Employment Rights Bill Report Stage: Amendment 297

What happened: The House of Commons voted on Amendment 297 to the Employment Rights Bill during its Report Stage on 12 March 2025. The amendment, tabled by the Conservatives, was defeated by 328 votes to 167. The amendment related to trade union industrial action and sought to place additional conditions or restrictions on how trade unions could organise and carry out industrial action.

Why it matters: The Employment Rights Bill is one of the most significant pieces of employment legislation in a generation, covering areas from zero-hours contracts and statutory sick pay to trade union rights and enforcement powers. Amendment 297 focused specifically on the industrial relations provisions of the Bill, seeking to modify the framework governing trade union activity. Its defeat means the government's original approach to these provisions remains intact, preserving the expanded rights and protections for trade unions that the Bill contains. The vote affects millions of workers who are trade union members, as well as employers across both public and private sectors who will need to operate within the reformed industrial relations framework.

The politics: The vote divided almost entirely along party lines. All 279 Labour MPs and 27 Labour and Co-operative MPs who voted opposed the amendment, while all 94 voting Conservatives and 62 voting Liberal Democrats supported it. Reform UK's five voting MPs also backed the amendment, as did three Democratic Unionists and four independents. The SNP, Plaid Cymru, and the Greens all voted against. The debate was marked by sharp exchanges over trade union funding of the Labour Party, with Conservative MPs arguing the Bill represented political payback for union financial support, and Labour MPs defending trade union members as ordinary working people whose rights deserved protection.