Watering down Employment Rights Bill would threaten ‘once in a generation’ chance to close gender pay gap, ministers warned 14 Sept 2025

The government has been warned against allowing amendments from the Lords to water down its flagship Employment Rights Bill, with seven leading women’s organisations arguing that this would hamper efforts to tackle gender inequality.

In a joint letter to the new business secretary, Peter Kyle, seen by The Independent, the Women’s Budget Group, the Fawcett Society, Young Women’s Trust, Rights of Women, Women’s Resource Centre, Pregnant Then Screwed, and Maternity Action have warned that the measures included in the bill are “crucial to improving women’s material living conditions and to reducing the gender pay gap”.

The letter is in response to a number of amendments made to the legislation in the House of Lords before the summer recess, including proposals to introduce a six-month qualifying period for unfair dismissal and to make the right to a guaranteed hours contract a right to request, rather than a right to be offered.

As the Commons gears up to consider Lords amendments on Monday, the collection of women’s organisations has warned that “any delay or dilution would undermine both gender equality and the government’s promise to working people”, saying the legislation is a “once-in-a-generation chance to help close the gender pay gap”.

However, there are fears that Lords amendments could be accepted following concerns voiced that the legislation as it stood could hamper business.

The letter points to figures from the Trades Union Congress which indicate that women are 34 per cent more likely than men to be on zero-hours contracts, reaching 103 per cent for black and minority ethnic women compared to white men and 49 per cent for disabled women. Figures from the Women’s Budget Group also show that of the 1.3 million people who do not qualify for statutory sick pay, 70 per cent are women.