UK Workers to Gain Unfair Dismissal Rights After Six Months: What the New Rule Means. According to a source, Angela Rayner has dropped her intention to make it happen sooner after talks. The commencement date will be announced in the Commons.
After reaching an agreement with Angela Rayner, ministers will speed up the start of protections against unfair dismissal for workers so that they start in 2027.
Rayner, who used to be the deputy prime minister and wrote the job rights bill, was going to add an amendment to make sure the protections start next year. But after talking with Peter Kyle, the business secretary, she will no longer do this.
Instead, ministers will promise in the Commons on Monday to prevent workers with six months of service from being fired unfairly starting on January 1, 2027.
Ministers have merely promised to make the transition at some point next year, with October 2027 being one of the dates being talked about.
A government source added, “We are happy to have a clear date for this change.” Now the House of Lords needs to pass this important law so that businesses can acquire the information they need and workers can feel safe.
The judgement will help anyone who starts working after July 2026 because the protections will apply right away to workers who have been on the job for six months or more.
Rayner stepped in amid a lot of outrage from Labour over the decision to do rid of day-one protection against unfair dismissal in the bill and replace it with a six-month qualifying period, which is shorter than the current two years.
Last week, ministers dropped a promise in their manifesto to let workers file an unfair dismissal action against their boss from the first day of employment. They argued that corporations and unions had to work together to come up with a solution that would help get the law passed in the House of Lords, where there was strong opposition.
This week, Rayner and Justin Madders, the former minister of employment rights, have been talking to the government about adjustments. A Labour source said that they and other MPs were “happy that ministers have listened to their concerns and suggestions.”
“Both the Commons and the Labour movement have shown a lot of support for their plan this week. The source stated, “They would have easily had the numbers, but it won’t come to that now that this has been worked out through friendly conversation and focused discussion.”
“More working people will now feel the real benefit of stronger protection against unfair dismissal sooner, which is a big win for Labour that they can campaign on next year.”
Rayner and Madders said that the implementation could go much faster because there was no need for public consultation and employer familiarisation with a new process, because the new offer was only a shortening of the current arrangements.
For now, workers can only file claims of unfair dismissal if they have been on the job for two years. David Cameron’s government raised this qualifying time from one year in 2012. Tony Blair’s government lowered it from two years to one in 1999.
Several MPs told the Guardian earlier this week that they agreed with the government’s reasons for backing down on day-one rights, but they were worried that this would give peers and critics of the bill more power to press for more amendments.
Most trade unions have agreed to the compromise, saying that the other option, a nine-month trial period, needed more time for discussion since they were worried it wouldn’t work. The government also agreed to remove the limit on how much money people may get for claims, which unions have been asking for for a long time.
The bill, which will be back in the Commons next week, also has steps to make sure that workers on zero-hour or variable contracts can still use the new rights. It also says that businesses that don’t let unions talk to workers will have to pay fines.