The House of Lords votes against today’s…

Following a vote in the House of Lords, Labour’s promised first-day protection against unfair dismissal could now be replaced by a six-month qualifying period.

If the House of Lords accepts the amendments, they would mark a major shift in Labour’s commitment to providing immediate protection to all workers against unfair dismissal.

Change the qualifying period

Introduced by Shadow Minister for Business and Trade, Lord Sharpe of Epsom, the proposals were approved by 304 votes to 160.

Although the qualifying period is still a reduction from the current two-year period, this period is still far from the Labor Party’s original vision set out in the Employment Rights Bill.

Sharpe stated that these changes strike a fairer balance and provide ‘room for employers to assess suitability while ensuring that bad faith dismissals still carry consequences’.

Confused and counterproductive

Sharpe explained his views further, commenting that the intention to protect workers was ‘commendable’, but that the current proposed approach to unfair dismissal and the proposed statutory probationary period were ‘confusing and counterproductive’.

He added that there will always be risks in recruiting, raising concerns that the bill will exacerbate challenges and could ultimately deter companies from hiring.

It is worth noting that when the draft law was first announced, some experts expressed similar concerns regarding protection against unfair dismissal, and stated that this could have an adverse impact on hiring.

In fact, Dan J. Grace, Director of International HR Consulting at IRIS Software Group, commented on these hiring risks in a previous Employment Rights Bill article, stating: “After these changes, companies may be more careful when hiring and take less risk on candidates who lack experience and skills but show potential.”

What’s the next step?

Currently, the bill is going through the report stage in the House of Lords.

After third reading, any amendments must be approved by the House of Commons.

A new Employment Rights Bill roadmap was released recently, with changes to unfair dismissal due to occur in 2027, which you can learn more about in our latest blog.

In light of recent developments, Dan told us: “While this is not unexpected, we continue to see fluctuations in the implementation of the Employment Rights Bill and the changes this will bring to the UK labor market.

“The message remains clear to me: employers must act and implement appropriate best practices to ensure they do not have ‘bad actors’ in their workforce.

“Hire the right candidates and have a strong process around probation management.

“If this amendment passes, probation management will be more important than ever and ensuring your management team adheres to probation management principles will help reduce risk in your business.”