Employment Rights Bill: October Consultation

Thursday 23rd October 2025 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business and Trade (Kate Dearden)]

The Government’s top priority is to grow the economy and improve living standards. We are clear that we cannot build a strong economy while people are in insecure work. For too long, employment law has failed to keep pace with fundamental changes to how, when and where we work. This has allowed bad actors to take advantage of loopholes in the current law via exploitative practices, fuelling a race to the bottom, undercutting responsible businesses, and eroding the living standards of working people. We are clear that unfair competition, where a bad employer undercuts a good employer by reducing the terms and conditions of service for their employees, is bad for business, bad for workers and bad for growth.

Our plan to make work pay will modernise our employment rights legislation, extending the employment protections already given by the best British companies to millions more workers across the country. Strengthening this underlying framework will make work more secure and predictable, putting more money into working people’s pockets and strengthening the foundations that underpin a modern economy. It will also offer dignity to those going through the toughest personal circumstances, support working families to juggle the demands of work and raising children and help more working parents to stay in the workplace. This is a win-win. Policies that improve workforce wellbeing and job satisfaction also improve retention, boost productivity, promote fair competition and economic growth.

We are committed to full and comprehensive consultation with employers, workers, trade unions and civil society. By delivering this change together, we will back employers who do the right thing and give hard-working people the security, fairness and job satisfaction they deserve. As set out in our “Implementing the Employment Rights Bill” publication (published 1 July 2025), we are taking a phased approach to engagement and consultation on these reforms. This will ensure stakeholders have the time and space to work through the detail of each measure and to help us implement each in the interests of all.

Today I am launching an initial package of consultations covering the following four measures. Alongside a programme of direct stakeholder engagement, these will support us in determining how best to put our plans into practice.

Consultation 1: enhanced dismissal protections for pregnant women and new mothers

Discriminating against women because they are pregnant or on maternity leave is already unlawful. However, pregnant women and new mothers continue to face a significant and unique risk to their job security. Every parent should feel secure at work, and that includes ensuring motherhood is not a barrier.

Starting with the Employment Rights Bill, the Government are introducing legislation which will make it unlawful to dismiss pregnant women, mothers on maternity leave, and mothers who return to work for at least a six-month period—except in specific circumstances. The Bill establishes the requisite powers to then set out the detail of the policy in regulations. Other powers taken ensure that those taking other types of family-related leave can be brought into the policy’s scope, subject to the outcome of the consultation.

The consultation seeks views on how the enhanced dismissal protections should work in practice, including the “specific circumstances” in which the dismissal of pregnant women and new mothers should still be allowed; when the protections should start and end; whether other new parents should be covered by the protections; policy measures to support implementation and impact; and how to mitigate against any unintended consequences.

This consultation will close after 12 weeks on 15 January 2026.

Consultation 2: bereavement leave

Bereavement and the loss of a loved one is a deeply personal experience that impacts everyone differently. In some cases, employees will need to take time and space away from work to grieve; in other cases, employees might wish to continue working as normal. For too long, employees facing bereavement have had to navigate their grief without the security of knowing they have a legal right to the time they need away from work. While many employers do give their employees the time they need, some do not. Fair competition demands some statutory protections for bereaved workers.

The Employment Rights Bill introduces a new statutory right to bereavement leave which will ensure all employees have a right to time away from work to grieve. Government amendments tabled on Report in the Lords extend bereavement leave to include pregnancy loss before 24 weeks, to enable the Government to consult on the full range of bereavement leave and ensure long overdue recognition for the women and families affected by pregnancy loss.

The Bill provides framework powers to establish the new right to bereavement leave, and we are consulting on the details to be set out in secondary legislation, ensuring that the entitlement is fully informed by the needs of both employers and employees from the outset.

The Bill sets out that the leave must be a minimum of one week and employees must be allowed at least 56 days from the date of the loss in which to take the leave. The consultation will ask questions about who should be eligible for bereavement leave, including specific questions on different types of pregnancy loss. The consultation will also ask for views on the maximum length of leave and the timeframe in which it should be taken, and what else the Government can do to support employers to implement the new entitlement to bereavement leave, such as guidance. Lastly, the consultation will ask for views on what notice and evidence requirements an employee may be required to give to an employer to allow us to balance the needs of bereaved individuals with the needs of their employers to manage staff absence with minimum disruption.

This consultation will close after 12 weeks on 15 January 2026.

Consultation 3: trade union employer duty to inform

A lack of awareness about the right to join a trade union may be contributing to reduced engagement from workers in collective bargaining and access to representation when they need it. At present, employers are not required to inform workers of this right, either at the start of employment or subsequently. While employees and workers are legally protected if they choose to join a union, there is no obligation on employers to make them aware of this. This legal omission needs correction in law.

The Employment Rights Bill will introduce a new duty on employers to provide their workers with a written statement of their right to join a trade union at the start of their employment and at other times. This new duty addresses an existing information gap by ensuring workers are better informed of their rights.

This consultation seeks views on how this duty should work in practice—what the statement should say, in what manner it should be given, and how often the statement should be delivered outside the start of employment.

The consultation will close after eight weeks on 18 December 2025.

Consultation 4: trade union right of access

Effective trade unions are important to tackling insecurity, inequality, discrimination, poor working conditions and low pay. The best employers value their role in the workplace and experience the benefits of working in partnership.

Within the current legislative framework, trade unions do not have an independent right of access to workplaces protected in law. They may only act through individual members or by voluntary access arrangements with employers. Where membership is limited, and there are no voluntary arrangements in place, there is limited scope for trade unions to represent and support their members in employment-related matters.

The Employment Rights Bill will establish a new legal framework for unions and employers to negotiate access into the workplace, formalising a trade union’s right to access workplaces physically, and to communicate with workers both in person and digitally. A statutory access framework gives clarity to employers on how to agree access and will enable unions to contribute positively to workplace culture, fostering open communication and trust between workers and employers and leading to more stable and constructive industrial relations.

We are seeking views on how this framework should operate in practice, consulting on the practical details of the policy before we set them out in secondary legislation. The consultation will cover how unions will request access and how employers will respond; factors the Central Arbitration Committee will take into account when determining whether access should be granted and on what terms; and how breaches of access agreements should be assessed by the CAC.

The consultation will close after eight weeks on 18 December 2025.

Next steps for consultation

This package sets out the next steps in delivering our plans. As trailed in “Implementing the Employment Rights Bill”, further packages of consultations are planned for later in the autumn and into the winter. These will be central to shaping the practical implementation of this legislation, helping Government deliver reforms that are both effective and inclusive. It is in everyone’s interest to get the relationship between employer and employee right. These consultations will help us make work pay for both.

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