Posted: 08/01/2025
The Labour Party’s victory in the 2024 general election means that 2025 is set to be another busy year in the field of employment law. Its ‘Plan to Make Work Pay’ has been heralded, admittedly by the deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, as the biggest upgrade to rights at work for a generation, and the publication of the Employment Rights Bill (ERB) in October set in motion the transformation of UK labour law that the government intends to deliver over the course of this parliament.
Many of the ERB’s proposed reforms will not be implemented before 2026 (the headline-grabbing ‘day one’ right to unfair dismissal will not come into force until autumn 2026 at the earliest), and therefore 2025 may be more a year of anticipated, rather than actual, change. We can however certainly expect to see the final form of the ERB taking shape over the coming year, with ongoing consultations over the various proposals contained within. The bill is expected to receive royal assent towards the middle of 2025, and from then on, some legislative changes will start to be implemented.
The employment team will continue to publish updates on the progress of the ERB and its proposals; for a summary of the ERB as published in October, see the team’s previous article here.
Aside from the ERB, what changes can we expect to see over the coming year?
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