'A surprise to many' | Government scraps day-one dismissal rights in major Employment Rights Bill U-turn

The government has abandoned its headline promise to give all workers the right to claim unfair dismissal from their first day of a job, confirming that protection will instead begin after six months in the job.

Ministers said the shift was needed to avoid the Employment Rights Bill being held up in the House of Lords, where peers had raised strong concerns about the scale and speed of the reforms.