Employment Rights Bill: Third Reading

MPs voted 333 to 100 on 12 March 2025 to pass the Employment Rights Bill at Third Reading, its final stage in the House of Commons before the Bill moved to the Lords. Third Reading is the last opportunity for the Commons to approve or reject a bill in its entirety. The margin was substantial, with 333 MPs backing the Bill and 100 opposing it. The Bill represents the most significant overhaul of employment law in a generation. Its central measures include: removing the two-year qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims and replacing it with a shorter initial employment period; requiring employers to offer guaranteed-hours contracts to zero and low-hours workers; extending Statutory Sick Pay from the first day of sickness and removing the lower earnings limit; tightening fire-and-rehire rules; strengthening duties on employers to prevent sexual harassment; and significantly expanding trade union rights, including by repealing the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023. A new Fair Work Agency will consolidate labour market enforcement. The practical effect touches millions of workers, particularly those in sectors with high rates of insecure or flexible employment such as hospitality, social care, and education. The vote divided almost entirely along party lines. All 277 Labour MPs and 31 Labour and Co-operative MPs who voted backed the Bill, as did the Scottish National Party, Plaid Cymru, the Greens, and most Independents. All 94 voting Conservatives opposed it, joined by all five Reform UK MPs who voted and three Democratic Unionist Party MPs. There were no recorded Conservative votes in favour and no Labour votes against.