UK government announces more changes to Employment Rights Bill

The Employment Rights Bill (ERB) is not expected to get Royal Assent until the autumn. In the meantime, the government continues to introduce significant amendments. These include changes to bereavement leave, proposals to ban some NDAs and modifications to fire and rehire dismissals.

Bereavement leave

As previously announced, the new right to bereavement leave will extend to pregnancy loss. Parents will be entitled to at least a week's unpaid leave if they experience a miscarriage or another form of pregnancy loss.

NDAs relating to discrimination and harassment

In the wake of the #MeToo movement, campaigners have strongly argued for a ban on non-disclosure/ confidentiality agreements that prevent employees speaking out about discrimination or harassment.

The government is amending the ERB to achieve this. Clauses in a settlement agreement or other contract preventing someone from making allegations about discrimination or harassment, or the way an employer has responded to discrimination or harassment, will be void. It will still be possible to use NDAs in circumstances set out in regulations, but these are likely to be tightly defined and not generally applicable.

Fire and rehire

Employers sometimes choose to use dismissal and re-engagement to implement contractual changes employees won't agree to. The original version of the ERB made these dismissals automatically unfair unless the changes were necessary for business survival.

Dismissals to achieve a change in pay, pension, hours or time off, or to introduce a unilateral variation clause about any of those matters, will still be automatically unfair. However, the amendments mean that dismissing and re-engaging to change other contractual terms, such as an employee's workplace, will not be. Such dismissals may still be unfair on normal principles and tribunals will have to consider factors such as the reason for the change, any consultation the employer conducts, and whether an employer has offered employees anything in return for a change when assessing fairness.

Timetable

Last week the government announced when some of the key ERB reforms will come into force, following a further period of consultation in some cases. On the current timetable:

• Paternity leave and parental leave become day one rights in April 2026;
• “Fire and rehire” changes take effect in October 2026, along with additional protection against sexual harassment and third-party harassment;
• Unfair dismissal will become a day one right at some point in 2027; and
• Flexible working changes, the new right to bereavement leave and cross-establishment collective redundancy consultation thresholds also take effect in 2027.

Authored by Anvita Sharma and Stefan Martin.