Employment Rights Bill: Motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 49

Parliament voted on 15 September 2025 to reject Lords Amendment 49 to the Employment Rights Bill, backing the government's position that the amendment was unnecessary. The motion to disagree with the Lords passed by 332 votes to 160. The amendment, along with the closely related Amendment 48, had sought to place a duty on the Secretary of State to have regard to the requirements of seasonal workers when making regulations on guaranteed-hours contracts. The Bill's guaranteed-hours provisions require employers to offer zero and low-hours workers a contract reflecting the hours they regularly work over a reference period. Supporters of the Lords amendment argued that seasonal businesses and their workers need an explicit statutory duty to ensure the government considers their specific circumstances when drawing up those regulations. The government countered that the Bill already accommodates seasonal work, pointing to provisions allowing guaranteed-hours offers for limited-term contracts covering task-based or time-bound roles, and argued that adding the duty would be redundant. The division followed strict party lines. All 311 Labour and Labour/Co-operative MPs who voted backed the government. Conservatives (82), Liberal Democrats (65), Reform UK (6) and the Democratic Unionist Party (2) all voted against, joining the single independent MP who voted no. The Scottish National Party (8), Plaid Cymru (3), the Greens (3) and three independents supported the government. The vote is part of a lengthy ping-pong process between the Commons and Lords on the Employment Rights Bill, with the government successfully overturning a series of Lords amendments across multiple sittings in September and December 2025.