Employment Rights Act 2025

The official Act text records the legislation enacted on 18 December 2025. The separate GOV.UK implementation timeline, updated on 25 August 2026, sets out the phased start dates. The table separates measures already in force, measures scheduled with a fixed date, target windows, measures without an exact date and reforms with no fixed date yet.

For each reform, record the commencement date, affected process, document owner, system change, manager training and final legal check. This avoids applying a future rule too early or leaving an existing workflow unchanged after the law moves.

At Royal Assent in December 2025, the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 was repealed. The April 2026 package then changed common employment processes: day-one paternity leave and unpaid parental leave began, Statutory Sick Pay changed by removing the lower earnings limit and waiting period, and the maximum protective-award period for collective redundancy failures doubled. The Fair Work Agency was established on 7 April.

On 25 August 2026, electronic and workplace balloting took effect for statutory trade-union ballots. Employers should make sure current policies and manager guidance no longer describe these measures as future proposals.

The official timeline schedules the Employment Tribunal claim time limit to increase from three months to six months on 1 October 2026, with Scottish breach-of-employment-contract claims changing on 9 November. Businesses should prepare their HR case diaries, early conciliation guidance, document-retention decisions and escalation deadlines for those dates.

The timeline schedules the all-reasonable-steps duty to prevent sexual harassment, the obligation not to permit third-party harassment and substantial trade-union measures for 30 October. These include information about the right to join a union, stronger union access, recognition and derecognition reforms, and new protections for representatives. The official material also refers to a later regulation-making power, so employers should confirm the final regulations and guidance before implementation.

The official timeline schedules stronger tipping law by the end of 2026. Hospitality and other businesses that receive tips should keep this milestone on their implementation plan, but recheck the final commencement material and guidance before changing live processes because future dates remain subject to parliamentary processes.

The official timetable says the unfair-dismissal qualifying period reduces to six months for dismissals from 1 January 2027. It also places uncapped compensatory awards and fire-and-rehire protections in January, without yet fixing an exact date for those measures.

For small employers, the practical response is to bring structure forward. Set probation checkpoints when employment begins, address performance as it arises and leave time to review the facts and process before a decision date. Confirm the commencement regulations and official guidance before changing a live dismissal process.

The timetable places further measures in 2027 without assigning every one a precise start date. These include mandatory gender-equality and menopause action plans, stronger protection for pregnant employees and new mothers, umbrella-company regulation, flexible working, bereavement leave, guaranteed hours, shift notice and non-disclosure agreement restrictions.

Businesses should monitor these changes, but should not write an uncertain date into live policy. Build a preparation list, follow consultations and update the operational rule only when commencement and supporting detail are settled.