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UK employment rights plan extends guaranteed hours to agency workers
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 4, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 25, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 4, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 25, 2026
The UK Employment Rights Bill ensures guaranteed hours for all workers, including agency staff, aiming to end exploitative contracts and prevent industrial action.
LONDON (Reuters) - All British workers, including nearly a million agency workers, will be entitled to a contract which reflects the hours they regularly work, according to amendments tabled by the Labour government to its flagship employment legislation.
The Employment Rights Bill, which the government says is the biggest upgrade to UK workers' rights in a generation, was set out in October.
Having consulted with business groups and unions, who traditionally fund the Labour Party, the government on Tuesday published amendments to the bill ahead of the next stage of the parliamentary process.
It said one of these will ensure that agency work does not become a loophole in its plans to end exploitative zero hours contracts, which do not give workers' guaranteed hours.
Some business groups oppose guaranteed hours, arguing it will make part-time jobs less viable and businesses less competitive as they pay for hours they don't need.
Other amendments to the legislation will make statutory sick pay a legal right for all workers for the first time, strengthen remedies against employer abuse of rules on redundancies and create a modern framework for industrial relations.
The substance of the reforms proposed in October remains intact, including plans to end fire-and-rehire practices and granting new rights on parental leave.
The legislation will be one of Prime Minister Keir Starmer's biggest reforms since Labour's election victory in July. The government has framed the plans as the best way to avoid the widespread industrial action that has disrupted services over the last two years.
(Reporting by James Davey, Editing by Paul Sandle)
The Employment Rights Bill ensures that all British workers, including nearly a million agency workers, will be entitled to a contract that reflects the hours they regularly work.
The reforms include making statutory sick pay a legal right for all workers, ending exploitative zero hours contracts, and granting new rights on parental leave.
Some business groups argue that guaranteed hours will make part-time jobs less viable and reduce competitiveness as businesses may have to pay for hours they don't need.
The government frames the Employment Rights Bill as the most significant upgrade to UK workers' rights in a generation, aiming to avoid widespread industrial action.
The amendments aim to ensure that agency work does not become a loophole in the plans to end zero hours contracts and strengthen protections against employer abuses.
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