21/12/2025
Warning Long Post
You will undoubtedly heard that one of the Governments key manifesto promises, their Employment Rights Bill has become law receiving 'Royal Assent' on 18 December 2025 by King Charles and formally agreeing to make the Bill into an Act of Parliament (Employment Rights Act 2025).
The Act will introduce additions and amendments to existing legislation, including the Employment Rights Act 1996. However most of the employment law changes have not happened yet and the majority included in the Act will take place over a period of 2 years, with most happening in 2026 and 2027, and of course there could be additions or other changes as a result of the consultations currently happening.
It is important that as a business owner, you do start preparing for changes within your business, whilst at the same time remembering that some aspects still have to undergo formal consultation across Government as well as with Employers, Workers and Trade Unions.
There is only ONE change that came into effect at the point the Bill came into Law, that is that the minimum service level rules for strikes has been removed. This will not impact you, unless you have Trade Union Membership and Agreements in place within your business - and if that is the case please let me know ASAP.
I have laid out the changes by month and heading below, and unless you have union activity within your business, the first key changes happen from April 2026. I will be working on updating policy documents once the new year starts, however clearly there is a financial impact on any small business with employees from April especially in relation to Sickness and Paternity Rights. At this point, if you don't already have a consistent procedure for managing sickness within your team, you really need to have one as you will still be able to manage persistently sick employees whilst avoiding the possibility of discrimination claims. I can obviously help with this if needs be, whether its an online system or just an excel spreadsheet to keep regular records, consistently managing people is key.
Please read and digest the planned changes below, and if you have any questions, no matter how random they are, please ask.
As mentioned I will start working on procedure and policy documents which will be aligned to the changes at the start of 2026 and if you need anything else let me know. In terms of opening hours over the seasonal period, I will be closed until 5 January 2026 however as always if you have an urgent query/emergency, you can contact me via email [email protected] (please mark urgent in title) or on my mobile (if I don't answer please leave a message).
I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas and wish you all a very happy New Year.
Kindest Regards
Leanne
Employment Legislation Changes planned are as follows:
February 2026
Increased dismissal protection for industrial action:
if an employee is dismissed for taking part in industrial action it will become 'automatically unfair', removing the current 12-week limit for claiming unfair dismissal.
Trade union activity specifically:
the time needed to give notice of industrial action will reduce to 10 days, instead of 14 days,
unions will need a simple majority to vote for industrial action
picket supervisors will no longer be required
industrial action mandates will last for 12 months, instead of 6 months
industrial action and ballot notices will be simplified
political fund rules will change
April 2026
Paternity leave and unpaid parental leave:
Paternity leave will become a 'day one right', allowing someone to give notice of leave from the first day of employment – currently someone must have worked for their employer for 26 weeks
Ordinary parental leave will also become a day one right – currently someone must have worked for their employer for 1 year to be eligible
The restriction on taking paternity leave after shared parental leave will be removed
Sick pay:
Statutory Sick Pay aka SSP must be paid from the first day of illness, instead of the fourth day
The lower earnings limit will be removed – currently, workers must earn a minimum amount to be eligible for statutory sick pay
Collective redundancy protective award:
The maximum 'protective award' for failure to consult in collective redundancy will double from 90 days' pay to 180 days' pay.
Whistleblowing protections for sexual harassment:
Sexual harassment will become a 'qualifying disclosure' under whistleblowing law. This will mean protection from detriment and unfair dismissal for whistleblowers making a sexual harassment disclosure.
Gender pay gap and menopause action plans:
Employers will need to create action plans around menopause and gender pay gaps. Whilst these will be voluntary from April 2026, they will become mandatory sometime in 2027.
More trade union changes:
simplifying how a trade union can gain recognition in a workplace
allowing trade union members to vote electronically
Fair Work Agency:
this will be established in April 2026, to bring together existing enforcement bodies and take on enforcement of other employment rights, such as holiday pay and statutory sick pay
October 2026
Important: In most cases, how these changes will be implemented is subject to government consultations.
Dismissal and rehire:
Dismissing someone then rehiring them on worse terms and conditions will become an automatically unfair dismissal in most cases. This is sometimes known as 'fire and rehire'.
Harassment:
Employers will be liable for harassment from third parties, for example customers or clients, unless they have taken all reasonable steps to prevent it happening – this will apply to all types of harassment
Employers will need to take 'all reasonable steps' to prevent sexual harassment – current law says 'reasonable steps'
A change to the law around non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) is also expected which will void clauses that would prevent workers from alleging or disclosing work-related harassment or discrimination. The date of this change is not known yet.
Tipping:
Employers will need to consult with workers or their representatives before creating a tipping policy and ensure it is updated every 3 years.
Employment tribunal time limits:
Time limits for making a claim to an employment tribunal will increase to 6 months for all claims. The current time limit for most claims is 3 months.
More changes to trade union rules:
A new duty for employers to inform workers of their right to join a trade union
Updated rules on a trade union's right of access to the workplace
A new right to reasonable accommodation and facilities for trade union representatives carrying out their duties
A new right to time off for union equality representatives to carry out their duties
Increased protection against detriment for industrial action:
Workers taking part in industrial action will be protected against detriment, in addition to unfair dismissal. 'Detriment' is when someone is treated less favourably by their employer.
Public sector outsourcing 'two-tier code':
There will be new measures for public sector outsourcing. This is to avoid having different terms and conditions for ex-public sector employees and private sector employees.
New Adult Social Care Negotiating Body:
There will be a new negotiating body for adult social care.
December 2026 change
Mandatory Seafarer's Charter:
There will be a new mandatory charter for seafarers, with higher standards around health and safety, pay, job security and rest breaks.
2027 changes
The government has not yet announced when in 2027 MOST of these changes will happen and in the main, the how and when is subject to Government Consultation. However the information available to date includes:
Unfair dismissal:
Protection from unfair dismissal will become a right after 6 months of being in a job - this will also impact the length of the Contractual Probationary Period. Currently, someone must have worked for their employer for 2 years before claiming unfair dismissal. This will happen in January 2027.
Protection from unfair dismissal was previously expected to become a right from the first day of employment:
The government changed this before the Bill became law.
Increased pregnancy and maternity rights:
The Act will strengthen protections against dismissal for pregnant workers and those returning from maternity leave.
Bereavement leave:
There will be a new right to statutory bereavement leave. It's not known yet whether this will be paid or unpaid leave.
Zero-hours contracts:
Workers on zero-hours contracts will get the right to guaranteed working hours, if they want them.
Compensation for cancelled shifts:
Workers will have the right to be paid if a shift is cancelled, moved to another date, or cut short by an employer.
Flexible working:
There will be an amendment to flexible working law in 2027. If an employer rejects a flexible working request because of a genuine business reason, they will have to:
state the reasons
explain why they believe their refusal is reasonable
Doing this is already good practice. But it will become a legal requirement.
Further harassment change:
The law will specify what 'reasonable steps' means when preventing sexual harassment, following earlier changes in October 2026.
Mandatory gender pay gap and menopause action plans:
Action plans around menopause and gender pay gaps will become mandatory, following their voluntary introduction in April 2026.
Collective redundancy:
These collective redundancy changes will happen in 2027:
employers will need to consider the total number of redundancies across their whole organisation, not just individual workplaces – currently, collective redundancy rules only apply to individual workplaces
increased collective redundancy protection for workers on ships that regularly operate from British ports but are registered outside Great Britain
2027 trade union changes:
extending laws that protect trade union members from discrimination and being 'blacklisted'
a new industrial relations framework, to help employers and trade unions work together
