Labour ditches day-one safety from unfair dismissal in U-turn | EUROtoday

The authorities has U-turned on its manifesto dedication to supply all employees the proper to assert unfair dismissal from their first day in a job.

Ministers now plan to introduce the proper after six months as an alternative, following issues from enterprise teams.

The authorities argued it was making the climbdown to cease its employment laws being delayed within the House of Lords, the place it has run into opposition.

Other new day-one rights to sick pay and paternity go away will nonetheless go forward, coming into impact in April 2026.

Currently, workers must have been in a job for at least two years earlier than they’re entitled to safety from unfair dismissal.

Labour had deliberate to abolish this qualifying interval fully, alongside a brand new authorized probation interval to be decided after a session.

The promise was a central pledge in Labour’s manifesto forward of final yr’s common election, and a key plank of its Employment Rights Bill.

But in current weeks the House of Lords has twice voted in favour of a six-month interval, slowing the laws’s passage via Parliament.

The Conservatives referred to as the U-turn “humiliating” however added that the laws was “still not fit-for-purpose”.

“Keir Starmer must grow a backbone, stand up to his union paymasters and ditch every single job-destroying anti-growth measure in the employment rights bill now,” added shadow enterprise secretary Andrew Griffith.