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The Employment Rights Bill is nearing the end of its passage through Parliament and is now expected to receive Royal Assent in autumn 2025. The government has confirmed a phased implementation plan, with some reforms coming into effect later this year, and most major provisions rolling out across 2026 and 2027.
Following completion of its committee stage in June, the Bill is currently in the report stage in the House of Lords. It will then undergo consideration of amendments before receiving Royal Assent.
The government’s Implementation Roadmap, published on 1 July 2025, outlines the proposed timetable. While a few changes — such as repealing restrictive union legislation and introducing new protections for striking workers — will follow Royal Assent, the majority of reforms (including protection from unfair dismissal, changes to sick pay, restrictions on fire and rehire, and enhanced harassment protections) will take effect from April 2026, October 2026, and into 2027.
As a reminder, expected reforms include:
- Day one rights to protection from unfair dismissal.
- Statutory sick pay to be payable from day one and the minimum earnings threshold will be removed.
- Extended tribunal time limits from 3 to 6 months for nearly all employment tribunal claims.
- Qualifying workers on zero hours/low hour contracts will gain the right to request and receive guaranteed regular hours.
- Fire and re-hire practices to become automatically unfair.
- ‘All reasonable’ steps must be taken to prevent both sexual and third-party harassment.
- Strengthened protections for pregnant employees and new parents particularly regarding dismissal and redundancy.
- Stronger trade union rights.
For full information on the above topics, please refer to our other recent articles.
Contact our Employment team today to audit your policies and contracts in preparation for the Employment Rights Act 2025.
This article was written by Gabrielle Scriven.