Employment Rights Bill 2025 Update

Day One Unfair Dismissal Rights (expected 2027)

​

In a nutshell: subject to certain exceptions, employees can’t bring claims for unfair dismissal unless they have been employed for more than 2 years. That’s changing, and the “2 year rule” is being abolished.

When the new law is passed, all new employees will have the right to claim unfair dismissal from day one, but there will be an “initial period” of 9 months where a “light touch procedure” will apply; the details of what that means are yet to be published.

​

Fire and Re-Hire (expected October 2026)

​

The practice of “fire and re-hire” to force through variations to employment terms and conditions will be removed, except for the very narrow use where there the employer can demonstrate genuine and severe financial difficulties.

​

The rules on collective consultation for redundancy (expected 2027)

​

The collective consultation rules apply with an employer is planning to make 20+ redundancies at one establishment within a period of 90 days. This threshold is being kept, but added to, so there will be a new threshold (probably) based on percentages, but the details are subject to consultation. The protective award is being doubled from 90 to 180 days’ pay (expected April 2026).

​

Outsourcing public services and TUPE (October 2026)

​

The aim is to avoid a “two-tier” workforce of private sector employees and ex-public sector employees. The proposal is to require public outsourcing contracts to include provisions to ensure that (1) any workers transferring from the public sector should be treated no less favourably than they were when employed in the public sector, and (2) private sector workers working  for a supplier will need to be  treated no less favourably than the ex-public sector workers who have transferred.

​

Zero-Hour Contracts (2027)

​

Zero-hour contracts are not going to be banned, but employers will be required to offer an employee a guaranteed hours contract where the hours worked exceed the amount stated in their contract in any given 12 week period, subject to certain exceptions, particularly for short or fixed term workers. This applies to both zero-hour and “low hour” workers.

​

Workers on a zero or “low hour” contract, or without a set working pattern, will have the right to reasonable notice of a shift, and any change or cancellation of a shift.

​

Flexible working (2027)

​

The day 1 flexible working right remains broadly as it is, but employers will only be able to rely on one of the right “business reasons” to turn down a request where it is reasonable to do so.

​

Gender Pay (2027)

​

New regulations will require employers with 250+ employees to publish “equality action plans” including gender pay gap action plans. Separate regulations will also require employers to identify the providers/employers of contract workers.

​

Harassment (October 2026)

​

The law is being strengthened. At the moment, employers must take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace; the new law requires them to take ALL reasonable steps.

Employers will also be liable for harassment of their employees committed by third parties, such as customers, contractors, pupils etc. There is also a proposal to ban NDAs covering harassment and discrimination disclosures.

​

Right of Trade Union Access (expected at various times, but mainly October 2026)

​

Trade union officials will have a wider right to access workplaces for recruitment, organising (not including organising industrial action) and collective bargaining purposes, subject to following a prescriptive statutory process. The Bill also lays out plans to make it easier for unions to gain recognition.

Employers will also be required to give employees a statement at the start of employment that includes an explicit statement that workers have the right to join a trade union.

​

The Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 and most of the Trade Union Act 2016 is being repealed.

There will also be additional protections for trade union members and representatives, including protections against detriments, and a new statutory role for “union equality representatives” in workplaces with recognised unions. Their duties would include promoting equality in the workplace, providing advice and support to union members on equality matters, and consulting with the employer on equality matters.

​

Fair pay agreement in Adult Social Care (expected October 2026)

​

An ‘Adult Social Care Negotiating Body’ is being proposed: this will be an industry-wide body composed of representatives of employers and unions in the social care sector. The government will have the power to ratify agreements reached on pay within the Body, so these would become automatically binding on all employers.

​

Maternity rights (2027)

​

Essentially, there will be a ban on dismissing women when pregnant, on maternity leave, or in the six months after returning from maternity leave, save only in very specific circumstances.

​

Other family right changes (expected 2026)

​

These include:

​

• A day 1 right to 1 weeks’ unpaid bereavement leave, but the details on when the entitlement takes effect are yet to be published (to include pregnancy loss)

• Parental and paternity leave will become a day 1 right

 

Menopause action plans (voluntary from April 2026, by law expected 2027)

​

Employers with 250+ employees will be required to produce and publish menopause action plans, with strict penalties in place for not doing so.

​

Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) (April 2026)

​

SSP will become a day 1 right, with the lower earnings limit removed.

​

Holiday records (no timescales indicated as of yet)

​

There will be a new requirement to keep records demonstrating compliance with holiday entitlement rules. Records must be kept for 6 years, and failure to comply will be a criminal offence.

​

Employment Tribunal Time Limits (expected October 2026)

​

The current time limit is 3 months for all claims, although there are rules for extensions in certain circumstances (which differ depending on the type of claim). The general time limit for all claims is being increased to 6 months.

​

The Fair Worker Agency (expected April 2026)

​

This new body will be given extensive powers to enforce employment rights, including the power to enter premises and seize documents.

​

Other possible changes

​

The Government is considering, and calling for evidence in respect of, other possible changes, including:

​

• Making it discrimination to treat someone less favourably because of 2 protected characteristics (‘duel discrimination’)

• Ethnicity pay gap reporting

• Disability pay gap reporting

• New pay transparency measures, including providing salary ranges when recruiting, not asking candidates about salary history and providing employees with information about their pay and how it compares to those doing the same role or work of equal value

• Equal pay rights based on ethnicity and disability, including the potential establishment of a new regulatory and enforcement unit

• Requiring employers to adopt a procedure for dealing with collective grievances

• Possibly, the removal of ‘worker’ status

• Possible banning of unpaid internships

​

Last updated: 11 July 2025