In my last roundup, I assumed that only government amendments to the Bill would be agreed by the House of Lords. That's certainly come back to bite me! Several key non-government amendments were agreed which have put the proverbial cat amongst the pigeons. We have updated our hub with the changes, but here's a quick summary below.  

Key amendments

• Guaranteed Hours Offer and cancellation/change of shifts

The original clause 1 in the Bill, which outlines the duty of employers to make a Guaranteed Hours Offer (GHO), subject to certain criteria being met, has been amended. The duty no longer rests with the employer to offer a GHO, but rather it is for the employee to request a GHO. Does that sound familiar? It should, as it bears a strong resemblance to the predictable hours legislation the previous government had agreed on but failed to come into force because of the July 2024 election.

In addition, their Lordships agreed that the notice period required for a cancellation/change of shifts should be agreed at 48 hours and enshrined in the ERB. The Government had indicated that this notice period would be no longer than seven days and would be introduced after a period of consultation and within regulations. 

The general feeling is that neither of these amendments will be agreed by the House of Commons in the early autumn. The Government was clear in its intention to outlaw exploitative zero-hour contracts in its electioneering and so we don't expect that they will go back on that intention and that the duty will shift back onto employers and a longer notice period will be agreed.     

• Unfair dismissal - qualification period  

The Government made it clear in its election promises that it would remove the qualification period for unfair dismissal. The ERB duly did that, albeit promising a statutory probationary period with a ‘light touch’ dismissal procedure. However, an unexpected non-government amendment was agreed by the House of Lords, which reintroduced a qualification period of six months. The statutory probationary period would start to run after the qualification period. Again, we do not expect the House of Commons to agree to this amendment and so expect the qualification period to be removed in the final version of the Bill.  

• Whistle blowing

A Liberal Democrat peer has introduced a clause to the ERB whereby the Government will be required to publish regulations which extend the circumstances in which an employee is unfairly dismissed following a protected disclosure. There is a lack of detail and clarity on what this would look like and so it's unlikely the House of Commons will agree to this.  

• Dismissal for failing to agree to variation of contract

Amended wording on this has been introduced, detailing what variations will trigger an unfair dismissal claim. It will be a 'restricted variation' which will relate to issues of pay, hours and holidays. Other aspects of this definition will be confirmed in regulations. The financial difficulties exemption will continue to apply. In addition, the dismissal will be automatically unfair if the reason for the dismissal was to replace the employee on varied terms with an agency worker. For public sector employers, the amendment notes when the ‘financial difficulties’ exemption will apply. It is anticipated that these amendments will be voted through by the House of Commons.  

What's next?

The House of Lords will reconvene on 3 September for the third reading of the Bill and then it will return to the House of Commons for their consideration of amendments. Given these amendments, there may be some back and forth between the two Houses, which may delay the Bill becoming law; however, with the Government's party conference at the end of September, we imagine they will want to get issues which are key to their policy intentions locked in by then.  

For more information

If you have any queries on these or other issues relating to the ERB, please contact us.