Employment Edit: 12 November 2026

By Katie Wooller

12 Nov 2026 4 min read

A female worker wearing hard hat in warehouse full of stocked shelves

Legal updates

“Say what you pay”

The government has announced plans to introduce new “say what you pay” laws, requiring employers to publish salary information on job adverts.

This announcement comes on the back of similar pay transparency proposals set out in this summer’s equal pay and pay discrimination consultation. As well as helping young people make informed choices as they enter the workplace, greater pay transparency is also designed to tackle the gender pay gap and prevent pay discrimination by encouraging consistency when setting pay.

There are no details yet on what the reforms will look like (including what the required salary information will be) or when they might take effect, but the Prime Minister has encouraged businesses to start voluntarily including pay details in job adverts now.

Earned settlement

Major changes to the way migrants can qualify for indefinite leave to remain in the UK are on the way. Under the new “earned settlement” model, the existing five-year route to qualify for settlement will no longer apply to most migrants. Instead, the qualifying period will range from three years to twenty years or more, depending on the individual’s earnings, contribution, and compliance with immigration rules.

In this blog post, Megan Summers and James Edmonds explain the new tiered system and the transitional arrangements that will apply to certain workers, including care workers. They also look at the practical steps employers and visa holders should consider before the first changes take effect in December 2026.

Preventing harassment

To coincide with two major anti-harassment reforms which took effect on 30 October, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) published updated versions of its technical guidance on sexual harassment and harassment at work and 8-step guide for employers on preventing sexual harassment.

These important guidance documents have been updated to reflect the introduction of employer liability for harassment by third parties, and the bolstered duty to prevent sexual harassment (which now requires the employer to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, rather than reasonable steps). The technical guidance aims to give employers some practical tips – in a new section focused on third party harassment, it details an example of alleged harassment by a customer in a bar and lists examples of the reasonable steps that the bar could take to prevent such harassment. Examples include minimising lone working, providing a mobile phone that staff can use for assistance and ensuring manager visibility to provide support for staff and customers.

If we can help your organisation comply with these new and expanded obligations, please contact Katherine Flower or your usual Employment team contact.

Team news

We are delighted that Kate Redshaw has been appointed as a director in our Employment team from 1 November 2026. Having gained wide experience as a practising employment lawyer earlier in her career, Kate now focuses on developing employment law initiatives for the team’s HR and in-house legal clients and on client relationship management.

With employment law reform continuing at pace, Kate recently completed a secondment with the CBI focusing on the policy issues arising for its members out of the government’s Employment Rights Bill (now Act) and since 2023 has been a member of The Law Society’s Employment Law Committee.

In team news of an altogether different nature, several members of the Employment team took to the dancefloor earlier this week at Burges Salmon’s “Sequins & Salmon” fundraising event at the Bristol Beacon. First, Katherine Flower and James Green showed off their Paso Doble moves, before the Employment Team “Night Shifters” lit up the stage (literally – they wore glow-in-the-dark costumes)! A huge thank you to all our supporters and sponsors. There is still time to donate to Young Bristol and Feeding Bristol and the amazing work that both charities do.

Donate to The Night Shifters Donate to Katherine and James

On-demand content

Trade union access

We walk through the new statutory right for trade unions to seek access to workplaces and consider what it means for employers.

Watch now

Preventing harassment: supplier relationships

Katherine Flower speaks to highly experienced GC, Christy Baker, on how businesses can address harassment risks in the context of supplier relationships.

Watch or listen here

Raising the bar: what the new harassment reforms mean for employers

To understand the implications of recent anti-harassment reforms, why not catch up on our online discussion in which we discuss what’s changed and how you can comply?

Watch now