Last updated 5th March 2026

We’ve created this tracker to keep you up to date with all the latest developments in the Employment Rights Act – please bookmark it to make sure you don’t miss our latest posts.

Please note that this material has been published for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.

On 18 December 2025, the Employment Rights Bill received Royal Assent and, as such, is now law under the Employment Rights Act 2025 (“ERA 2025”). The most significant changes are summarised below:

Trade Unions/Industrial Action

The government has published guidance to help employers, unions, and workers prepare for the new provisions coming into force on 18 February 2026. They have also published a draft code of practice and a fact sheet.

Protection against dismissal for taking industrial action

The protected period (broadly, the first 12 weeks of industrial action) that grants automatic protection for employees from unfair dismissal for taking part in protected industrial action will effectively be extended, meaning the protection will apply irrespective of the length of the industrial action.

When: This came into effect on 18 February 2026.

Notice of industrial action ballot

ERA 2025 will reduce the amount of information that unions must include in the notice of an industrial action ballot that they send to an employer.

When: This came into effect on 18 February 2026

Information included on voting paper

ERA 2025 will reduce the amount of information that unions must include on an industrial action ballot voting paper.

When: This came into effect on 18 February 2026

Mandate period for industrial action

The mandate period for industrial action, following a successful ballot, will be increased from 6 to 12 months.

Six-month mandates obtained under ballots opened before 18 February 2026 will not be automatically extended to 12 months – unions would need to re-ballot to secure a 12-month mandate.

When: This came into effect on 18 February 2026.

Notice period for industrial action

The notice period a union must give to an employer of industrial action will be reduced from 14 days  to 10 days (or 7 days if the employer agrees).

Transitional arrangements have the effect that the 14 (or 7) day notice period will continue to apply to any industrial action in relation to which the employer received a notice before 18 February 2026.

When: This came into effect on 18 February 2026.

Penalties for not collectively consulting

Employees can currently claim a protective award of up to 90 days’ pay if their employer does not comply with its collective consultation obligations. The ERA 2025 doubles the maximum protective award to 180 days’ pay.

The trigger for collective consultation will be either:

• 20 or more employees at one establishment, which reflects current legislation; or
• Where employees are being made redundant at more than one establishment, a higher threshold number will apply – this threshold shall be determined in further regulations. This is a change to the current status quo which is being implemented under the ERA 2025.

When: 6 April 2026.

Reform to statutory sick pay

At present, workers are entitled to SSP from day four of sickness if they are earning above the lower earnings limit (the current lower earnings limit is £123 per week).

The ERA 2025 will change this so that qualifying workers will be paid SSP from day one of sickness and will be entitled to SSP no matter their earnings. If a worker earns less than the lower earnings limit, they will be entitled to SSP at 80% of weekly earnings.

When: 6 April 2026.

Disclosure of sexual harassment to be added to list of qualifying disclosures

Currently, sexual harassment complaints can be protected as qualifying disclosures but only if they are characterised under existing categories of qualifying disclosures, such as breach of legal obligation or health and safety and they are made in the public interest.

The ERA 2025 will clarify this position by ensuring that sexual harassment is expressly listed as a qualifying disclosure. Such disclosures will still need to meet the relevant criteria for qualifying disclosures (i.e., the individual must reasonably believe that the information disclosed is true and is in the public interest).

When: 6 April 2026.

“Day 1” paternity and unpaid parental leave

Paternity and unpaid parental leave will become day one rights (removing the qualifying period of 26 weeks for unpaid paternity leave and one year for unpaid parental leave) for parents of babies with an expected week of childbirth on or after 5 April 2026 or 6 April 2026 for adoption. Statutory paternity pay, however, will still require 26 weeks’ service.

When: 6 April 2026.

Employers to be liable for harassment by third parties

Currently, employers must take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.

The ERA2025 expands this duty to taking “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. Employers will also be liable for harassment from third parties, for example customers or clients, unless they have taken all reasonable steps to prevent it happening.

When: October 2026.

Extension of time limits for bringing tribunal claims

Save for in limited circumstances, tribunal claims currently need to be brought within three months of the act complained of (e.g. dismissal, discrimination, deduction from wages, etc).

The ERA 2025 extends the time limit for bringing tribunal claims from three to six months.

When: October 2026.

Unfair dismissal – reducing the qualifying period

At present, employees need two years’ service with their employer before they gain unfair dismissal rights. This means that, to terminate the employment of an employee with the qualifying length of service, an employer must have a potentially fair reason for dismissing the employee and a fair and reasonable process must be followed.

The ERA 2025 will reduce the qualifying period significantly, giving employees unfair dismissal rights once they have obtained six months’ service.

When: 1 January 2027 – anybody with six months service on or after this date will have unfair dismissal rights. Therefore, this change will essentially apply to anyone who is employed from 1 July 2026 onwards.

Stronger rights to flexible working

At present, employees have a right to request flexible working from day one, but employers can refuse a request based on one or more of the following business reasons: burden of additional cost, inability to reorganise work among existing staff or recruit additional staff, detrimental impact on quality of work or performance, detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand, insufficient work during the proposed hours and/or planned structural changes to the business.

The penalty for breaching the statutory flexible working regime is eight weeks’ pay, subject to a cap of £5,600.

The ERA 2025 will implement measures which make it mandatory for employers to submit written reasons for refusing flexible working and they can only do so if their refusal is reasonable. The statutory cap will remain the same.

When: These measures are set to take effect in 2027.

Gender pay and menopause action plans

The Equality and Human Rights Commission requires employers with 250 or more employees to publish gender pay gap reports on an annual basis. Employers are not currently required to publish an action plan but many voluntarily do so.

New regulations will require employers with 250 or more employees to publish “equality action plans” which will include their plans for closing the gender pay gap and supporting employees through the menopause. Employers will be subject to penalties for non-compliance.

We are expecting further consultation on this, including how often plans will need to be published and what they should contain.

When: These measures will be introduced on a voluntary basis in April 2026 and will become mandatory in 2027.

‘Fire and Rehire’

The Code of Practice on Fire and Rehire took effect in July 2024. This means that although ‘fire and rehire’ currently remains lawful practice, it is discouraged.

Changes implemented by the ERA 2025 mean that dismissals used to impose changes to key terms (pay, hours, pensions, shift patterns/length, time‑off rights, and certain benefits to be set by further regulations) are automatically unfair, including where such measures are used to introduce new flexibility clauses – unless the employer is facing financial collapse and the measure could not reasonably have been avoided.

TUPE and dismissals wholly or mainly attributed to a reduction in work are not within the scope of this legislation, and regulations may clarify that expenses and certain pay types are also out of scope.

When: These measures were supposed to take effect in October 2026. However, the government has updated its roadmap to suggest they will now take effect in January 2027.

Dates for implementation to be confirmed

Holiday (entitlement and pay) records

At present, aside from for employment businesses, there isn’t a specific obligation to maintain records which demonstrate compliance with holiday leave or pay legislation.

Under the ERA 2025, all employers will need to maintain records which demonstrate their compliance with holiday leave and pay. These records will need to be kept for six years and not doing so will be a criminal offence with potentially unlimited fines as a penalty.

When: We are awaiting clarity on when this measure will come into force.

Non-disclosure agreements

The ERA 2025 will introduce a rule meaning that any clause that prevents a worker from talking about acts of harassment or discrimination, including how their employer handled such allegations, will be void. This may be extended to cover independent contractors and trainees, with limited exceptions set by future regulations.

While these exceptions are not currently known, it is speculated that NDAs which have been entered into at the employee’s request, having received independent legal advice, may be permitted and would not be void.

When: It is currently unclear when this will be implemented as this ban was not included in the government’s roadmap.

If you would like to follow the ERA 2025’s journey from Bill to Act, you may be interested in our suite of articles from throughout the process of implementing the ERA 2025:

A new Employment Rights Bill to rule them all—and in the consultation bind them Published: 10 October 2024

Worked Up: your monthly employment & immigration law lowdown (December 2024) Published: 10 December 2024

An Employment Rights Bill update: longer limitation periods on the way Published: 25 February 2025

Employment Rights Bill: government responds to consultations and tables amendments Published: 17 March 2025

The Employment Rights Bill, Part 2: a new age of transparency begins Published: 11 July 2025

The Employment Rights Bill: a major pivot on unfair dismissal rights and what comes next Published: 28 November 2025

The Employment Rights Bill: finally across the line, but what does it really mean for employers? Published: 17 December  2025

Check out our employment horizon tracker here, where you can keep you up to date with all the latest developments in Employment and Immigration law.

Our employment and immigration lawyers will continue to track developments closely. We will issue further updates as implementation plans are announced and highlight where we think the changes may have a particular impact on the media, technology and sports sectors. In the meantime, our specialists are here to help if you have any questions.