11 October 2024: As has been widely reported; under the proposed Employment Rights Bill, employees will no longer need two years service before they can gain protection against unfair dismissal.

It appears that this will become a day one right, meaning that from the beginning of the employment relationship, the employer will need to have a valid statutory reason to dismiss.

Most employers currently take on new employees subject to a Probationary Period of at three months or more. It appears that the new bill will allow a simplified dismissal period during a statutory probationary period.

This is therefore good news for employees, but not such good news for businesses that want the flexibility that the two year qualifying period currently provides.

It’s often forgotten that employees can already bring unfair dismissal claims with less than two years service under certain limited circumstances. This is called ‘automatic’ unfair dismissal and includes dismissals because the employee asserted a statutory right (such as to take paid holiday), dismissals because the employee was a whistleblower. If someone is dismissed for an unlawfully discriminatory reason on day one (for example because they are pregnant), a claim can also arise under the Equality Act.

Therefore the creation of a day one right not to be unfairly dismissed, while fairly radical, is not unprecedented.