The road ahead – Employment Rights Bill implementation timeline published

We already knew that changes to simplify industrial action ballot and notice requirements would come into force two months after the Bill receives royal assent. That is confirmed in the roadmap, together with an indication that simplification of trade union recognition and the introduction of e-balloting are not far behind with an anticipated implementation date of April 2026. These proposed changes, together with new rights of access for trade unions which are expected in October 2026, mean that trade unions will have a larger part to play in employee relations. The roadmap indicates that the government will consult in autumn 2025 on a package of trade union measures, including e-balloting, simplification of the recognition process and the new right of access. This consultation is likely to be wide-ranging and look at some potentially major changes to the industrial relations landscape – for example, e-balloting could result in a big increase in engagement from workers on industrial action ballots – so employers will want to follow it closely. In preparation for these important industrial relations changes, employers should consider how they engage with their staff on a collective level and give their workers their ‘voice’.

Perhaps the most talked about reform in the Bill is the proposal to make unfair dismissal a ‘day one’ right for all employees. The government had already indicated in its Next Steps to Make Work Pay document that this reform would take effect no earlier than autumn 2026 but this timeframe has been pushed back to 2027. This is likely to be welcome relief to employers as it will provide more time to understand how the promised ‘lighter-touch’ dismissal process during the initial period of employment will operate in practice. Although it’s a while away, given the significance of this reform, it remains important for employers to keep a close eye on developments in this area to maximise the time they have to make appropriate changes to their contracts and policies, recruitment and probationary processes and line manager training. Consultation on this reform is planned for summer/autumn 2025 so we should know more about the government’s plans for the initial period of employment and the ‘lighter-touch’ dismissal process soon.

There are two major reforms proposed to collective redundancy consultation obligations – doubling of the cap on the protective award payable for a failure to inform and consult (from 90 days’ uncapped pay to 180 days’ uncapped pay per employee) and the introduction of a second trigger for collective consultation where a threshold number or percentage of redundancies is proposed regardless of the location of those redundancies. The first of those reforms looks set to come into force in April 2026. Whilst this measure does not change what employers should do to comply with their collective consultation obligations, it does raise the stakes if an employer fails to comply. Organisations should therefore double check that they have appropriate systems in place to identify when collective redundancy obligations are triggered, and to comply with those obligations once triggered. The introduction of a second trigger for collective consultation looks set to be the subject of consultation in autumn/winter 2026, with a planned implementation date in 2027. As with day one unfair dismissal rights, employers should keep a close eye on this as things develop.

Changes to statutory sick pay (SSP) are expected in April 2026. Once in force, entitlement to SSP will start on the first qualifying day of absence, rather than the fourth day, and will also be available to those who earn below the Lower Earnings Limit. The rate of SSP will also change – those eligible will receive a flat rate of SSP (£118.75 per week currently) or 80% their normal weekly earnings, whichever is lower. Whilst April 2026 might sound a long way away, it will roll around very quickly and there are a host of changes that employers need to make to prepare for this reform. This includes changes to contracts of employment and policies, as well as important updates to payroll and time & attendance systems. Preparing for this change should therefore be a priority for organisations. 

From October 2026, two measures relating to harassment in the workplace are expected to take effect. Firstly, the preventative duty which requires employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their workers in the course of their employment will be expanded – employers will be required to take ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment. Secondly and perhaps more significantly, a new claim of third-party harassment is set to be introduced allowing workers to bring a claim against their employer where they are harassed by a third party in the course of their employment and the employer failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent the third-party harassment. This new claim will apply to all types of harassment, not just sexual harassment. Once the Bill receives royal assent, employers should start looking at their processes sooner rather than later to ensure that they have all reasonable steps in place to prevent harassment in line with these new and expanded protections.

The proposal to introduce a new category of automatic dismissal, under which an employee is automatically unfairly dismissed if their dismissal is because they did not agree to a variation of their contract of employment or because the employer is ‘firing and rehiring’ them or replacing them with another employee on a varied contract of employment, is anticipated to come into force in October 2026. Interestingly, the government intends to consult on fire and rehire in autumn 2025 although the provisions in the Bill are complete and no regulations are required to provide more detail on the substance of this new claim. It may be that this consultation looks at updates to the Code of Practice on dismissal and re-engagement or it may represent a shift in the government’s approach to this reform in light of concerns raised by employers and trade unions alike about the potential for these provisions to provide employees with an effective veto to reasonable contractual changes. As currently drafted, the proposed fire and rehire provisions would significantly restrict the ability of employers to change terms and conditions without employees’ express agreement so continued debate of these provisions in Parliament and further details in the consultation will be eagerly awaited.

The complex new guaranteed hours rules (requiring employers to offer qualifying workers a contract guaranteeing them a minimum number of hours reflecting the work they carried out in a previous reference period) are not expected to come into force until 2027. Consultation into this measure is expected to start in autumn this year.

The plan is for a new single enforcement body, the ‘Fair Work Agency’ (FWA), to be established in April 2026. Under the Bill, the FWA will have extensive powers to enforce a range of employment law rights, including National Minimum Wage, holiday pay and statutory sick pay. This could mark a significant shift in the way in which employment rights are policed and enforced, but it remains to be seen what resources and level of funding the FWA will receive.