Employment Rights Act 2025: what changes and when

The Employment Rights Act 2025 does not commence in one go. It arrives in dated waves: trade union reform in February 2026, sick pay and family leave on 6 April 2026, tribunal time limits on 1 October 2026, unfair dismissal on 1 January 2027, and the zero-hours and flexible working regimes later in 2027 once regulations follow. Here is the sequence.

Already in force

18 February 2026

• Dismissal for taking part in industrial action became automatically unfair, with the previous 12-week protected period removed.
• Most of the Trade Union Act 2016 repealed: ballot support thresholds gone, notice of industrial action cut to 10 days, picket supervisor requirement removed.
• Notice eligibility for day-one paternity and unpaid parental leave.

6 April 2026

• Statutory sick pay from the first day of sickness, with the lower earnings limit removed — SSP is now the lower of the flat rate or a percentage of normal weekly earnings.
• Paternity leave and unpaid parental leave become day-one rights (previously 26 weeks' and one year's service).
• Bereaved partner's paternity leave of up to 52 weeks.
• Collective redundancy protective award doubled to 180 days' pay.
• A disclosure about sexual harassment is a qualifying disclosure for whistleblowing protection.
• Gender equality and menopause action plans, on a voluntary basis.

7 April 2026 — the Fair Work Agency begins operating, taking over enforcement of minimum wage, holiday pay, statutory sick pay and agency-worker rules.

1 October 2026 — employment tribunal time limits rise from three months to six months across the main claims.

30 October 2026 — the strengthened employer duty on sexual harassment (including third-party harassment), plus the trade union recognition and workplace access reforms.

1 January 2027 — the big one

• Unfair dismissal qualifying period falls from two years to six months (section 25). Employees already past six months' service are protected from that date; others qualify as they reach it.
• The right to written reasons for dismissal also moves to six months, and the qualifying period for dismissal over a spent conviction disappears.
• The cap on the compensatory award is removed (currently the lower of £123,543 or 52 weeks' gross pay).
• Fire and rehire — dismissing an employee and re-engaging them on worse terms — becomes automatically unfair in most cases.

We cover the detail in unfair dismissal after six months.

Later in 2027 — regulations still to come

These provisions are in the Act but need regulations, and in several cases the consultation is still running. Treat the timing as directional, not fixed:

• Guaranteed hours for zero-hours and low-hours workers, reasonable notice of shifts, and compensation for shifts cancelled or moved at short notice. The Government consulted on the mechanics from June 2026 with regulations to follow.
• Flexible working: refusal permitted only on one of the eight statutory business grounds and only where refusal is reasonable, with the reasoning given in writing.
• Bereavement leave, extended to include pregnancy loss.
• Non-disclosure agreements: clauses that purport to prevent a worker disclosing harassment or discrimination become void.
• Gender equality and menopause action plans become mandatory for larger employers.

What this means in practice

Three habits stop working within a year:

1. The long probation. With protection at six months from January 2027, "we'll decide at 18 months" is no longer a strategy. Probation should be six months or shorter, evidenced, and followed by a real decision.
2. The informal dismissal. Uncapped compensation plus a six-month claim window makes process discipline cheaper than the alternative — investigate, put the concern, hear the response, allow an appeal, and write it down.
3. The stale contract. Sick pay, paternity and parental leave provisions written before April 2026 now understate statutory entitlements. A written statement that contradicts statute does not lower the floor; it just makes the employer look careless at tribunal.

Scotland, England and Wales are covered; Northern Ireland has its own employment legislation and is largely outside the Act.

Start with a contract that reflects the current law

Our guided UK employment contract produces the written statement of particulars required by the Employment Rights Act 1996 — day-one particulars, pay, hours, holiday, probation, notice and place of work, including hybrid and fully remote arrangements — so the document you hand a new hire matches the statutory position rather than a 2023 template.

→ UK employment contract · written statement guide

Related: unfair dismissal after six months · refusing a flexible working request.