Royal Assent delayed but ...

Royal Assent for the Employment Rights Bill continues to be delayed.

The Bill failed to get Royal Assent before both the House of Commons and the House of Lords went into recess (for the party conference season). Since then, the Bill has bounced back between the Lords and Commons with no agreement being reached.

This so-called Parliamentary ping-pong started on 28^th October and shows little sign of abating. The areas that concern the Lords are:

opting out of guaranteed hours offers
the need to provide for seasonal work
Day 1 rights for unfair dismissal - but agreement has now been reached on having a 6-month qualifying period instead
trade union political funds
the need for a 50% turnout in strike ballots

Whether the concession on the qualifying period will be enough for the Lords to drop its remaining objections is yet to be seen. The Bill returns to the Commons on 8th December and then must go back to the Lords.

Both the Commons and the Lords need to agree on the wording of the bill before it can gain Royal Assent and become law.

The focus will then shift to implementation, with many accompanying regulations and consultations required before most parts of the Act can come into force.

The government has published an implementation timetable but with the delay in Royal Assent, it’s possible that timings may change.