Unfair Dismissal day-one right - wrong

Thankfully, the Labour Government has seen sense and rowed back on making unfair dismissal a day-one employment right. However, it did take an unlikely coalition of trade unions and employers to persuade the government that it was impractical.

The Employment Rights Bill will now be amended to introduce a six-month qualifying period before employees can bring a claim for unfair dismissal. However, this is still a substantial reduction from the current two years of continuous employment to claim unfair dismissal.

The reduction to six months will also conflict with many employment contracts that specify longer probationary periods for new employees. Employers will now need to ensure that their probationary periods match unfair dismissal protections.

The government appears keen to regulate to the point that employers will be reluctant to hire people, particularly untested young first-time workers. This will do nothing for youth unemployment.

The reduction in the unfair dismissal qualifying period from two years to six months has now been further postponed until approximately 2027. But the government (and so employers) are still unsure regarding this timetable. This has been a feature of the Employment Rights Bill: impractical, wildly optimistic about its timetable, and not rooted in reality. The increase in bureaucracy and costs to employers will inevitably be passed to customers and reduce the UK's already faltering productivity.

There has to be a point at which the government realises that expanding employment protections will only protect against people being employed in the first place.

A cynic could argue that the Employment Rights Bill may actually increase employment in the short term as employers seek to recruit ahead of the changes.

Does the government want to take that risk?