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This article is being updated on Friday 24th April 2026.
Title. Implementing the Employment Rights Act 2025: timelines, updates & practical tips for employers

The Employment Rights Bill became law in December 2025, as the Employment Rights Act 2025 (ERA). It introduces wide-ranging changes to employment law which the Government plans to implement in phases during 2026 and 2027, in line with the its published implementation roadmap.

Initial changes focused on trade union activity, including the repeal of most of the restrictions on strike action introduced since 2010.

The latest implementation phase, from 6th April 2026, brings into force a disparate mix of changes. The overall effect is greater regulatory oversight and increased costs for employers, enhanced time off rights for parents and reduced barriers for trade unions. The April changes in summary are:

April 2026: Employment Rights Act measures implemented.

• The ‘Fair Work Agency‘ (FWA) opened its doors on 7th April 2026, and has published its enforcement policy statement, setting out its principles of proportionality, accountability and transparency, among others. It brings together 3 existing enforcement bodies into a single agency and point of contact for workers who believe their rights have been breached. The FWA has responsibilities to enforce the National Minimum Wage, holiday pay and SSP and new powers including the power to bring claims in the Employment Tribunal on employees behalf, inspect workplaces for compliance, issue compliance notices and levy higher fines on businesses that transgress.
  
  
• Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) becomes a day one right, available to more employees, with the removal of the 3 day waiting period and the lower earnings threshold to qualify. From 6th April 2026 the rate of SSP is now set at whichever is the lower of the flat rate £123.25 per week or 80% of the employee’s weekly income.
  
  
• All workers gain ‘day 1′ rights to Paternity Leave and Unpaid Parental Leave, scrapping existing service requirements. (Women are already entitled to Maternity leave (not maternity pay) from day 1 of employment).
  
  
• Also from 6th April the maximum protective award for breach of collective redundancy consultation requirements doubles from 90 to 180 days gross pay, making it far harder (and costlier) for employers to avoid or buy out consultation obligations.
  
• From 6th April, whistleblowing protections are extended to cover sexual harassment. This means employees who report sexual harassment now have stronger legal protection if they suffer any detriment for doing so. The whistleblowing disclosure can relate to sexual harassment that has occurred, is occurring or is likely to occur.
  For employers, this change increases the risk of claims, as complaints may give rise to both harassment and whistleblowing claims if not handled carefully. Where claims succeed, overall compensation may be higher, as whistleblowing claims are uncapped.
  

• New Menopause guidance.
  

• The process for Trade Unions to be recognised as bargaining units in organisations has been simplified. There will no longer be a requirement to show that at least 50% of workers in the barganing unit are likely to support recognition. The requirement for at leaest 10% of workers in the bargining unit to be union members may be reduced (to as low as 2% – which seems a ‘barely there’ figure). The 40% support requirement in the final ballot is removed, so that a simple majority of those voting is sufficient.
  
  The Government wants to make it easier for unions to require employers to recognise them for collective bargaining on things such as pay and conditions and holidays. These ERA reforms reduce the barriers to recognition. Moreover the Unions’ position will be will be further strengthened by easier (weekly) workplace access rights coming into force in October 2026. More on this in the October changes section below.
  

On top of the ERA 2025 changes, April 2026 saw the introduction of the usual increases of statutory payments (on 5th and 6th April), and latest National Minimum Wage rates from 1 April.  See the main changes here (link to article) or

Download our Employment Law Factsheet for detail on the all increases (the new limit on a weeks pay used to calculate the statutory redundancy pay and basic award for unfair dismissal, new statutory rates for SSP and Maternity, and minimum wages) you need for the year April 2026 – 2027.

Steps to take now

While these changes are significant, in practice they require employers to focus on core HR fundamentals; updating policies (including family leave and whistleblowing), tightening procedures (particularly around redundancy), and ensuring line managers are properly trained.

Sick Pay from day 1 of illness / removal of earnings limit: prepare for more short term sickness absence.

Plan for more short term sickness absence. Ensure payroll systems are up to date and managers handling internal processes, settlement discussions etc. are informed of the new limits.

• Review and update sickness absence policies now.
• Look at adjusting any enhanced sick pay schemes you have that align with SSP.
• Begin tracking absence trends and strengthen your return-to-work procedures.
• Provide manager training so they can confidently manage short-term absences, capability issues, and medical referrals.
• Certain employers may find ‘bonusing’ employees to have a good non-sickness record may be an option where staffing is critical for service delivery.
  

Redundancy – Revisit collective consultation procedures, and train managers

From April 2026, the cost of getting collective consultation wrong has increased significantly. With the maximum protective award doubling, employers can no longer assume that consultation failures can be managed or “bought out” later.

• Review your reundancy procedures now and ensure managers are trained to recognise when collective consultation obligations may be triggered. Any proposal involving 20 or more redundancies within a 90-day period must ring alarm bells to prompt more careful consideration, as the financial consequences of getting this wrong are now much greater.
  

ERA measures becoming law in October 2026

• Doubling the time limit for employees to bring Employment Tribunal Claims from 3 to 6 months.
• Upping the requirement on employers to take “all” reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, (not just reasonable steps).
• Employers to be held liable if Employees are harassed by third parties, (the so-called “banter ban”).
• A package of Union reforms including allowing unions to access workplaces to organise and ballot members, new rights and protections for Trade Union reps, extending protection against detriment for taking part in industrial action.
• Employers will need to consult staff on the distribution of tips.
  

Steps to take to prepare for October 2026 changes

Doubling of the time limits to bring ET claims. Prepare for longer ‘tribunal risk’ windows

With the doubling of time limits to bring claims from 3 to 6 months coming in October 2026, early resolution becomes more viable and important.

• Review and strengthen internal grievance and appeal processes
• Be more vigilant and keep detailed records of conversations as employees’ advisors will have more time to build strong claims, submit Data Protection Subject Access requests, negotiate via Acas or directly, and more time to bring ET claims that would previously have lapsed.
• Review and extend document retention to keep records at least 9 months post-incident – longer if litigation is possible.
• Begin tracking absence trends and strengthen your return-to-work procedures
• Provide manager training so they can confidently manage short-term absences, capability issues, and medical referrals.
• Reassess HR and legal fees budgets, as well as insurance over, particularly where an ET claim also refers to an issue covered by your Employer’s public liability insurance or another insurance. A longer claim window may well increase claim volume and raise premiums.
  

Sexual Harassment: Take “all reasonable steps to prevent it.

• Separate article: New employer duty to prevent sexual harassment: prepare and protect your employees and your business.
  

Unfair Dismissal protection rights from 6 months in the role

Take note, this begins in effect from July 2026. Any employee recruited in July 2026 and beyond will have day 1 rights from January 2027. Begin tightening recruitment processes and be disciplined in managing probationary periods. You should

• shore up recruitment processes to more effectively assess potential hires,
• set clear probationary targets,
• be very disciplined in your assessment of employees against those targets during their probationary periods,
• ensure line managers are trained now, and know how to monitor and assess new hires in probation periods,
• update poor performance and disciplinary procedures,
• don’t be afraid to use them. Train your line managers so they are much more comfortable having difficult conversations and taking an underperforming team members through a PIP, and
• Make sure to follow procedures strictly, as all employees will have dismissal protection from day one.
  

ERA measures becoming law in 2027.

The restrictions on “fire and rehire” will come into force in January 2027. Employers planning changes to terms and conditions should act well before then, while there is still legal flexibility.

• Removal of cap on unfair dismissal compensation, currently at Ban on “fire and rehire” except in exceptional circumstances of imminent financial collapse.
• Employees also gain Day-1 right to Bereavement Leave.
• New guaranteed hours offer for zero- and low-hours employees and agency workers, including right to reasonable notice of shifts, and payment for shifts that are cancelled, or moved at short notice.
• Increased protection against dismissal for pregnant employees.
• Employers will be required to reasonably justify refusals to flexible working requests.
• Further regulations to specify what amounts to ‘reasonable steps’ to determine whether an employer has taken all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment.
• Large employers with over 250 staff will be required to publish menopause action plans as well as report on gender pay gaps (introduced on a voluntary basis in April 2026)
• Changes to the trigger for collective redundancy consultation requirements.
• Regulations for umbrella companies, to ensure that individuals working through these companies have comparable rights and protections to people working through employment agencies.
• Blacklisting of workers by employers. Effectively, discriminating against employees based on their Trade Union membership will be made illegal.
  

Steps to take now

The ban on fire and rehire (in all but cases of imminent financial collapse) is set to follow in January 2027, some time to make any necessary changes to terms and conditions under the current legal rules — which, while still available, remain complex and highly sensitive.

On the other hand, the proposed new trigger for collective consultation — which would add a further test to the existing 20-redundancies threshold — won’t come into force until 2027. This delay, alongside the deferral of day one unfair dismissal rights, gives employers slightly more breathing room to prepare.

Delaying the more far reaching reforms also buys the Government time to tackle the serious backlog in the employment tribunal system – ET claims are already taking a marathon 18 months to 2 years to get to final hearing. The roadmap refers to building “capacity and capability” to enforce the new rights — but without considerable investment in the court system this promise may be hard to deliver.

We can assist.

This If you would like to discuss the Act’s reforms or receive a straightforward action plan to prepare your business, please call us on +44 208 255 1914 or get in touch by email.

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