What are the key points of the Employment Rights Bill?
Written by Ian Grimshaw | Employment team | 21 October 2025
The Employment Rights Bill is expected to pass into law in Autumn 2025 and represents the most ambitious overhaul of UK workplace law since the 1990s. Although the detail may still shift during its passage through Parliament, the broad shape of reform is now clear. The Bill introduces new protections for workers, strengthens trade union rights, and significantly raises compliance standards for employers.
Now there is greater clarity, we thought a breakdown of the main changes, when they are likely to take effect, and what they will mean in practice might be helpful.
Autumn 2025
Royal Assent is expected in autumn 2025. At that point, several reforms to strike law and trade union rights will take effect.
Removal of minimum service level rules: The current requirement of minimum staffing levels during strikes in key services (such as transport) will be scrapped. This means that strikes may have a greater operational impact.
Unfair dismissal protection for strikers: At present, dismissal for taking part in lawful strike action is only automatically unfair for the first 12 weeks of industrial action. This protection will become open-ended. Workers taking part in industrial action will therefore be protected against dismissal regardless of duration.
Union procedure reforms (expected two months after Royal Assent):
Strike notice periods will shorten from 14 days to 10 days.
A simple majority will be enough for industrial action ballots (removing the requirement for turnout thresholds in some cases).
Picket supervisors will no longer be required.
Mandates for industrial action will last for 12 months instead of six.
Ballot notices and political fund rules will be simplified.
What is the likely impact? Employers will need to review contingency planning and industrial relations strategies. Disputes could last longer and be harder to contain. Where you have a unionised workforce, HR and line managers should be trained on handling lawful strike action without breaching unfair dismissal rules.
April 2026: Family rights, sick pay and workplace standards
From April 2026, the Bill brings significant enhancements to family-friendly rights and minimum employment standards.
Paternity leave and ordinary parental leave: Both will become “day one” rights. Employees will no longer need to build up service before requesting time off to care for a new child. Restrictions preventing paternity leave being taken following shared parental leave will also be removed.
Sick pay reform: Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) will become payable from the first day of absence, rather than day four. The lower earnings threshold will be abolished, meaning low-paid and part-time workers will also qualify. This significantly broadens the scope of SSP eligibility.
Collective redundancy consultation: The maximum protective award for failure to consult will double from 90 days to 180 days’ pay per affected employee. This creates far greater financial risk for employers who do not follow the, what can be complex, rule during large-scale redundancy exercises.
Whistleblowing: Sexual harassment complaints will be recognised as “protected disclosures”. This means workers raising harassment concerns will be shielded from dismissal or other detriment in the same way as other whistleblowers (in reality they probably already are).
Gender pay and menopause action plans: From April 2026, large employers (250 or more employees) will be encouraged to publish plans on addressing pay gaps and supporting staff experiencing menopause. Initially voluntary, these measures are expected to become mandatory in 2027.
Fair Work Agency: A new enforcement body will consolidate regulators dealing with holiday pay, the National Minimum Wage, SSP and other rights. It is expected to take a more proactive enforcement stance than the current fragmented system.
What is the likely impact? Employers should budget for higher SSP costs, review redundancy consultation procedures, and prepare for greater scrutiny of workplace culture and equality.
October 2026: Dismissal, harassment and Tribunal reform
October 2026 will see some of the most far-reaching reforms to dismissal and workplace protections.
Fire and rehire: The controversial, but occasionally useful, practice of dismissing staff and rehiring them on less favourable terms will become automatically unfair except in exceptionally onerous circumstances. Employers will need to rely on collective consultation and genuine agreement instead.
Harassment: Employers will face a new duty to take all reasonable steps (a higher standard than the current “reasonable steps”) to prevent sexual harassment.
Tipping law: Employers must consult staff before adopting tipping policies and review them every three years. This closes gaps in the current legislation around transparency.
Tribunal time limits: The limitation period for bringing most employment tribunal claims will increase from three months to six. This will give employees more time to lodge claims and could result in higher claim volumes.
Trade union rights: New obligations include:
Informing staff of their right to join a union.
Providing facilities and time off for union reps, including equality representatives.
Protection from detriment (not just dismissal) for taking part in industrial action.
Public sector outsourcing: A new “two-tier code” will aim to reduce disparities between transferred public sector staff and newly recruited private sector staff.
What is the likely impact? Employers should review employment contracts and consider whether they are flexible enough for a future where fire and re-hire is no longer available. Equality and anti-harassment training will need reviewing and reenforcing, as well as looking at how to prevent third party harassment. The risk of tribunal claims and the volume of claims will increase.
2027: The final wave of reforms
The last phase of reforms, expected in 2027, will fundamentally reshape core employment rights.
Unfair dismissal: The two-year qualifying period will be abolished, giving all employees protection against unfair dismissal from their first day (subject to a (probably) 9 months “probationary period”).
Pregnancy and maternity rights: Stronger protections against dismissal will apply during pregnancy and for a defined period after return from maternity leave.
Bereavement leave: A new statutory right to leave following bereavement will be introduced (the government has yet to confirm whether this will be paid).
Zero-hours contracts: Workers will have the right to be offered a guaranteed hours contract.
Cancelled shifts: Employers will be required to pay staff if a shift is cancelled, cut short or rescheduled.
Flexible working: Employers will need to give reasons for rejecting flexible working requests and explain why the refusal is reasonable (everyone pretty much does this already).
Mandatory menopause and gender pay plans: The reporting obligations introduced voluntarily in 2026 will become compulsory.
Collective redundancy changes: Employers will have to assess redundancies across the organisation as a whole, not just per workplace, when deciding if collective consultation is triggered.
Umbrella company regulation: Umbrella companies will fall under the same enforcement framework as agencies, tackling long-standing abuses in outsourced labour supply.
What is the likely impact? These reforms will be transformational. Employers will need to adopt much more robust dismissal procedures, prepare for new family leave and flexible working obligations, and review contractual arrangements for casual and zero-hours staff.
Our view
The Bill represents a cultural shift in UK employment law. Where once the emphasis was on flexibility for employers, the reforms shift the system towards security, transparency and fairness for workers. Greater security is a real positive for employees; however, the cost to employers in terms of compliance and defending claims if going to be significant, as will the potential reduction in productivity arising from poor performing employees not being properly managed early on in their employment.
The Employment Rights Bill will not arrive overnight, but its phased implementation means that by 2027 the legal framework for UK workplaces will look very different. As more information is released in relation to the actual operation of these changes, it will be important for businesses to prepare so that they can adapt and avoid costly disputes.
If you’re a business looking for support with Employment contracts or day-to-day advice, you can contact our experienced Employment team here.
