The Employment Rights Act: The Changes

Simplifying requirements on trade union activity

The time needed to give notice of industrial action was reduced from 14 days to 10 days; picket supervisors are no longer required; industrial action mandates will last for 12 months instead of 6 months and industrial action and ballot notices will be simplified.

Recent article

Major Changes to UK Trade Union Law Taking effect on 18 Feb 2026

Increased protections against dismissal for taking industrial action

Dismissal for taking part in industrial action became ‘automatically unfair.’ This removed the 12-week limit for claiming unfair dismissal.

Recent article

Employment Rights Act 2025 - Latest Updates

Employees that are newly eligible for ‘Day 1’ Paternity Leave and Unpaid Parental Leave can give notice

From 18 February, employees will be able to give advance notice of the leave that they will be entitled to take from 6 April 2026 (see below).

Collective redundancy protective award

The maximum amount of protective award will double from 90 to 180 days’ pay per affected employee.

‘Day 1’ Paternity Leave and Unpaid Parental Leave

• Statutory rights to paternity leave and unpaid parental leave (which are currently subject to continuous service requirements of 6 months and 1 year, respectively) will be made available from day 1 of employment. Access to statutory paternity pay will, however, remain subject to a 6-month continuous service requirement.
• The current requirement for paternity leave to be taken before shared parental leave will be removed.
• Bereaved Partners’ Paternity Leave will enable bereaved fathers and partners to take up to 52 weeks of paternity leave if the mother or primary adopter dies within the first year of the child’s life.

Strengthening protections for workers who ‘blow the whistle’ on sexual harassment 

Disclosure of a concern about sexual harassment will amount to a protected disclosure for the purposes of whistleblowing.

Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)

Under current rules, SSP is only payable from an employee's fourth day of sickness absence, and employees are only eligible if they earn at least the lower earnings limit (£125 per week). The ERA 2025 will broaden rights to SSP by making it payable from the first day of sickness absence and removing the lower earnings limit for eligibility.

Gender pay gap and menopause action plans (voluntary) 

Employers will need to create action plans around menopause and gender pay gaps. These will be voluntary from 6 April 2026 and will become mandatory in 2027.

Recent article

• Gender Equality Action Plans: Changes under the Employment Rights Act 2025
• New Menopause Rights and Action Plan Requirements under the Employment Rights Act 2025

Simplifying trade union recognition process

How a trade union can be recognised in a workplace will be simplified.

The establishment of the Fair Work Agency

The Fair Work Agency will bring together existing enforcement bodies and take on enforcement of other employment rights, such as holiday pay and statutory sick pay.

Electronic and workplace balloting

Trade union members will be able to vote electronically or in-person in ballots for industrial action, union elections and other statutory ballots.

Employment Tribunal time limits

The limitation period for employment tribunal claims will be increased from 3 to 6 months.

Increased protection from harassment

• Employers will be liable for harassment from third parties (including customers/ 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 (the law current says ‘reasonable steps’).
• A change to the law around non-disclosure agreements is also expected. This 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.

Tightening tipping law 

Employers will need to consult with workers or their representatives before creating a tipping policy and update this policy every 3 years.

Further changes to trade union rules

From October 2026 there will be 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 representatives to carry out their duties and an updated Code of Practice on trade union recognition.

Increased protection against detriment for industrial action

Workers taking part in industrial action will be protected against detriment (i.e. being 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.

Mandatory Seafarers' Charter

There will be a new mandatory charter for seafarers with higher standards around health and safety, pay, job security and rest breaks.

Changes to Unfair Dismissal

• Employees will gain protection from unfair dismissal after 6 months of continuous service (as opposed to 2 years of continuous service). The new 6-month threshold will apply to all dismissals on or after 1 January 2027. This means that anyone with at least 6 months’ service on 1 January 2027, will automatically gain protection from unfair dismissal.
• The statutory cap on unfair dismissal compensatory awards (currently the lower of 52 weeks’ pay or £118,223) will be removed.

Recent article: Changes to Unfair Dismissal Protection

Fire and Rehire

• It will become automatically unfair to dismiss an employee for refusing to agree to a change to their terms and conditions of employment (fire and rehire) if the change constitutes a ‘restricted variation.’
  • Restricted variations are:
  • Reductions in pay
  • Variation to the measures that determine pay which is based on work done/ performance
  • Changes to pensions
  • Changes to working hours/ duration of shifts
  • Reductions to a worker’s entitlement to time off
  • Inclusion of a contractual clause which allow the employer to change the above without consent
• There will be a narrow exception if the employer can demonstrate that the change was necessary to alleviate serious financial difficulties that were likely to affect the ability to run the business and could not reasonably have been avoided. However, even if a Tribunal is satisfied that this exception applies, the normal unfair dismissal test will apply.

Gender pay gap and menopause action plans (mandatory)

Action plans around gender pay gaps and menopause will become mandatory.

Recent articles:

• Gender Equality Action Plans: Changes under the Employment Rights Act 2025
• New Menopause Rights and Action Plan Requirements under the Employment Rights Act 2025

Enhanced dismissal protections for pregnant women and new mothers  

Employers will be prohibited from dismissing an employee who is pregnant, is on maternity leave, or has returned from maternity leave in the last 6 months, except in certain specified circumstances. The detail as to what these circumstances are will be set out in regulations.

Further harassment change

The law will specify what ‘reasonable steps’ means when preventing sexual harassment.

Collective redundancy – collective consultation threshold 

Employers will need to consider the total number of redundancies across their whole organisation, not just individual workplaces. 

Flexible working

Employers can only refuse a flexible working request if they can show that the refusal (for one of the eight current permitted business reasons) is reasonable.

Bereavement leave including pregnancy loss 

A statutory right to at least 1 week of unpaid bereavement leave on the death of a close relative or pregnancy loss before 24 weeks will be introduced as a day one right (the current day one right to 2 weeks’ paid parental bereavement leave on the death of a child under the age of 18 or the loss of a pregnancy after 24 weeks will remain in place).

Ending the exploitative use of zero-hours contracts  

• Employers will be required to offer contracts for a guaranteed number of hours to zero/ low hours workers. The number of hours offered will need to reflect the average number of hours that worker worked in a reference period (to be specified in regulations, but potentially 12 weeks) and offers will have to be made at the end of every reference period.
• Employers will also need to provide zero/ low hours workers with reasonable notice of shifts and of cancellations or changes to scheduled shifts, as well as compensation for cancelling or changing shifts at short notice.
• These provisions on zero/ low hours contracts will extend to agency workers. The end hirer will be responsible for making an offer of guaranteed hours to its agency workers, but where work is genuinely temporary they may be able to offer temporary contracts. Responsibility for providing reasonable notice of shifts will sit with both the end hirer and the agency, but the agency will be liable to pay any compensation for late cancellations/ changing of shifts (save for in the case of pre-existing contracts where agencies will be able to recoup costs to the extent the end hirer was responsible). 

Further trade union changes

The following trade union changes will happen in 2027: 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 and workers will be able to vote electronically in ballots for trade union recognition and derecognition.

Regulation of umbrella companies

The definition of agencies will be expanded to include 'umbrella companies'. This will allow enforcement by the relevant bodies.