In Short
The Situation: The Employment Rights Act 2025 ("ERA 2025") will progressively usher in major changes to UK employment law in the coming years.
The Result: ERA 2025 will materially expand employee protections by cutting the ordinary unfair dismissal qualifying period and abolishing the compensatory cap for most unfair dismissal claims; centralizing enforcement efforts in a new Fair Work Agency; raising the collective redundancy protective award ceiling and adding a consultation trigger for large-scale redundances; heavily restricting fire-and-rehire practices; requiring employers to meet an "all reasonable steps" anti-harassment duty (including for third-party harassment); and extending most Tribunal time limits to six months.
Looking Ahead: Employers should map the staged timeline for implementation of ERA 2025 and begin considering updates to policies, processes and resources to align with the new frameworks.
Qualifying Period for the Right Not to Be Unfairly Dismissed. Currently, employees must have two years of qualifying service in order to bring an unfair dismissal claim (unless they are able to bring a claim of automatically unfair dismissal on one of the statutory grounds, which does not require a minimum period of qualifying service). Section 25 of ERA 2025, when in force, will reduce this qualifying period to six months. In practical terms, this generally means that employees with six months' continuous service will acquire protection against unfair...
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