2/4/2026 3:25:56 PM | less than a minute read

Employment Rights Act 2025: fire and rehire consultation launched

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Amy Berry

Senior Associate

Get in touch

Amy Berry

Senior Associate

The Government has launched a consultation today (Wednesday 04 February 2026) on ‘restricted variations’ for the purposes of fire and rehire. The fire and rehire reforms are expected to come into force in January 2027.

The consultation specifically asks for feedback on which employment expenses, benefits, and shift changes should be covered by the new fire and rehire protections.

The fire and rehire reforms have the potential to have a significant impact on employers, making it automatically unfair to dismiss an employee in order to make changes to core terms, where the reason or principal reason for the dismissal is that the employer sought to make a restricted variation and the employee did not agree. The restrictions would broadly cover reductions to pay, changes to measures/targets that are linked to pay, changes to pensions, changes to total hours, reduction to leave entitlement and changes to shift patterns which are specified in regulations.

The consultation closes on 1st April 2026 and you can take part on the UK Government website.

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 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.

www.gov.uk/...