Since the Employment Rights Bill (the Bill) was announced on 10 October 2024, there have been many moving parts for employers to be aware of. Here, we break down how the next 12 months currently look as the Bill continues to take shape.
Pending Royal Assent, Industrial Action Protections (in a unionised workforce) should come into force this Autumn, which will ease balloting requirements for calling industrial action, ending current limits on protection against unfair dismissal. To prepare for this imminent change, employers should review and revise internal HR policies and procedures to align with this new legal framework. They should also ensure disciplinary and absence management policies are updated to reflect the enhanced rights of striking workers.
Moving into 2026, there are currently a number of significant changes planned for April.
One of these changes will be to paternity and parental leave, making it a day-one right for all employees, removing the requirement to need 26 weeks of service to qualify. To prepare for this, employers need to update employee handbooks and policies to reflect day-one eligibility, ensuring onboarding materials clearly communicate these rights. Adjusting any HR, IT and payroll systems to accommodate immediate leave entitlements is also essential.
Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) is another area where there is going to be change, where we will see the removal of the lower earnings limit and waiting period; the latter currently stands at three days. Employers will need to update sick pay policies and employee handbooks to reflect the new SSP eligibility and payment structure. It’s also important to review enhanced sick pay schemes to ensure alignment with SSP changes and adjust systems to calculate SSP from day one for all employees, including those previously excluded due to low earnings.
Whistleblowing protections will be extended under the Bill to protect sexual harassment reports as well as how the employer responds to any such reports. This will require employers to update whistleblowing policies to explicitly include sexual harassment, ensuring grievance and whistleblowing procedures are clearly differentiated and aligned. Employers should also review settlement agreement templates to ensure they don’t unlawfully restrict disclosures.
April will also see the introduction of a new agency to oversee fair work practices. The Fair Work Agency will see a consolidation of existing enforcement powers, whilst taking on new responsibilities, such as enforcing holiday pay and statutory sick pay. They will also have the authority to investigate workplaces and issue penalties for non-compliance.
October 2026 will see further amendments to trade union rights, specifically relating to workplace access rights, whereby trade unions will be able to meet and communicate with workers, even in workplaces without union representation. To prepare for this change, employers should review and update internal communication policies, as well as access protocols for union reps, ensuring compliance with digital access obligations.
‘Fire and rehire’ practices will also change in October 2026 because of the Bill, making it automatically unfair in most cases, which will make dismissing and rehiring an employee on worse terms illegal. It’s important that employers audit employment contracts for flexibility clauses and potential risk areas and begin consultation planning for any future changes to terms before the changes are implemented in October 2026.
Sexual harassment protections will also improve as a result of the Bill, with a duty imposed on employers to take all reasonable steps in protecting employees from sexual harassment and any type of harassment by third parties, as well as being liable for all third-party harassment employees suffer. Employers should update harassment policies to reflect the ‘all reasonable steps’ duty, include third-party harassment scenarios and clarify whistleblowing protections.
Last, but not least, in the raft of changes expected in October 2026 is Employment Tribunal time limits, which will be extended to 6 months for most claims. The Government has said that this extended time limit will allow employers more opportunity to resolve disputes internally before litigation and offer mediation or settlement options. Whether this happens in practice or will simply lead to more claims being brought is something to watch. To reflect this change, employers will need to re-diarise internal timelines for responding to potential claims and update data retention policies to ensure relevant evidence is available for up to 6+ months.
Further changes are planned for 2027, including collective redundancy consultation and unfair dismissal protection, and we will provide a deeper dive into these parts of the Bill and their impact closer to the time.
While the above changes (and there are others) planned for the next year or two are quite diverse in nature in terms of their impact on employers and employees, one commonality that exists across the board is the importance of employers conducting training for HR teams and line managers to prepare them for the changes that are incoming. Although the changes in 2026 still seem some way away, it’s vitally important that employers (if they have not already) begin to prepare by upskilling their teams.