Employment Rights Bill - what you need to know!

While most people have been switching off over this festive period, one big piece of business news has just become real. The Employment Rights Bill has received Royal Assent and is now the Employment Rights Act 2025 (ERB). 

Over the next two years ERB will bring in new day one rights to statutory sick pay, paternity leave, unpaid parental leave and bereavement leave. It will also strengthen protections for pregnant workers and new mothers, give workers on zero hours style contracts the right to a contract that reflects the hours they usually work, and put new limits around using fire and rehire. 

And not to be underestimated, one of the biggest changes in employment law in 50 year, we will see the standard qualifying period for ordinary unfair dismissal from two years to six months.

These changes will be phased in mainly during 2026 and 2027, not all at once. So there is no need to panic but now is the time to start thinking about what this means for your business - so you can proactively prepare and avoid costs of needing to react to these changes.

In this blog we will share a timeline, an overview of the changes coming and how you can start preparing. Don’t let this overwhelm you, we are here to help you prepare step by step and we are offering a free consultation to businesses who want peace of mind to find out about how we can help. You can book here: https://calendly.com/dan-ig-hr or email support@ig-hr.co.uk 

Timeline

February 2026

- Dismissal linked to taking part in industrial action will become automatically unfair, removing the current 12-week protection limit.

- The notice period required before industrial action can take place will reduce from 14 days to 10 days.

- Trade unions will only require a simple majority to approve industrial action.

- The legal requirement for picket supervisors will be removed.

Suggested actions:

❗Training for leadership on trade union engagement 

❗Prepare for increased consultation

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April 2026

- Paternity leave will become a day one right, allowing notice to be given from the first day of employment (currently someone needs to have worked for their organisation for 26 weeks).

- Ordinary parental leave will also become a day one entitlement, (currently someone needs to have worked for their organisation for 1 year).

- The restriction preventing paternity leave after shared parental leave will be lifted.

- Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) will be payable from the first day of sickness, rather than day four.

- The lower earnings limit for SSP eligibility will be removed.

- The maximum protective award for failure to consult in collective redundancy situations will increase from 90 days’ pay to 180 days’ pay.

- Sexual harassment disclosures will qualify for whistleblowing protection, giving individuals protection from detriment and unfair dismissal when concerns are raised.

- Employers will be encouraged (on a voluntary basis) to introduce menopause and gender pay gap action plans.

- It will become easier for trade unions to gain recognition in a workplace.

Suggested actions:

❗ Undertake an audit of your policies and process & update policies in line with changes.

❗Budget for changes to SSP.

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October 2026

- Fire and rehire (dismissal followed by re-engagement on worse terms) will be treated as automatically unfair dismissal.

- Employers will be required to consult with workers or their representatives before introducing a tipping policy

- Review and update tipping policies at least every three years

- Employment tribunal time limits will extend to six months for all claims (currently three months for most).

- Employers will be liable for harassment from third parties unless they have taken all reasonable steps to prevent it.

- Organisations will not be able to use NDA’s to prevent disclosures of work-related harassment or discrimination. 

- Employers will need to inform workers of their right to join a trade union.

- Trade union members will have the right to reasonable accommodation, facilities and time off in order to carry out their duties.

- Workers will have more protections against detrimental treatment for taking part in industrial action.

Suggested actions

❗Review and update your policies and process in line with changes.

❗Review your harassment risk assessments

❗Introduce regular training around harassment and communicate your process for reporting harassment.

❗Update your onboarding to include a notice on employees right to join a trade union.

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January 2027

- Protection from unfair dismissal will apply after six months’ service, rather than the current qualifying period of 2 years.

Suggested actions

❗Audit your hiring, onboarding and probation process and identify gaps.

❗Train your managers in how to manage these process and awareness of risks.

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2027 (specific dates not yet confirmed)

- Right to statutory bereavement leave.

- Workers on zero hours contracts will have the right to guaranteed hours as well as compensation for cancelled shifts.

- Strengthened protections against dismissal for pregnant employees or those returning from maternity leave.

- Menopause and gender pay gap action plans will become mandatory.

- Further reforms to flexible working will require employers who refuse a request for business reasons to clearly state the reason(s) and explain why the refusal is considered reasonable.

- We will have guidelines in law stating what “reasonable steps” means when it comes to preventing sexual harassment.

- Employers will be required to consider the total number of redundancies across their whole organisation, not just the number of redundancies at a particular site.

- More regulations for using umbrella companies.

How we can help

• Compliance audits
• Provision of HR policies 
• HR retainer - giving you peace of mind HR protection all year round.
• Training and coaching for managers.

Get in touch with us today, or book a no obligation call here: https://calendly.com/dan-ig-hr or email support@ig-hr.co.uk