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Even though it’s not yet law – that’s not expected to happen until at least Autumn 2025 – we already know the Government’s plans for implementing the key measures in the Employment Rights Bill following the release of the Government’s Implementing the Employment Rights Bill: Our Roadmap for Delivering Change. Stacie Cheadle, Croner-i Technical Writer, looks at the roadmap and what employers need to start thinking about now to get ready for it.
The Roadmap provides a timeline of when the key measures under the Bill will come into force, giving employers like your client time to prepare and plan for any changes that will be necessary within their organisation, its policies and procedures. These changes will be phased in at roughly six-month intervals.
There are other changes to that which is set out below that will impact your client, however these are the main measures that will impact their day-to-day operations.
When the Bill becomes law
This is expected to happen in Autumn 2025. When it does, or soon after, various changes to trade union laws will be implemented, including simplification of industrial action and ballot notices and greater protections for those taking industrial action. Whilst these changes are significant, they’re unlikely to effect day-to-day management; new policies or procedures won’t be needed, and existing ones won’t need to be amended.
April 2026
This is when reforms affecting day-to-day management start to take effect. From then, the rules on eligibility for Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) are relaxed. It will have to be paid from the first day of absence, instead of the fourth day as it is currently, and low earners will become entitled to SSP as the Lower Earnings Limit is removed, increasing costs for employers. Ahead of this, your client should review their absence management procedures to ensure they are effective at keeping sickness absence as low as possible, and tighten up on sickness absence notification, recording, monitoring and return to work procedures.
Also in April 2026 paternity and parental leave will become a day-one right. Employees will therefore no longer need a minimum amount of service to take this time off. Relevant policies will have to be amended, and managers will need to told to ensure employees aren’t unlawfully denied their right to these types of leave.
October 2026
From then, the use of fire and re-hire to change employee terms and conditions will be limited to specific circumstances, and dismissals outside of those will be automatically unfair. This will make it harder for employers to rely on these dismissals to vary terms.
There will also be a new requirement for employers to provide a statement to employees, alongside the employment contract, detailing their right to join a trade union. This potentially will drive more employees towards union membership and will add to the documentation your client needs to give their employees.
The laws on sexual harassment will change, with employers required to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment of their employees and the introduction of an obligation on employers not to permit the harassment of their employees by third parties. This goes further than the proactive duty introduced in October 2024 and will mean your client once again must review their policies and procedures on preventing sexual harassment.
During 2027
This will be another year of significant change as qualifying service for unfair dismissal is removed. Employees will have the right not to be unfairly dismissed from their first day of employment, subject to a statutory probation period (expected to be around nine months), which will allow for some flexibility.
New rules will also come into effect that end ‘exploitative’ zero and low hours contracts, requiring employers such as your client to provide notice when shifts are to be cancelled or curtailed and compensation for it. There will also be a right for these workers to have a contract that reflects the number of hours they regularly work based on a 12-week period. Your client will have to assess their usage of zero-hours contracts and the documentation that relates to them.
