Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to reform the law on fire and rehire practices.

This Government has been clear that we expect employers to treat their employees fairly and in the spirit of partnership. Using threats about firing and rehiring as a negotiation tactic is unacceptable. We expect employers and employees to negotiate new terms and conditions and there are laws around how this must be done, and legal protections in place when firms are considering redundancies.

We asked Acas to produce new and updated guidance which was published on 11 November, and sets out the employer’s responsibilities when considering changes to employment contracts. In their guidance, Acas state that an employer should only consider dismissing and offering to rehire someone on new terms (‘dismissal and re-engagement’) as a last resort. The guidance is available from: http://www.acas.org.uk/changecontract.