Employment Rights Bill enters the ‘ping pong’ phase

As we enter the winter months of 2025, many had anticipated that we would have a shiny new statute on the statute books: the Employment Rights Act 2025. This has not transpired, with certain key provisions remaining under debate after being rejected by the House of Lords following a debate on 28^th October 2025. The impacted provisions include:

• Day one unfair dismissal rights – the Lords are pushing for a six-month qualification period.
• Guaranteed hours – the Lords have requested a right for the employee to opt-out of continuous review of hours and periodic offers of guaranteed hours where they are content to continue on a zero hours basis.
• Seasonal workers – the Lords want assurance that, when passing regulations on guaranteed hours, special regard is had to the circumstances of seasonal workers.
• Trade union funds – the Lords feel that new trade union members should be given a choice as to whether to opt in to a union’s political fund. 
• Ballots for industrial action – the Lords disagree with the Government’s proposal to remove the requirement that there must be a turnout of at least 50% of those eligible to vote in a ballot for industrial action.

The Bill has been sent back to the House of Commons for further consideration of these contentious points – all part of a parliamentary process known colloquially as ‘ping pong’. The Bill will ‘ping pong’ between the two Houses until such time as an agreed position is reached. The fact that the Bill’s most headline-grabbing provision: unfair dismissal as a day one right, is strongly opposed by the House of Lords, means that it may be several months yet before the Bill passes into law.

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