Employment Rights Act: A phased business reform
The Employment Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent and became law on 18th December 2025. Described as the biggest change to UK employment law in a generation, it introduced 28 major employment reforms.
The changes are being rolled out over a two-year period to give businesses time to prepare for each stage. Some of the changes are subject to consultation before they will be introduced.
October 2026 represents a major milestone in the legislation with several new rules being introduced.
What has already changed for employers?
Employment Rights Act changes introduced in February, April and August 2026 include:
- Introduction of day one rights for employees to paternity leave and unpaid parental leave.
- Removal of the restriction on taking paternity leave after shared parental leave.
- Lower Earnings Limit (LEL) and waiting period removed from Statutory Sick Pay (SSP).
- Setting up of the Fair Work Agency, which merged several existing employment law enforcement bodies and took on enforcement of other rights like the National Living Wage/ National Minimum Wage, SSP and holiday pay.
- Several changes to trade union legislation, including repealing key sections of the Trade Union Act 2016, simplifying industrial action and political fund rules, and strengthening dismissal protections for participating workers.
- Expansion of whistleblowing protections to include sexual harassment.
- Maximum period of the collective redundancy protective...
Read Full Story:
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMijwFBVV95cUxQblF6U19MYXhYdVFNS2ZwbkYy...
