Employment Rights Bill: Can employers still use seasonal workers?

April 15, 2025

Employment Rights Bill: Can employers still use seasonal workers?

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By Heledd Ainsworth

The Employment Rights Bill (ERB) is likely to have a substantial impact on employers’ hiring practices.

Ahead of the peak summer season for employers in some sectors, our employment law expert, Heledd, examines the effects of the ERB on employers’ ability to hire seasonal and casual workers – including the changes to zero-hour contracts and unfair dismissal.

1. Changes to Zero-hour Contracts

The ERB introduces reforms to zero-hour contracts by introducing a right for workers to be offered contracts that reflect the hours they regularly work, offering greater job security, instead of being left on a contract with no guaranteed hours of work from week to week.

While the specifics are still to be decided, workers who meet certain criteria must be offered guaranteed hours based on their average hours worked over a reference period (12 weeks is currently proposed). Employers will also be required to:

• Provide reasonable notice of shift changes; and
• Compensate employees for shifts cancelled at short notice.

How will this affect employers?

This will impact employers in sectors such as the hospitality and agriculture sectors, which often heavily rely on casual and seasonal workers for busy periods.

Employers may not have as much flexibility to offer their workers hours that are most convenient for their business (including the ability to offer fewer hours during quieter weeks), and there will be additional administrative burdens involved in correctly managing workers’ shifts, and added costs due to the potential of compensating workers for cancelled shifts. Employers may struggle to align staffing levels with fluctuating customer demand as easily as before.

However, the use of fixed-term contracts will still be allowed – so employers which engage workers on contracts that are shorter than 12 weeks are likely to be less affected by the changes, as the right to a guaranteed-hours contract won’t kick in for those workers.

Our top tip

These changes can be mitigated by employers with correct planning. Try to plan in advance how many workers you require and for how long, and keep a tight rein on your rotas so that you don’t need to incur the extra costs of cancelling shifts.

2. Changes to Unfair Dismissal

The ERB removes the requirement for a qualifying period of two years of employment for an employee to bring a claim for unfair dismissal, subject to a statutory ‘initial period of employment’ (IPE) which will operate in a similar way to a probationary period.

The length of the IPE is still to be decided, amid ongoing consultation by the UK Government, but initial proposals refer to a period of up to 9 months (likely to consist of an initial 6-month period and the right to extend by 3 months).

During the IPE, employers are expected to be able to safely dismiss employees for reasons relating to their capability or conduct. However, as it stands, the IPE does not cover redundancy – so employers would still need to go through a full redundancy consultation process when making employees redundant during this period.

Even if dismissing an employee for capability or conduct during the IPE, employers will need to follow a basic procedure, which is currently expected to involve:

• A formal meeting where the employer’s concerns are stated;
• An opportunity for the employee to respond; and
• The right to be accompanied.

How will this affect employers?

The changes will mean that every employee will now have day-one protection against unfair dismissal. Employers must be prepared to demonstrate fair procedures and justifiable reasons for dismissal — even in the early stages of employment. Failure to do so could result in costly Employment Tribunal claims.

Employers which hire additional employees during peak periods will be affected by this in the same way as other businesses, making careful workforce planning crucial.

For employers which fall foul of these new rules, the consequences of this may be to:

• Reduce flexibility for businesses which need to quickly remove unsuitable employees;
• Introduce additional administrative and procedural burdens; and
• Potentially increase costs due to a higher risk of legal claims.

Our top tips

To minimise the risk of unfair dismissal claims and ensure that the right people are in place, it will be crucial to:

• Get the recruitment process right. Employers should place greater emphasis on assessing a candidate’s suitability and skills in relation to the role in recognition of the fact that dismissing employees who don’t work out will now be more challenging.
• Strengthen your induction and support processes for employees in the early days of their employment, so that they’re set up to succeed in their roles and performance issues further down the line can be avoided.
• Tighten up your contracts, policies and job descriptions so that the expectations on employees are clearly laid out from the start.

How can employers prepare for the upcoming changes?

The majority of changes in the ERB will take effect no earlier than 2026. There is time to prepare for all of the changes, but it will be hugely important to take proactive steps to update your contracts, policies and procedures in advance of the Bill being brought into force.

If in doubt, employers should seek legal advice about what their duties are towards their casual and seasonal workers as well as the rest of their employees, and what to do if a dispute arises.

If you are an employer which may be affected by the Employment Rights Bill, and you need advice on how best to deal with your obligations to your workers and employees, get in touch using our contact form or contact Heledd on 029 2082 9131 or hainsworth@darwingray.com to find out how we can help you.

The Future of Work conference on 14^th May will include sessions on the Employment Rights Bill, including an expert panel with Darwin Gray’s employment law partners on the challenges, changes and predictions for the future. Find out more about the conference here.