There’s been so much talk about the Employment Rights Act in recent months it’s perhaps surprising to know that none of the reforms have yet come into force – that is, until today! The first swath of employment changes is now upon us, and we wanted to ensure we gave you a quick update on this ‘momentous’ day for employers(!).

So, what is there in store? Well, it’s mainly trade union and industrial action reforms although there is also a small update on family leave notice rights which will require policy considerations. The main changes are summarised below.

The process for organising lawful industrial action (which includes strikes, but also action “short of a strike”, such as overtime bans or picketing) will be streamlined. However, unions will still need to provide certain information to employers when organising lawful industrial action, such as which workplaces are affected, the categories of employees involved, headcount figures, and how those figures were calculated. The whole balloting process will also now be much simpler, with ballots only needing to ask whether members support strike action or action short of strike, rather than specifying the form that any action short of strike will take.

The strike mandate period for successful ballots is now extended from six to 12 months, but this only applies to ballots opened on or after today, whilst the notice period for industrial action is also reduced from 14 to 10 days, giving employers less time to make contingency plans once a strike is announced.

Another key change is a strengthening of the protection for employees against being subjected to detriment or dismissal related to industrial action. It will be easier for employees to claim automatic unfair dismissal if they lose their job after participating in strike action and a new right protecting employees from “prescribed detriments” will protect employees from more subtle forms of retaliation. The government has not yet defined what counts as a prescribed detriment in this context, so it will have limited practical effect until further regulations are introduced later this year.

There’s also a small change coming today regarding family leave rights, which relates to the day-one rights to paternity leave and unpaid parental leave that are coming into effect on 6 April 2026.  In this respect, whilst we still have a little time to wait until those new rights apply, newly eligible parents will be able to give advance notice of their intention to take paternity leave and unpaid parental leave from today. Probably a good time therefore to dig out your family policies and give them a dust over.

Whilst the above doesn’t exactly represent the most exciting changes for most of our clients, the Employment Rights Act is now well and truly here and employers have no choice but to start getting to grips with the reforms as they roll in.

We have a host of content planned this year to help provide the most useful insights into all things Employment Rights Act, so please stay tuned for future blogs, articles, Worked Up updates, LinkedIn posts and webinars.  We’d be delighted to chat through any questions you may have.

To read the updated timeline, click here. To read the factsheets, click here.