Employment Rights Act: implementation for UK employers in 2026 and beyond

The government’s original proposal to bring in ‘day one’ rights for unfair dismissal was replaced by a six-month qualifying period for unfair dismissal. This change was welcome news for employers but will still impact their approach to recruitment, performance management and termination processes, because getting things right in that first six months will become doubly important.

Implementation: 1 January 2027, for dismissals on or after that date, so effectively applies to staff engaged from 1 July 2026. Qualifying service for unfair dismissal will continue to be assessed by reference to any extended effective date of termination (EDT). The law extends the EDT in some cases: for example, where the employer does not require the employee to work their notice, it adds on a statutory notice period. This means, for example, that an employee dismissed in late December 2026 without serving their statutory notice may reach the six-month threshold through an extended EDT and qualify to bring a claim.

The cap on unfair dismissal will be removed at the same time. Regulations confirm that the uncapped regime will only apply to employees whose actual date of termination is on or after 1 January 2027. Employees cannot rely on an extended EDT to access the new regime. The impact for high earners and employers is significant.

Implementation: Confirmed as 1 January 2027.

The time limits to bring most claims to the employment tribunal (ET) will be increased from three to six months.

The government published draft regulations that will bring into force, on 1 October, a limited roll out of the extension of ET time limits from three months to six months. Claims covered by the regulations include claims for damages for breach of a contract of employment (England and Wales only); less favourable treatment of part time workers / fixed term employees; and breaches of the Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations. Although the government has not indicated that it will introduce wider extensions to ET time limits on 1 October, the limited and piecemeal nature of this confirmed extension strongly suggests that a broader October roll out is very likely.

Implementation: 1 October 2026. Breach of contract claims in Scotland will have the same extension applied from 9 November 2026.

Although flexible working requests became a ‘day one’ right from 6 April 2024, the ERA goes further. Employers will only be able to reject a flexible working request where both of the following conditions apply: there is one of the current statutory grounds for refusing a request; and it is reasonable for the employer to refuse the application.

Implementation:

2026

• Consultation on improving access to flexible working closed on 1 April 2026. This consultation set out a proposed process which must take place before a flexible working request is rejected.

2027

• New framework takes effect

A raft of complex provisions will go some way to “banning exploitative zero-hour contracts”, as pledged by Labour in its policy statement. Provisions include frameworks to offer workers the right to a contract that reflects hours regularly worked, reasonable notice of shifts, and compensation for shifts cancelled or curtailed at short notice. Zero hours rules will apply to agency workers too.

The government has now published its long-awaited consultation on implementing ERA reforms on zero and low hours contracts. While the reforms will impose significant new obligations, they may still allow some flexibility, including potentially different treatment for agency workers. The consultation, which closes on 25 August, proposes wide-ranging options for the definition of “low hours” and requires employers to assess eligibility for guaranteed hour offers using a reference period, with 12 weeks currently preferred. Workers may qualify only if they meet regularity tests based on weeks and hours worked, and the proposals also address the use of short-term contracts, particularly for seasonal demand. The consultation further requires employers to give “reasonable notice” of shifts, likely one to four weeks, and to compensate workers for short-notice changes, with enforcement by the Fair Work Agency.

Implementation

2026  

• Consultation on zero-hour worker protections closes on 25 August

2027

• Zero-hour and low-hour worker protections introduced

Enhanced collective redundancy protection will be achieved by a change to the test for ‘establishment’. Separate geographical establishments will not apply, and each employing company will be one GB establishment. A consultation, which closed on 21 May, set out several options for introducing a new employer-wide trigger.

The government has already strengthened remedies against abuse of rules on collective redundancy by increasing the cap on protective awards from 90 to 180 days’ pay.

Implementation:

April 2026

• Increased protective awards for failure to collectively consult

2027

• New establishment test

There will be defined categories of “restricted variations” where it will be automatically unfair to dismiss and offer re-engagement on new terms unless a financial necessity test is met. These will include detrimental changes to pay, pensions, hours, shifts and holidays. Seeking to impose a clause which enables the employer to vary the contract in these areas will be a restricted variation in itself. However, an automatic unfair dismissal will not be triggered where changes are minor, “routine and non-detrimental”, or the change relates to the place of work. A new test of fairness will be applied in cases of non-automatic unfairness.

Specific amends also apply to the public sector, where a different test of financial necessity will apply.

A consultation on collective redundancy and fire and rehire closed on 2 December 2024, and a consultation on the scope of "restricted variations" closed on 1 April 2026.

Implementation

January 2027

• Fire and rehire protections apply (start date pushed back from October 2026)

It will be automatically unfair to dismiss an employee where they are to be replaced by “an individual who is not an employee of the employer” and that individual will undertake the same or substantially the same activities as the employee performed prior to dismissal. This is clearly intended to catch circumstances where employees are replaced with, for example, agency workers.

A consultation on collective redundancy and fire and rehire closed on 2 December 2024.

Implementation: January 2027 (start date likely to be in line with other provisions around fire and rehire)

The ERA will introduce:

• employer liability in respect of harassment of their employees by third parties if they have not taken "all reasonable steps" to prevent it. This will cover sexual harassment and harassment on the grounds of all protected characteristics
• a new duty on employers to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment. This goes further than the current obligation to take “reasonable steps”.

The ERA also builds in further whistleblowing protections for those reporting sexual harassment, and non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) will be void in cases of harassment or discrimination. A consultation on ERA restrictions on NDAs closed on 8 July 2026.

Implementation

April 2026

• Amendments to whistleblowing protections to specifically include harassment complaints

October 2026

• Duty to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment comes into force
• Liability for third party harassment on grounds of all protected characteristics comes into force
• Introduction of a power to make new regulations, at a later date, to specify what the requirement to take ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent harassment looks like in practice for employers

2027:

• NDAs for harassment and discrimination prohibited

These include making parental, paternity and bereavement leave available from ‘day one’ on the job. The government has also published regulations to ensure that bereaved partner's paternity leave (BPPL) becomes a 'day one' right in relation to a child whose mother or primary caregiver dies. This new right will give fathers and partners a day one entitlement to take up to 52 weeks of BPPL.

A framework for new protections from dismissal for women whilst pregnant, whilst on maternity leave, and within six months of returning to work – except in specific circumstances – will also be established, which will benefit other family leavers too. A consultation on enhanced dismissal protections for pregnant women and new mothers closed on 15 January 2026.

Families who experience pregnancy loss before 24 weeks will be entitled to protected bereavement leave, extending the protection which is already in place for those who suffer pregnancy loss after 24 weeks. A consultation on leave for bereavement including pregnancy loss closed on 15 January 2026.

A consultation on introducing new employment rights for unpaid carers and parents of seriously ill children to improve their ability to remain in or return to work will close on 1 September 2026.

Implementation

April 2026

• ‘Day one’ right to paternity leave, parental leave and BPPL.

2027

• Bereavement leave
• Protections against dismissal for women returning from maternity leave, and some other family leavers

Gender pay gap obligations will be extended by a requirement to create ‘equality action plans’. Menopause action will be voluntary.

The government has published guidance and a comprehensive suite of materials to assist employers with equality action plan preparation.

Implementation: Equality action plans voluntary from April 2026, mandatory from 2027

The ERB aims to refresh the employer/employee bargain, and contains a raft of provisions to reset relationships between employers and trade unions.

Changes include:

• simplified processes regulating trade union recognition and industrial action, 
• increased protection for members taking industrial action;
• increased rights for trade union representatives;
• trade unions being able to request physical and digital access to workplace for specified purposes;
• retrospective protection might apply to ‘wildcat’ strikes; and 
• minimum service level legislation will be repealed.

The government published its response to its consultation on creating a modern framework for industrial relations (55-page / 481KB PDF) on 4 March 2025. The Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 was repealed on 18 December 2025, on Royal Assent of the ERA.

Its response to its consultation on protection from detriments for taking industrial action (33-page / 495KB PDF) was issued on 22 June 2026; to its draft code of practice on electronic and workplace balloting for statutory union ballots (52-page / 483KB PDF) on 23 June 2026; and to its revised code of practice on access rights and unfair practices during the recognition and derecognition process (25-page / 265KB PDF) on 6 July 2026.

Implementation

18 February 2026

• Removal of the rule that, in ballots involving important public services, at least 40% of all eligible voters must vote in favour of industrial action
• Information a trade union must include on ballot papers, notice of ballots, ballot results and industrial action notices will revert to the simpler form pre-Trade Union Act 2016
• Reduction in notice a trade union must give employer of industrial action after ballot, from 14 to 10 days
• Extension of legal mandate period for industrial action, from six months to 12 months
• Repeal of requirements around trade union supervision of pickets
• Protections against dismissal for taking industrial action
• Political fund opt-out and 10-year ballot repealed
• Public sector check-off and facility time obligations repealed

April 2026

• Simplified mechanisms for trade union recognition

August 2026

• Electronic balloting for industrial action introduced
• Repeal of the 50% industrial action ballot turnout threshold - anticipated to be at the same time as electronic balloting will take effect, timing presently unconfirmed

October 2026

• Workers to be informed of their right to join a trade union
• Extended rights for trade union representatives
• Extended detriment protection to industrial action
• Introduction of trade union access agreements
• Prohibition on unfair practices extended to the entire recognition or derecognition process
• Fair Pay Agreements process established in the adult social care sector

2027

• Extension of blacklisting protection
• Electronic balloting for recognition and derecognition ballots
• Introduction of a ‘new industrial relations framework’

The ERA strengthened statutory sick pay (SSP) by removing the lower earnings limit. Lower-wage employees, including those earning below the lower earnings limit of £129 average weekly earnings, are now entitled to sick pay of 80% of their wages. The waiting period has also been removed, so that SSP is now payable from day one of absence.

Implementing regulations, including transitional provisions, and government guidance were published ahead of implementation.

Implementation

April 2026

• All SSP reforms took effect

On 6 April 2026, implementing regulations published without prior indication introduced a duty on employers to keep records of both annual leave entitlements and pay and to retain those records for six years. Employers commit an offence, punishable with a fine, if they fail to comply. Employers must keep records that “are adequate to show compliance”. The government did not previously signal an implementation date for this requirement. While record-keeping in relation to pay was previously required, record-keeping about leave entitlement may now need to be beefed up.

Implementation: April 2026

A single enforcement body, the Fair Work Agency, has been established, with a view to strengthening the enforcement of workplace rights. Its remit, which is being introduced on a phased basis, will include bringing claims directly on behalf of employees, issuing fines and prosecuting employers that do not uphold protections. Its current remit includes agency worker regulations, gangmasters licensing and serious labour abuse, including modern slavery.

Implementation

April 2026

• Fair Work Agency established

2027

• The FWA will begin enforcing holiday pay rights

The ERA provides for new powers to be given to the government to introduce regulations to create a new adult social care negotiating body, which itself could be given powers to intervene on matters to do with the remuneration, and wider terms and conditions, of social workers.

A consultation on the fair pay agreement process in adult social care closed on 16 January 2026.

Implementation

Autumn 2026

• New fair pay agreement process in adult social care takes effect

Separate to the ERA process, the government consulted on mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting in 2025 and has now responded to that consultation. It wants to adopt a similar reporting framework for ethnicity and disability pay gaps to that which is currently in place for gender. This would include the same six pay gap measures, including mean and median differences in average hourly pay.

The consultation on mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting closed on 10 June 2025. Draft legislation is awaited, but was not mentioned in the 2026 King's Speech. The omission suggests delay rather than abandonment. Employers should continue monitoring developments but the first pay gap 'snapshot date' under the new rules now looks unlikely to be before April 2028, with reporting from 2029.

Implementation

2026

• EU pay transparency rules come into effect

2027

• Publication of Equality (Race and Disability) Bill

We await clarification of the government’s intentions around introducing a single employment status, as trailed in its pre-election Plan to Make Work Pay (24-page / 248KB PDF).

The Department for Business and Trade published a call for evidence on the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment (TUPE) Regulations, which closed on 1 July 2026, seeking views from a wide-ranging audience on the effectiveness of the regulations as they currently stand. This is a significant development for employers across all sectors, signalling that the government is actively considering reform of one of the most complex and commercially important areas of employment law.

Regulations will prevent the emergence of a 'two-tier workforce' - where one group of workers is employed on less favourable terms and conditions than another doing similar work.

Implementation

October 2026