'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.

Business groups had warned that day-one rights risked making firms more cautious about recruitment. The move to a six-month qualifying period appears to be the compromise needed to keep the wider Bill on track.

What the government has changed

The central change is the scrapping of day-one rights for ordinary unfair dismissal. The government will legislate for a six-month qualifying period instead, replacing the current two-year threshold and significantly shortening the window in which employers can dismiss staff without risk of an unfair dismissal claim.