The Employment Rights Act 2025 became law in December 2025. Rather than arriving all at once, its changes are being switched on in phases, and several have already taken effect. For a growing business the question is no longer whether to prepare. It is which parts of your people operations need to change first.
This piece reflects the government's published timeline as updated on 5 November 2026. The government notes that future dates may still change.
What has already changed
| When | Change |
|---|---|
| 6 April 2026 | Statutory Sick Pay payable from the first day of absence, with the lower earnings limit removed |
| 6 April 2026 | Paternity leave and unpaid parental leave became day-one rights |
| 6 April 2026 | Maximum protective award for collective redundancy failures doubled |
| 7 April 2026 | Fair Work Agency established to enforce employment rights |
| 1 October 2026 | Time limit for most tribunal claims extended from three to six months |
| 30 October 2026 | Employers must take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, including by third parties such as clients |
What is coming
| When | Change |
|---|---|
| 1 January 2027 | Unfair dismissal qualifying period cut from two years to six months, and the cap on compensatory awards removed |
| March 2027 | New protections against dismissing and re-hiring staff to change their terms (“fire and rehire”) |
| April 2027 | Bereavement leave, including for pregnancy loss |
| April 2027 | Gender pay gap and menopause action plans mandatory for private sector employers in scope |
| April 2027 | Collective redundancy threshold assessed across the whole organisation |
| October 2027 | Changes to flexible working, and stronger dismissal protection for pregnant women and new mothers |
| To be confirmed | Guaranteed hours and payment for short-notice shift changes for zero-hours workers |
What to build now
The changes share a theme. Decisions about people will be easier to challenge, sooner, and at greater cost if they go wrong. The businesses that cope best will be the ones whose processes are consistent and written down. Five areas deserve attention first.
1. Make probation do real work. From January 2027, someone hired in July could bring an unfair dismissal claim by the new year. Probation can no longer be a formality. Set clear objectives at the start, hold documented reviews along the way, and make a confirmed decision well before the six-month point.
2. Give managers a process they can follow. Uncapped compensation and a longer window to bring claims raise the cost of a poorly handled dismissal. Most of that risk sits with line managers, not HR. They need a clear process for performance, conduct and absence, simple templates, and the habit of keeping notes.
3. Treat harassment prevention as a system. “All reasonable steps” is a higher bar than having a policy in a handbook. It means assessing where the risks are, training staff and managers, giving people a safe way to report, and acting on what you hear. If your people work with clients or the public, those situations need covering too.
4. Look again at absence. With sick pay now due from the first day, short-term absence costs more and patterns matter more. A clear absence policy, return-to-work conversations and reliable absence data help you spot problems early, and support people properly when they are genuinely unwell.
5. Design flexibility into contracts now. Once the fire and rehire protections arrive, changing terms by dismissal will be much harder. If your business model depends on being able to change hours, locations or duties, build that flexibility into contracts and change processes now, and get used to consulting properly.
Start with a gap check
Most businesses do not need to rebuild everything. They need to know where their current contracts, policies and manager practices fall short of the new rules, and fix those in a sensible order. A short review now is far cheaper than discovering the gaps at a tribunal in 2027.