Impact of employment rights on businesses

This page provides several resources (parliamentary as well as external) on the topic of employment rights and businesses. It also includes links to the Library briefings on the Employment Rights Bill 2024-25, currently undergoing parliamentary scrutiny. 

Parliamentary material

Commons Library research briefings

• CBP 10334, Employment Rights Bill 2024-25: Lords stages and amendments, 12 September 2025
• CBP 10174, Employment Rights Bill 2024-25: Progress of the Bill, 5 March 2025
• CBP 10109, Employment Rights Bill 2024-25, 18 October 2024

Written and Oral Questions

• PQ 70874 [on Retail Trade: Employment], answered on 3 September 2025
• PQ HL8847 [on Employment Rights Bill], answered on 9 July 2025
• PQ HL8724 [on Employment Rights Bill], answered on 7 July 2025
• PQ 64633 [on Employment Rights Bill], answered on 7 July 2025
• PQ 64637 [on Employment Rights Bill], answered on 7 July 2025
• PQ 58899 [on Employment Rights Bill], answered on 17 June 2025
• PQ HL7038 [on Employment Rights Bill], answered on 14 May 2025
• PQ 46736 [on Business: Conditions of Employment], 30 April 2025
• House of Lords Hansard, Oral Questions 31 March 2025, c14
• House of Lords Hansard, Oral Questions 31 March 2025, c12

Government material

• Department for Business and Trade, and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Roadmap unveiled to boost rights for half of all UK workers and provide certainty to employers, 3 July 2025
• Regulatory Policy Committee, Employment Rights Bill: RPC opinion (red-rated), 25 November 2024
• UK Government, Employment Rights Bill: Economic analysis (PDF), October 2024

Media

• Financial Times, How Labour can rebuild trust with business: Reining back the burdensome employment rights bill would be a good start [£],10 September 2025
• The Telegraph, Workers’ bill is acting like a wet blanket on recruitment [£], 10 September 2025
• Personnel Today, Employment Rights Bill U-turn unlikely, say legal experts, 10 September 2025
• The Telegraph, Bosses urge Starmer to ditch Rayner’s workers’ rights law [£], 10 September 2025
• A range of Reasonable Responses Blog, The Reshuffle and the Employment Rights Bill, 9 September 2025
• City AM, Starmer to back unions over businesses amid backlash over Employment Rights Bill, 8 September 2025
• I newspaper, This is no time to overload businesses with new employment regulations, 8 September 2025
• BBC News, Unions warn government not to water down workers’ rights bill, 7 September 2025
• Lewis Silkin, Employment Rights Bill: What don’t we know?, 3 September 2025
• The Guardian, All the power is with the employer’s: why zero-hours workers welcome Labour’s rights bill, 31 August 2025
• People Management, Employers believe workers’ rights bill will have negative impact on business, research reveals, 21 August 2025
• Opus Business Advisory Group, How business is reacting to the Employment Rights Bill, 25 July 2025
• BBC News, Business groups urge changes to workers’ rights bill, 17 April 2025
• The Guardian, Employment rights reforms ‘could cost UK businesses £5bn a year’, 21 October 2024

Think tanks and external organisations

• UNISON, Companies that engage with staff on new employment rights will be biggest beneficiaries, 8 September 2025
• Labour List, TUC general secretary ‘confident not complacent’ over Employment Rights Bill, 7 September 2025
• Travers Smith, Employment Rights Bill: What does it mean for employers?, 14 July 2025
• Resolution Foundation, Low Pay Britain 2025, 3 July 2025
• Institute of Directors (IoD), IoD research finds employment law reforms will damage UK economic growth, 6 June 2025
• CIPD, The Employment Rights Bill’s unintended consequences, 22 April 2025
• Resolution Foundation, Minimum wage, maximum pressure?, 30 March 2025
• Institute for Employment Rights, Experts de-bunk economic myths on the Employment Rights Bill, 10 March 2025
• Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation, The Impact of the Minimum Wage on Independent Businesses, 25 September 2024
• Institute for Fiscal Studies, Labour’s policies on workers’ rights and mandated workplace benefits, 26 June 2024
• ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work, The economic effects of changes in labour laws: New evidence for the UK, April 2024