Government to ditch day-one unfair dismissal policy from workers’ rights bill

The government will remove the right to protection from unfair dismissal from the first day of employment and replacing it with a six-month threshold. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

A flagship policy that would have given workers the right to claim unfair dismissal after their first day on the job is to be ditched by the government in favour of a six month-threshold.

In a U-turn constituting a direct breach of Labour’s manifesto, the government said it had brokered a deal between six of the country’s biggest business groups and trade union leaders to shake up its plan for the biggest upgrade in employment rights for a generation.