Employment Rights Bill 2024
A landmark Employment Rights Bill introduced in October 2024 proposes day-one unfair dismissal rights, flexible working from day one, and restrictions on fire-and-rehire practices.
Who is affected: All employees, workers, and employers in Great Britain
What Changed
The Employment Rights Bill 2024 proposes removing the two-year qualifying period for unfair dismissal, meaning employees would have protection from day one of employment (subject to a statutory probationary period of up to nine months during which a lighter-touch process applies). The Bill makes flexible working the default position and removes the employer's ability to refuse requests on the existing eight statutory grounds, replacing them with a reasonableness test. It restricts the practice of 'fire and rehire' and 'fire and replace' by making dismissal automatically unfair where the employer has not genuinely consulted the employee about a contract variation. The Bill also strengthens collective redundancy consultation obligations, extends statutory sick pay entitlement from day four to day one of illness, removes the lower earnings limit for statutory sick pay, and introduces new rights for agency workers. It additionally creates a new Fair Work Agency to enforce employment rights.
What To Do
Employers should review their disciplinary and dismissal procedures to ensure they are compliant with a day-one unfair dismissal regime and consider what probationary period framework they wish to adopt. HR teams should update offer letters, employment contracts, and flexible working policies before the relevant provisions come into force. Employees should note that the Bill is still progressing through Parliament as of early 2026 and not all provisions have commenced; check the current status on legislation.gov.uk before taking any action.