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The law is changing a note for employers

The Employment
Rights Act 2025

The largest change to UK employment law in a generation, arriving in stages across 2026 and 2027. Most of your handbook was written for the old rules.

 

days until tribunal time limits doubletribunal time limits doubled
1 October 2026

 

days until unfair dismissal starts at six monthsunfair dismissal starts at six months
1 January 2027

Contact us or read what is already wrong in your handbook

What changes, and when

The Act received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025 and is being brought in by stages. Some of it is already law. The dates below are marked confirmed where commencement regulations have been made, and expected where they have not. We do not blend the two, because planning around an expected date as though it were fixed is how businesses get caught out twice.

  1. 18 February 2026

    In force

    Collective redundancy penalties doubled

    The maximum protective award rose from 90 to 180 days' gross pay per affected employee. Getting consultation wrong now costs twice what it did.

  2. 6 April 2026

    In force

    Sick pay and family leave from day one

    Statutory sick pay is payable from the first day of absence, the three waiting days are gone, and the lower earnings limit no longer excludes low-hours staff. Paternity leave and unpaid parental leave became day-one rights, though paternity pay still requires 26 weeks' service. Working time records must now be kept for six years.

  3. 1 October 2026

    Confirmed   daysIn force

    Tribunal time limits double

    The limitation period for bringing most claims goes from three months to six. With early conciliation on top, a dismissal this autumn can still arrive as a claim the following summer. Every "we are probably past it now" assumption in your business is wrong from this date.

  4. 30 October 2026

    Expected

    Harassment: all reasonable steps

    The duty hardens from taking reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment to taking all reasonable steps, and liability for harassment by third parties such as customers, contractors and visitors returns. A policy in a drawer has never been a defence; under this wording it is visibly not one.

  5. 1 January 2027

    Confirmed   daysIn force

    Unfair dismissal at six months, and the end of fire and rehire

    The qualifying period for ordinary unfair dismissal falls from two years to six months. Anyone with six months' service on that morning is protected. Separately, dismissing an employee because they refused a change to pay, pensions, hours or shift timing, and re-engaging them on the varied terms, becomes automatically unfair except in cases of severe financial distress.

  6. During 2027

    Expected, dates to be set

    Zero hours, flexible working, redundancy thresholds, NDAs

    Guaranteed-hours offers for staff on zero and low-hours contracts, based on the hours actually worked over a reference period. Flexible working refusals needing to be reasonable and explained in writing. Collective redundancy consultation triggered across sites rather than only at one. Confidentiality clauses that prevent someone disclosing harassment or discrimination becoming void. Bereavement and pregnancy loss leave. The detail of each is still in regulations.

Employment Rights Act 2025 and its commencement regulations. Dates as published at the time of writing, September 2026. Where a date is marked expected it has not been fixed by regulations and may move.

None of that is the hard part. The hard part is that your handbook still says the old thing, and your managers still believe it.

What is already wrong in your handbook

Below is an extract from a manager's handbook, last revised in 2024. It is a composite, not a client's document, and every clause in it was correct when it was written. Five of them are not correct now. Scroll, and watch them go.

Specimen, composite, not a client document

Manager's Handbook extract

Last revised March 2024

3.2 Statutory sick pay is not payable for the first three days of any absence, and employees earning below the lower earnings limit do not qualify.

4.1 Employees must have completed 26 weeks' continuous service before taking paternity leave.

6.4 An employee has three months less one day from the date of dismissal in which to bring a tribunal claim.

7.1 Employees with less than two years' continuous service may be dismissed without a right to claim unfair dismissal.

9.3 Where an employee will not agree to a variation of terms, the company may dismiss and offer re-engagement on the revised contract.

Five clauses. Every one of them was correct when somebody wrote it, and every one of them is now a manager acting on the wrong rule.

Why this is worth doing now

A change in the law only matters if somebody acts on it, and the place these disputes end up has stopped being a distant possibility. Receipts have outrun disposals for more than a year.

From 1 October the window for bringing a claim doubles. A dismissal handled badly this autumn stays live well into next year, by which time the manager who made the decision has often left.

The useful figure is the last one. Most disputes that could join that queue never join it, and what separates the ones that stop is almost never the strength of the case. It is what was done in the first week.

Ministry of Justice, Tribunal Statistics Quarterly, April to June 2026. Acas, early conciliation and employment tribunal cases data, October to December 2024.

0

open tribunal single claims, end of June 2026, up 51% on the year

0

single claims received in the quarter, against 6,100 disposed of

0%

of Acas early conciliations never became a tribunal claim

And this is what that looks like

The handbook is the rule. This is the consequence: a dismissal letter written in March 2027, by a manager working from the version of the rules they were taught. Composite again, and nothing in it is unusual.

Specimen, composite, not a client document

Bramwell Fabrication Ltd

4 March 2027

Dear Michael,

Further to our conversation last Thursday, I am writing to confirm that I have decided to terminate your employment with immediate effect.

As discussed informally, your conduct and general attitude have been unacceptable for some time and the situation cannot continue.

Your final salary will be paid at the end of the month. Please return your keys and laptop to reception.

As you have been with us for under two years there is no right of appeal.

Yours sincerely
A. Bramwell
Managing Director

None of those five were decided by a lawyer. They were decided by a manager, on a Thursday, with nobody to ring.

We can go through yours

Contracts, handbook, disciplinary and grievance procedure, and the last three exits. You get back a marked-up set and a short list in priority order, which is the only part most people read. It takes about a fortnight.

Contact us