maximum value of the award means an employment tribunal will be able to grant larger awards to employees for an employer’s failure to meet consultation requirements.

Up to 1.3 million employees on low wages who find themselves unable to work due to sickness will either receive 80 per cent of their average weekly earnings or the current rate of Statutory Sick Pay – whichever is lower.

The government will act to ensure that workers can access comparable rights and protections when working through a so-called umbrella company as they would when taken on directly by a recruitment agency. Enforcement action can be taken against any umbrella companies that do not comply.