Employment Rights Bill: Government motion to insist on disagreement to Lords Amendment 1B but to propose Government amendments (a) and (b) in lieu of Lords Amendment 1B

Parliament voted on 8 December 2025 to reject a House of Lords amendment that would have shifted the responsibility for guaranteed hours onto workers to request, backing instead a government compromise that keeps the obligation on employers to proactively offer guaranteed-hours contracts. The motion passed by 327 votes to 96. The vote was one of several "ping-pong" exchanges (where a bill travels back and forth between the Commons and Lords until both agree on its final text) needed to clear the Employment Rights Bill for Royal Assent. The practical effect is that employers, rather than workers, carry the duty to offer zero-hours and low-hours workers a contract reflecting the hours they regularly work over a defined reference period. The Lords had proposed reversing this so that workers would need to initiate a request. The government argued that placing the duty on employers is essential to rebalancing power in the labour market and ending arrangements where workers face insecurity without ever formally being offered stable terms. Jim Shannon MP raised the specific concern that under the Lords model a worker could request hours that an employer then cancelled at short notice, asking the government to confirm that compensation protections would remain in place. Labour and Labour and Co-operative MPs voted unanimously in favour, as did all four Plaid Cymru MPs and all four Green MPs. Conservative MPs voted entirely against, joined by the DUP's four voting members and three Reform UK MPs. Two independents voted against and five voted in favour. The Liberal Democrats had no votes recorded. The result reflects the broader party divide that has run through the entire passage of this Bill, with Conservatives arguing it will damage employment, particularly among young people, while the government maintains it is both pro-worker and pro-business.