Make Work Pay: fire and rehire – changes to expenses, benefits, and shift patterns
Applies to England, Scotland and Wales
Read the full outcome
Detail of outcome
The government has published its response to the consultation on the scope of restricted variations under the Employment Rights Act 2025.
The consultation received 121 responses, which have informed the government’s approach.
The government response sets out the decisions made following the consultation and outlines the next steps for implementing the proposed regulations.
Following consideration of the consultation responses, the government will introduce regulations to exclude expenses and benefits in kind from the scope of restricted variations, except for certain travel and accommodation expenses and benefits.
The regulations will also include changes to shift patterns between day and night working, and weekday and weekend working within the scope of restricted variations.
The government intends to legislate when parliamentary time allows, with the aim of bringing the regulations into force alongside the Employment Rights Act 2025’s fire and rehire protections in March 2027.
Original consultation
Consultation description
Fire and rehire refers to the process of an employer dismissing an employee and then re-employing them (or someone else) under a new contract, usually with less favourable terms and conditions.
The Employment Rights Act 2025 will introduce new protections to prevent unscrupulous fire and rehire practices. The government wants to ensure the rules are fair for both employees and employers. The act will, once commenced, make it an automatic unfair dismissal where an employee is dismissed or replaced in order to make changes to core terms in their employment contract (protected as ‘restricted variations’).
The government is consulting on 2 types of restricted variations in relation to fire and rehire:
- employment expenses and benefits
- shift patterns
The government is asking for feedback on which expenses, benefits, and shift changes should be covered by these protections. The aim is to protect employees from negative changes to their employment contracts, while still letting businesses adapt when needed.
These proposals will need approval from Parliament before taking effect.
The government is seeking responses from all interested parties.