The Employment Rights Bill is expected to become law later in 2025. A few changes are expected to happen in 2025, but most changes will happen in 2026 and 2027.
The Bill is currently going through parliament. It may have further changes added before becoming law.
Due to the recent Parliamentary re-shuffle, there is some uncertainty on the timings and extent of the changes, however, we’ve summarised below some of the potential changes being considered.
APRIL 2026
Paternity leave and unpaid parental leave
Paternity leave and ordinary unpaid parental leave are expected to become ‘day one rights’ – allowing someone to give notice to take leave from their first day in a new job (currently 26 weeks’ employment is required)
Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)
Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) will be paid from the first day of illness, instead of the fourth day and the lower earnings limit will be removed – currently, workers must earn a minimum amount to be eligible for statutory sick pay
Whistleblowing protections for sexual harassment
Sexual harassment is expected to become a ‘qualifying disclosure’ under whistleblowing law. This will mean protection from detriment and unfair dismissal for whistleblowers making a sexual harassment disclosure.
October 2026
Dismissal and rehire
Dismissing someone then rehiring them on worse terms and conditions is expected to become an automatically unfair dismissal in most cases. This is sometimes known as ‘fire and rehire’.
Harassment
A new duty for employers to prevent harassment from third parties, for example customers or clients. Employers needing to take ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment – current law says ‘reasonable’ steps.
Employment tribunal time limits
Time limits for making a claim to an employment tribunal are expected to increase to 6 months for all claims. The current time limit for most claims is 3 months.
2027 Proposed Changes
Unfair dismissal day one right
It’s expected that protection from unfair dismissal will become a right from the first day of employment. Currently, someone must have worked for their employer for 2 years before they can claim unfair dismissal.
Collective redundancy
Employers will need to consider the total number of redundancies across their whole organisation, not just individual workplaces – currently, collective redundancy rules only apply to individual workplaces. Increased collective redundancy protection for workers on ships that regularly operate from British ports but are registered outside Great Britain.
