Fire and rehire: changes to expenses, benefits and shift patterns – Law Society response

The proposals

The UK government consulted on extending ‘fire and rehire’ protections to cover two further types of contractual change:

• employment expenses and benefits
• shift patterns

It is seeking views on which specific expenses, benefits and shift arrangements should be treated as protected ‘restricted variations’.

The aim is to prevent detrimental change to core terms while preserving employers’ ability to adapt where genuinely necessary.

These proposals will need approval from parliament before taking effect.

Our view

We are concerned that the proposed reforms risk adding unnecessary complexity to an already intricate legislative framework.

This could create tensions between existing employment law principles and the new restrictions envisaged under the fire and rehire regime.

The government aims to promote flexibility and innovative working arrangements.

However, rigid constraints on contractual variations, particularly around shift patterns, could undermine this objective. These constraints could also prevent employers from making reasonable, widely supported adjustments.

These proposals also interact awkwardly with redundancy law and the recent removal of the compensation cap for automatic unfair dismissal. This would make it increasingly difficult for employers to implement necessary changes.

In practice, such rigidity could leave employers with no viable option other than large-scale redundancies. Even a single objection could block changes supported by the wider workforce.

The proposed restrictions on varying contractual benefits and shift patterns risk a range of unintended consequences. This includes:

• the withdrawal of benefits in kind
• the creation of a two-tier workforce, and
• reduced ability to make minor but essential operational adjustments

We support excluding benefits in kind and expenses from the regime, given their policy-based nature and their practical necessity for employees to carry out their roles.

We recognise that some targeted protection against major detrimental changes may be justified in relation to shift patterns, particularly where workers could be significantly affected.

However, we also emphasise that any approach must preserve flexibility and proportionality to avoid undue operational burdens.

Overall, a balanced and focused approach is needed.

Government should prioritise deterring genuinely harmful practices without imposing rigid rules or automatic unfair dismissal provisions. Such rules and provisions risk blocking reasonable, negotiated changes and hindering effective workforce management.

What this means for solicitors

The proposals would transform fire and rehire from a controversial yet lawful practice into conduct that is, in most cases, automatically unfair.

This marks a significant shift in focus away from managing dismissal processes and towards advising on the underlying legality of contractual variation.

Next steps

The consultation closed on 1 April 2026.

Read the government's fire and rehire consultation.

Download our full fire and rehire consultation response (PDF 186 KB).