The Employment Rights Bill will remove the existing two-year qualifying period for protections from unfair dismissal so that all workers have a right to these protections from day one on the job.

The bill will bring forward 28 individual employment reforms, from ending exploitative zero hours contracts and fire and rehire practices to establishing day one rights for paternity, parental and bereavement leave for millions of workers. Statutory sick pay will also be strengthened, removing the lower earnings limit for all workers and cutting out the waiting period before sick pay kicks in.

Large employers will also be required to create action plans on addressing gender pay gaps and supporting employees through the menopause, and protections against dismissal will be strengthened for pregnant women and new mothers.

A new Fair Work Agency bringing together existing enforcement bodies will also be established to enforce rights such as holiday pay and support employers looking for guidance on how to comply with the law.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said: ‘The UK's out-of-date employment laws are holding our country back and failing business and workers alike. Our plans to make work pay will deliver security in work as the foundation for boosting productivity and growing our economy to make working people better off and realise our potential.'

The bill also repeals the anti-union legislation put in place by the previous administration, including the Minimum Service Levels (Strikes) Act legislation that failed to prevent a single day of industrial action while in force.

In response, Unison general secretary Christina McAnea said the means to create a fair pay agreement to increase wages for care workers in England is ‘game-changing'.

‘It's an historic first step towards transforming a sector that's been neglected and ignored for far too long. The result will make a world of difference to people who need care and to their families too.'

She added: ‘This is a complex programme of legislation, and the details will need to be fine-tuned. There's still much work to do.'

Nuffield Trust deputy director of policy, Natasha Curry, said: ‘The provisions on pay and conditions massively strengthen the secretary of state's powers and responsibilities for social care staffing, making them clearly accountable in a way that has previously been lacking.

'A Fair Work Agency to enforce rights and standards will be good news for hundreds of thousands of social care staff who often work under precarious conditions. The lack of consistent access to sick pay was a serious weakness during Covid-19, punishing staff who did the right thing and stayed home while unwell. It is great to see this addressed.

'A Fair Pay Agreement with legally binding minimum pay, terms and conditions would be a crucial step for social care. We saw in Skills for Care's report how poor pay and conditions are leading to a fall in domestic workers and an increasing and precarious reliance on overseas recruits.'

However, Curry said the new rights and any changes to pay will need to be implemented carefully because social care is in such a 'precarious state after decades of neglect'.

She said: 'Many employers are so financially squeezed that suddenly requiring guaranteed hours and additional rights without support could push some into bankruptcy. We know that local authorities are already dipping into their reserves to service adult social care services: they have less than no room to absorb new costs.'