The Employment Rights Bill...What's Coming Up?
Just before Christmas on 18th December, the Employment Rights Bill became law after receiving the ‘Royal Assent.’ 👑 📜
The King formally agreed to make the Bill into an Act of Parliament (Employment Rights Act 2025), which will introduce additions and amendments to existing legislation.
The changes included in the Act will take place over a two-year period, and most changes haven’t happened yet. Some will take effect from next month, with more occurring in April.
Here’s a quick reminder of what they are because changes are, at least one will apply to you at some point:
Changes from Feb 2026:
- Dismissal for taking part in industrial action will become 'automatically unfair,’ and remove the current 12-week limit for claiming unfair dismissal.
Changes from April 2026:
- Paternity leave and ordinary parental leave will become a 'day one right,' allowing someone to give notice of leave from the first day of employment. The restriction on taking paternity leave after shared parental leave will also be removed.
- Statutory sick pay (SSP) will be paid from the first day of illness (instead of the fourth day), and the lower earnings limit will be removed.
- Employers will need to create action plans around menopause and gender pay gaps. These will be voluntary from April 2026 but become mandatory sometime in 2027.
- Sexual harassment will become a 'qualifying disclosure' under whistleblowing law. This means protection from unfair dismissal for whistleblowers making a sexual harassment disclosure.
- The maximum 'protective award' for failure to consult in collective redundancy will double from 90 days' to 180 days' pay.
- The ‘Fair Work Agency’ will be established in April 2026, to take on the enforcement of other employment rights, such as holiday pay and statutory sick pay, and bring existing enforcement bodies together.
