Currently, the qualifying service required to bring a claim for unfair dismissal (other than in some cases of automatically unfair dismissal) is two years. The new bill proposes doing away with this in favour of rights from ‘day one’ of employment.

What this means in practice is that the qualifying service period will be replaced with a statutory probation period. The government will be consulting on the exact maximum length of this probation period, with a nine-month maximum currently being favoured. It is proposed that an employer will be able to dismiss more easily during the probation period than after it.

Whether this amounts to a day one right to protection against unfair dismissal will depend on the exact nature of the probationary period and the ability to dismiss during it, but in any event, employees will likely have more protection than they used to against unfair dismissal.

Other ‘day one’ employment rights include paternity leave, sick pay, bereavement leave and parental leave. Flexible working will also become a default right (where ‘practicable’), when at present workers need 26 weeks’ service to make a request.

Zero hours contracts will not be banned per-se, but those working under such contracts will have the right to a guaranteed hours contract based on the hours worked over a twelve-week period. Those who prefer a variable-hours contract will be entitled to keep the one they have.

‘Fire and Re-Hire’ of employees will also not be banned entirely but will be restricted. It will be automatically unfair to dismiss an employee for refusing to agree a contract variation, but there will be an exception where there is a genuine need to avoid serious financial issues that may threaten the business.

Whilst the headlines suggest some pretty significant changes to the employment law landscape, and greater protections for workers, there is still a significant amount of detail to be worked out. It will be crucial to ensure that workers’ rights and business freedoms are properly balanced, particularly in the case of smaller businesses who may be concerned about what this may mean for making new hires