WEAKENING the Employment Rights Bill has cut business costs by up to 80 per cent, a government impact assessment has claimed.

Official analysis estimated the cost of implementing Labour’s flagship worker rights’ Bill at up to £5 billion a year for firms.

This has been updated to just £1bn after ministers dropped plans to give all workers the right to claim unfair dismissal from their first day in a job in November. The protections are to come in after six months in employment instead.

The concessions followed the watering-down of promised bans on fire-and-rehire and zero-hour contracts and saw Unite calling the Bill “a shell of its former self.”

They came as peers threatened to delay the passage of the Bill past Christmas. This would have seen workers miss out on the first tranche of rights coming into force in April.

The revised impact assessment published on Wednesday also said that the Act would have a “small, positive direct impact on economic growth” and boosting the amount of people in work by 0.1 per cent.

Stronger workers’ rights could benefit about 18 million workers, up from an earlier estimate of around 15 million, the analysis added.

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak urged ministers to “finish the job as soon as possible,” warning that secondary legislation to bring in the measures must be “watertight.”

Prospect general secretary Mike Clancy said: “This impact assessment is clear that the Employment Rights Act is good for workers, good for growth, and good for wider society.”

Architect of Labour’s New Deal for Working People Andy McDonald MP has stressed the key proposals missing within the Bill.

They include promises to move toward a single worker status, extending blacklisting protections, broadening health and safety safeguards, reviewing Transfer of Undertakings requirements, and ensuring public procurement actively raises employment standards.

A spokeswoman for Momentum said: “It is clear that, while there are still welcome provisions in the Employment Rights Bill, consistent dilutions have significantly reduced its impact.

“Crucially, the ERB will not restore collective bargaining or reverse the most egregious elements of the anti trade union laws, meaning workers will continue to be restricted from exercising their collective power as workers.

“It’s time from a second Employment Rights Bill that genuinely empowers workers.”

UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said: “The new act is a long-overdue package of measures that’ll improve the lives of millions of people.

“Organised opposition from those siding with bad bosses was predictable, but ministers must now focus on finishing the job by implementing these new rights as quickly as possible.”