Employment Rights Bill 2024: What Changes for UK Employers?
The Employment Rights Bill 2024 is the most significant overhaul of UK employment law in a generation. This guide covers every major change — from day-one unfair dismissal rights to zero-hours reforms, SSP, and family leave — and what employers must do to prepare.
The Employment Rights Bill 2024 is the most significant overhaul of UK employment law in a generation. Introduced by the Labour government in October 2024, it proposes over 20 major changes to employment rights. For UK employers, understanding what's changing — and when — is essential to staying compliant and avoiding costly tribunal claims. You can follow the Bill's progress on Parliament's Bills website.
Most changes are expected to come into force from 2026, though some provisions may be phased in over time. This guide covers the key changes and what employers need to do to prepare.
Implementation Timeline:The Bill's provisions are being introduced in stages. Some measures are already in force (such as the duty to prevent sexual harassment, October 2024), while the majority of changes are expected to take effect from 2026 following secondary legislation and consultation.
1. Day-One Unfair Dismissal Rights
This is the headline change. Currently, employees must accrue two years of continuous service before they can bring an unfair dismissal claim. The Bill extends unfair dismissal protection to all employees from day one of employment.
To balance this, the government is introducing a statutory probation period — expected to be nine months — during which a lighter-touch dismissal process will apply. Employers will still be able to dismiss during probation, but they must follow a fair process and document it properly.
What this means in practice
- Probation processes must be formalised — informal "see how it goes" probation will no longer be sufficient. Reviews need to be documented.
- Dismissal during probation requires fair process — even in the probation period, employers must give a reason and follow basic procedural steps.
- More documentation from day one — keeping records of performance, conduct, and any concerns from the outset becomes critical.
Action required: Review your probation policies and introduce structured review meetings with written documentation. Any employee dismissed in their first two years will now potentially be able to bring a claim from day one.
2. Zero-Hours Contract Changes
The Bill introduces significant new rights for workers on zero-hours and low-hours contracts — one of the most operationally complex changes employers will face.
Right to guaranteed hours
Workers who regularly work consistent hours over a reference period (expected to be 12 weeks) must be offered a contract that reflects those hours. Employers who use zero-hours workers as de facto permanent staff will need to formalise those arrangements.
Right to reasonable notice of shifts
Employers must give workers reasonable advance notice of their shifts. The precise notice period will be set through secondary legislation, but the principle is clear: last-minute rotas will need to change.
Compensation for late cancellations
Where a shift is cancelled or curtailed at short notice, workers will be entitled to compensation. This directly addresses the common practice of cancelling shifts after workers have turned down other work or arranged childcare.
| Zero-Hours Change | Employer Implication |
|---|---|
| Guaranteed hours offer | Must offer contracts reflecting actual hours after 12-week reference period |
| Advance shift notice | Cannot schedule workers at the last minute without warning |
| Short-notice cancellation pay | Must compensate when shifts are cancelled late |
Accurate records of every shift worked — including start and end times — will be essential to determine what guaranteed hours to offer. Use our zero-hours contract software to track hours automatically, or calculate holiday entitlements using our zero-hours holiday calculator.
3. Flexible Working: Refusals Become Harder
The right to request flexible working became a day-one right in April 2024 (under the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023). The Employment Rights Bill goes further — making it significantly harder for employers to refuse requests.
Under the Bill, employers must not only cite one of the eight statutory grounds for refusal, but also demonstrate that the refusal is reasonable. This shifts the balance: a technically valid reason will no longer automatically justify a refusal if it cannot be shown to be proportionate in the circumstances.
Employers should review their flexible working policies and ensure managers are trained to consider requests on their individual merits. See our flexitime management software for tools to manage varied working patterns.
4. Fire and Rehire: Near-Total Restriction
The practice of dismissing employees and re-engaging them on worse contractual terms — “fire and rehire” — is effectively banned under the Bill, except in very limited circumstances.
- Automatic unfair dismissal — dismissing an employee for refusing to accept a variation of their contract will be automatically unfair in almost all cases.
- Narrow exception — fire-and-rehire may only be permissible where the employer faces genuine financial distress that threatens the viability of the business as a going concern.
- Consultation requirements strengthened — a statutory Code of Practice on Dismissal and Re-engagement was already strengthened in 2024; the Bill gives it legislative force.
Employers seeking to change terms and conditions must instead negotiate and obtain employee consent through genuine consultation.
5. Collective Redundancy: Lower Thresholds
The Bill makes important changes to the rules on collective redundancy consultation. Currently, the obligation to collectively consult (for a minimum of 45 days) is triggered when an employer proposes to make 100 or more redundancies at one establishment within 90 days.
- The 90-day consultation window is expected to be reduced, requiring employers to act more quickly.
- Changes to how redundancies are counted across multiple sites will mean more employers are caught by the collective consultation obligations.
Use our redundancy pay calculator to ensure statutory redundancy payments are calculated correctly during any restructuring.
6. Statutory Sick Pay from Day One
Currently, SSP is not payable for the first three days of sickness absence (the “waiting days”), and employees must earn above the Lower Earnings Limit (£123 per week) to qualify. The Bill removes both barriers.
SSP from day one of sickness
The three waiting days are abolished — SSP is payable from the first qualifying day of sickness.
Lower earnings threshold removed
Part-time workers, zero-hours workers, and lower-paid employees who previously fell below the threshold will now qualify for SSP, potentially at a reduced proportionate rate.
For employers, this means SSP costs will increase slightly — but the bigger implication is that accurate absence records and earnings data become even more critical. Use our statutory sick pay calculator to check entitlements.
7. Equality: Harassment and Third-Party Liability
The duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace came into force in October 2024 under the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023. The Employment Rights Bill strengthens this further by:
- Third-party harassment liability — employers can now be held liable for harassment of employees by third parties (such as customers or clients) where they failed to take reasonable preventive steps. This reverses the previous legal position which had effectively removed third-party liability.
- Stronger enforcement powers — the Equality and Human Rights Commission has enhanced powers to take action against employers who fail to meet the preventive duty.
Employers should review their harassment prevention policies, provide up-to-date training, and ensure they have processes for reporting and investigating complaints from third-party interactions.
8. Trade Union Rights Strengthened
The Bill introduces the most substantial expansion of trade union rights in decades:
- Simplified recognition process — the threshold and ballot requirements for trade union recognition are eased, making it easier for unions to gain recognition in workplaces.
- Extended right to representation — workers will have broader rights to be accompanied by a trade union representative in disciplinary and grievance hearings.
- New rights for union officials — additional protections and facilities for trade union officials carrying out their duties.
- Right of access — unions will have a statutory right of access to workplaces for recruitment and organising purposes, subject to safeguards.
Employers in sectors with historically low union membership should be aware that these changes may lead to increased union activity.
9. Family Leave Entitlements
The Bill introduces enhanced family-friendly rights that affect employers from day one of employment:
- Bereavement leave for all — statutory bereavement leave becomes a day-one right for all employees, not just those who have suffered the loss of a child. The entitlement covers close family members.
- Enhanced maternity and pregnancy protection — protection from dismissal is extended to cover the period of pregnancy and the six months following return from maternity leave, making it significantly harder to dismiss an employee during or shortly after pregnancy.
- Redundancy priority extended — the obligation to offer suitable alternative employment to employees at risk of redundancy is extended to cover the full protected period.
Use our maternity and paternity leave tracker to manage these entitlements and ensure compliance from day one.
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10. What Employers Should Do Now
With most provisions expected to come into force from 2026, employers have a window to prepare — but it is narrowing. Here is a practical action plan:
1. Audit your probation processes
Formalise probation review meetings, introduce written documentation, and ensure every new starter has a clear review schedule. Managers must be trained on what “fair process” looks like during probation.
2. Review your zero-hours arrangements
Identify workers who regularly work consistent hours and prepare for guaranteed hours offers. Review your shift scheduling and cancellation processes. Ensure your time-tracking system records every shift worked.
3. Update your flexible working policy
Ensure your policy reflects day-one rights and the strengthened reasonableness test. Train managers to genuinely consider requests rather than defaulting to refusal.
4. Check your timesheet and absence management systems
The new rights — from SSP day one to guaranteed hours calculations — all depend on accurate records. Manual spreadsheets will not be sufficient for most employers. Purpose-built software creates the audit trail you need.
5. Train managers on new day-one rights
Many of these changes require front-line managers to handle situations differently from day one of a new hire's employment. Training is not optional — it is your primary defence against tribunal claims.
How TimeTally Helps You Comply
Many of the Employment Rights Bill's requirements depend on one thing: accurate, auditable records. Whether it is proving the hours worked during a zero-hours reference period, calculating SSP from day one, or evidencing shift notice periods, employers who already have robust record-keeping systems will find compliance significantly easier.
TimeTally is built for exactly this. It provides:
- Audit-ready hour records for Working Time Regulations and National Minimum Wage compliance — see our labour compliance features
- Timesheet approval workflows with full audit trails — see timesheet approval software
- Leave management covering all statutory entitlements including the new bereavement and family leave rights — see leave tracking software
- Automated timesheet reminders so records are never missing when you need them — see how to stop late time tracking
Tribunal risk: Failing to keep adequate records is one of the most common reasons employers lose Employment Tribunal claims. Under the Employment Rights Bill, the stakes are higher than ever — more workers will have more rights from day one, and you need to be able to evidence fair treatment from the very start of employment.