Employment Rights Act 2025 – Update!

The Employment Rights Act 2025 (ERA 2025) was an early Christmas present receiving Royal Assent on 18 December 2025. The first commencement regulations were published on 6 January 2026. 

There are many employment law changes expected over the next 2 years from the ERA 2025 and further legislation. The government announced on 21 January 2026 that it “remains committed” to the roadmap published in July 2025, which outlines key implementation dates.

For more details of this roadmap see:

Implementing the Employment Rights Bill – GOV.UK

There will be many more regulations and consultations yet to come, but here are a few things to update you on… 

Increased family friendly rights

Parental and  paternity leave will now become day-one rights for employees from 6 April 2026. Currently parental leave is only available to employees with one year’s continuous employment. The current eligibility for paternity leave is usually when the employee has been continuously employed by their employer for a period of not less than 26 weeks ending with the week immediately prior to the 14th week before the child’s expected week of childbirth.   

Employers should ensure their policies are updated accordingly!

Various changes to trade union law

Various changes will come into effect on 18 February 2026 relating to trade unions including in relation to ballots and protection against dismissal for taking industrial action. The government published Guidance on 8 January 2026 to assist employers, unions and workers for these provisions coming into force.

See: Trade union law: transition to Employment Rights Act 2025 – GOV.UK

The government published a revised code of practice on picketing as well as on ballots and notice to employers (see below) on 9 January 2026 regarding other changes coming in on 18 February 2026. Please see links below for more details.

 Picketing: draft revised code of practice – GOV.UK

Industrial action ballots and notice to employers: draft revised code of practice – GOV.UK

More changes are still to come in relation to trade unions including simplifying the trade union recognition process in April 2026. In October 2026, the duty to inform workers of their right to join a trade union and strengthening the rights of trade unions to access workplaces are expected. 

Unfair dismissal 

Perhaps the biggest change brought by the ERA 2025 will be the one to unfair dismissal rights, where the qualifying period for employees to bring a claim for ordinary unfair dismissal is to be reduced from 2 years to 6 months and the cap on compensation will be removed. The removal of the cap for unfair dismissal is going to mean a whole new risk analysis for businesses and may mean that short cutting processes may need to be re-considered. In the impact assessment published by the government on 7 January 2026, the change to the qualifying period was estimated to protect a further 6.3 million employees, and produce a possible 3,000 extra tribunal cases. This change is expected to come in on 1 January 2027. 

Employers would be wise to start considering now whether they should be strengthening their recruitment and probationary periods checks as well as looking at processes and training for managers particularly in relation to spotting and dealing with non-performing employees early on.  

For more information on any of the issues raised in this article, or if you require any employment related advice please contact Philomena Price, a Director in our Employment Law Department at SE-Solicitors. 

The contents of this article is a general guide only at the date of publication. It is not comprehensive, and it does not constitute legal advice. Specific legal advice should be sought in relation to the particular facts of a given situation.

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