Simplifying the complexity in navigating new employment laws
The employment law landscape is facing some of its biggest changes in a generation under the Employment Rights Act. This is set to profoundly reshape HR policies and compliance, but it doesn’t have to be complicated.
We’ve outlined the key changes you’ll need to prepare for, what to expect from these new employment laws, and the practical steps to take now.
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Detail: The qualifying period for an employee to gain protection against unfair dismissal will be reduced from two years to six months. As a compromise for not making it a ‘day one’ right, the compensation cap for unfair dismissal is also expected to be lifted entirely, significantly increasing the financial risk of a successful claim against the employer.
Timeline: Expected to take effect in 2027
Practical takeaway: The first six months of employment become critically important. Revamp your induction, training and performance management processes (especially probationary periods) to ensure all performance and conduct issues are thoroughly documented, addressed promptly and justified with clear evidence from the first day of employment.
Extended employment tribunal time limits
Detail: The current three-month time limit for employees to bring most claims to an employment tribunal (ET) will be extended to six months. This applies to claims such as unfair dismissal, discrimination and unlawful deductions from wages.
Timeline: Expected to take effect in October 2026
Practical takeaway: The risk of a tribunal claim will persist for a longer period. Ensure your internal grievance procedures are efficient and designed to address and resolve complaints quickly. Better documentation and timely responses to employee concerns will be crucial in managing the extended risk period.
Redundancy and collective consultation
Detail: The maximum ‘protective award’ for failure to conduct proper collective consultation in redundancy will be doubled from 90 days’ pay to 180 days’ pay per affected employee.
New rules will require organisations to consult on redundancies that occur across multi-site or multi-establishment locations, meaning more groups of employees could be included in any redundancy processes. This means more organisations will likely hit the 20 or more employee threshold that triggers a collective consultation process (although this threshold may also be increased).
Timeline: Expected to take effect in April 2026
Practical takeaway: The financial penalty for a procedural failure has significantly increased. Ensure all managers dealing with restructuring are trained on the new rules for redundancy numbers across different sites. Robust planning and accurate, granular workforce data will be essential to mitigating this heightened risk.
Limits on ‘fire and rehire’ practices
Detail: Dismissing an employee and rehiring them on worse terms (‘Fire and Rehire’) is expected to become an automatically unfair dismissal in most cases. The ban will likely target changes to “restricted variations” such as pay, pensions, hours and holiday entitlement, while changes to duties and place of work may be excluded. This change aims to prevent employers from using dismissal threats to enforce contractual variations.
Day-one paternity and unpaid parental leave rights
Detail: The 26-week qualifying service requirement for Statutory Paternity Leave and the one-year requirement for Unpaid Parental Leave will be removed. This makes both leave entitlements available to all eligible employees from their first day of employment.
The qualifying period for statutory pay currently remains in place. This means an employee may be entitled to take the leave, but not necessarily receive pay for it during the early months of employment.
Timeline: Expected to take effect in April 2026
Practical takeaway: Immediately update your HR systems, contracts and handbooks to reflect ‘day one’ eligibility. Ensure new managers are trained and understand eligibility for these key family rights begins immediately upon employment. Explore our Employment Law eLearning courses to find out more.
New statutory bereavement and pregnancy loss leave
Detail: Employees will gain the statutory right to take unpaid leave for two new reasons:
Bereavement Leave for the death of a relative (wider than the existing parental bereavement leave); and
Pregnancy Loss Leave for any loss that does not currently qualify under statutory maternity or parental bereavement rules
These leave entitlements are planned to be available from day one of employment, although the precise length and qualifying criteria are still being finalised.
Timeline: Expected to take effect in 2027
Practical takeaway: Proactively develop new, standalone policies for Bereavement Leave and Pregnancy Loss Leave. The focus should be on support, communication and clear, compassionate manager training. Ensure these new rights are integrated into your broader health and wellbeing strategy to support retention during difficult, emotionally challenging times.
Increased sexual harassment prevention duties and requirements
These changes focus on improving how organisations prevent workplace harassment, as well as enhanced transparency around flexible working arrangements.
Enhanced duty to prevent workplace sexual harassment
Detail: The law will be strengthened, requiring employers to take “all reasonable steps” (instead of just “reasonable steps”) to prevent sexual harassment of their employees. Employers will become liable for harassment of their employees by third parties (like customers or clients) unless they can demonstrate they took all reasonable steps to prevent it.
Timeline: Expected to take effect in October 2026
Practical takeaway: Roll out mandatory and regular training for all employees, especially managers, covering sexual harassment and third-party risk. Update your policies to include clear reporting mechanisms and a robust, visible commitment to addressing and preventing harassment from all sources.
Detail: Reporting harassment or discrimination will explicitly qualify as a protected whistleblowing disclosure. This provides enhanced legal protection against any detriment or dismissal suffered by the employee after reporting.
Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) will be legally unenforceable if they attempt to prevent an employee from reporting harassment or discrimination to the police, regulators, or legal counsel.
Timeline: Expected to take effect in October 2026
Practical takeaway: Review and amend all standard employment and settlement agreements to ensure NDAs explicitly state they do not attempt to restrict an employee’s right to report misconduct. Update your Whistleblowing Policy to clearly list harassment and discrimination as protected disclosures.
Download Employment Rights Act tracker
The Employment Rights Act is complex, so we’ve done the hard work for you. Our dynamic tracker distils the essential details into a live resource that updates as the legislation evolves.
Beyond just tracking changes, it identifies the specific updates needed for your contracts, policies and processes. Bookmark the tracker and sign up for our email updates to stay ahead of every requirement.
This phased change requires large employers to move beyond reporting their pay gaps to actively publishing concrete plans for improvement and support.
Mandatory gender equality and menopause action plans (phased)
Detail: This change applies to large employers (those with 250 or more employees), who currently must publish their Gender Pay Gap (GPG) data annually. Under the new law, they will be required to publish a detailed Equality Action Plan alongside their data. This plan must explicitly address two core areas:
Steps taken to address their GPG; and
Detailed actions and support for employees going through the menopause
This shifts the legal obligation from passive compliance to active commitment and transparency.
Timeline:
Phase 1 (Voluntary): Encouraged from April 2026
Phase 2 (Mandatory): Legally required from April 2027
Practical takeaway: Don’t wait until 2027. Start now by auditing your existing GPG action plan and developing a specific, evidence-based Menopause Action Plan supported by staff consultation (for example, surveys and focus groups). Ensure your plan covers policies, training for managers and reasonable adjustments. This is an opportunity to improve retention and inclusion.
Protect your organisation with our expert equal pay risk review which will identify potential pitfalls, mitigate your exposure and strengthen your pay structures – confidentially and effectively.
Changes to workers’ hours, trade union powers and a new regulatory oversight
These changes establish a new enforcement body, impose tighter regulation on flexible contracts and enhance trade union rights.
New rights for zero-hours and irregular hours contracts
Detail: Workers on zero-hours, low-hours or irregular hours contracts will be granted a statutory right to be offered a contract with guaranteed minimum hours that reflects their average hours worked over a recent reference period – if they request it.
Employers will also be required to:
Provide reasonable notice for shifts; and
Compensate employees (including agency workers) for shifts that are cancelled or significantly curtailed without sufficient notice
Workers may reject the guaranteed hours offer but it must be repeated periodically.
Timeline: Expected to take effect in 2027
Practical takeaway: Audit your use of flexible and zero-hours contracts immediately. Implement robust time-tracking systems to accurately monitor average hours. Review your scheduling and shift cancellation protocols to minimise the new risk of compensation pay-outs.
Enhanced trade union recognition and rights
Detail: The ERA contains sweeping reforms to industrial relations, aiming to boost union membership. Key changes include:
Simplifying the trade union recognition process;
Providing unions with stronger rights of access (both physical and digital) to workplaces;
Introducing new protections for union representatives; and
Mandating that employers remind workers of their right to join a trade union (e.g., in their written employment statement)
Timeline: Phased roll-out across April 2026 (recognition simplification) and October 2026 (access rights, mandatory notice to employees).
Practical takeaway: Prepare for increased union activity and engagement. Ensure managers are trained on the new union access protocols. Review and update your employee onboarding documents to comply with the mandatory duty to inform workers of their right to join a union by October 2026.
Launch of the Fair Work Agency (FWA)
Detail: The Fair Work Agency (FWA) will be established as a single enforcement body, consolidating the powers of various existing regulators. The FWA will proactively investigate and enforce compliance across key statutory areas, and will possess strong new powers to issue enforcement notices and fines.
Timeline: Expected to launch in April 2026
Practical takeaway: The FWA represents a significant increase in regulatory risk. Conduct an immediate, full audit of your payroll and working time records to ensure compliance before April 2026 to mitigate the risk of high-cost penalties.
