The government is to ditch its flagship policy from the workers\u2019 rights bill, removing the right to protection from unfair dismissal from the first day of employment and replacing it with a six-month threshold.<\/p>\n
The move comes after the business secretary, Peter Kyle, told businesses at the CBI conference this week that he would listen to concerns about the effects of the law change on hiring. A trade union source told the Guardian: \u201cThey\u2019ve capitulated and there may be more to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Trades Union Congress said it was prepared to accept the compromise arrangement, after days of negotiation. \u201cThe absolute priority now is to get these rights \u2013 like day one sick pay \u2013 on the statute book so that working people can start benefiting from them from next April,\u201d its general secretary, Paul Nowak, said.<\/p>\n
A TUC source said there was a view that the six-month threshold was more workable than the more loosely defined nine-month probation period, which will be scrapped.<\/p>\n
But MPs are likely to be unnerved by what is a direct breach of Labour\u2019s manifesto, which promised \u201cday one\u201d protection against unfair dismissal.<\/p>\n
Kyle has replaced Jonathan Reynolds as business secretary, the latter having steered through the legislation with the former deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner.<\/p>\n
Kyle committed<\/a> on Monday to ensuring businesses would not \u201close\u201d as a result of the changes, which included a ban on zero-hour contracts and day-one protections for workers against unfair dismissal.<\/p>\n \u201cI will not allow it to become zero-sum, [you] give one to the other, the other loses \u2026 This has to be got right,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n A union source said the changes had been agreed to allow the bill to progress faster through the House of Lords, which has significantly delayed the legislation<\/a>. It will mean the qualifying period for unfair dismissal will be reduced from two years to six months.<\/p>\n The bill had originally promised that period would be removed altogether and the government had proposed a lighter touch probation period that businesses could use instead, limited in law to nine months. That will now be removed and the law will make it impossible for an employee to claim unfair dismissal if they have been in post for less than six months.<\/p>\n Unions insisted they had won concessions, including on costs, but the move is likely to anger leftwing Labour MPs who regarded the employment rights bill as one of their key offerings.<\/p>\n