Lords debate Employment Rights Bill at Committee Stage

The House of Lords has begun detailed scrutiny of the Employment Rights Bill as it passes through Committee Stage. Members across the House examine the Bill line by line, agreeing to each clause and voting on any amendments.

The clip above is from the first day of Committee Stage (29 April), where our Chairperson, Lord John Hendy KC, described how significantly the UK has fallen behind on employment rights in comparison to other countries in the OECD. Responding to the first amendment which sought to insert a purpose clause, Lord Hendy explained the pressing need for the Bill to pass undiluted to assist in correcting the UK’s disproportionately high levels of income inequality and work insecurity.

Citing the 2024 research report Falling Behind on Labour Rights (Barbakadze and Deakin), Lord Hendy underscored the severity of conditions facing UK workers as a consequence of the past decades of labour market deregulation. Comparatively, the UK ranks as the eighth most unequal of 40 major economies in terms of income inequality, and ranks 26^th out of 28 on worker participation in business decision making in the European Participation Index.

Lord Hendy KC said:

“We cannot go on in the way that we are at present, with workers denied a voice at work, working in insecure conditions and on extremely low pay. The Bill will go a long way to assist in putting that right.”

 

The above clip is taken from the second session (8 May), during which members debated new clause amendments 19A, 20 and 21. These amendments were introduced to express concerns that the Bill could create ‘rigidity which does not properly reflect the real-world operational needs of businesses across key sectors of our economy…’ (Lord Hunt of Wirral).

Supporters of the amendments suggested that the Bill’s provisions—particularly the right to guaranteed hours and the phasing out of zero-hours contracts—could pose practical and financial challenges for businesses. They called for exemptions in cases where genuine business needs or specific operational circumstances could be demonstrated.

The clip features Lord Hendy’s response to these proposals, in which he highlights their shortcomings and reiterates that the industrial reality of zero-hours contract is a complete disparity of power in favour of employers. He explains that:

This Bill already has escape routes for the employer, and these amendments are simply designed to increase the ways in which employers can evade the obligations of a guaranteed-hours contract. There are three that I notice: One.. we will see a deluge of short-term contracts introduced to evade guaranteed-hours contracts […] Secondly, because these provisions relate only to employees there will be an incentive to recategorise workers. […] Thirdly … over a million workers will never at any point reach the reference period and so be entitled to the benefit of a guaranteed-hours contract.

Our Employment Rights Bill briefing, including our analysis of the Bill’s provisions on banning zero-hours contracts can be found here.

The House will reconvene for another three sessions on the 21 May, 3 June and 5 June.