Sweeping reforms under the Employment Rights Act 2025 will reshape the workplace in 2026. From day-one parental rights to limits on fire-and-rehire, employers face a year of rapid change. Here’s what matters now – and how to stay ahead.
Published 12 January 2026
Changes under the Employment Rights Act 2025
The Government has proposed wide-ranging reform to employment law under the Employment Rights Act 2025.
The Act was amended several times during its passage through Parliament but finally received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025. However, many of the provisions under the Act require implementing regulations or codes of practice to bring them into force, and these will be subject to a consultation process before being finalised.
So, of the planned changes, which ones will we see being brought in during this year?
February 2026
Certain changes relating to industrial action, such as reducing the amount of information included in a notice of industrial action ballot as well as in the ballot paper, reducing the period for notice of industrial action to 10 days, removing restrictions on picketing and extending industrial action mandates to 12 months, all take effect within two months’ of the Employment Rights Act 2025 receiving Royal Assent without the need for any further consultation.
April 2026
The following changes are currently planned for April:
- the increase in the protective award, the financial penalty for a failure to collectively consult, from 90 to 180 days’ pay
- introduction of day one rights to paternity and unpaid parental leave for eligible employees and allowing paternity leave to be taken after shared parental leave
- providing employees with the right to statutory sick pay (SSP) from the first day of sickness and removing the lower earnings limit for SSP
- providing for protected disclosures for whistleblowing protection to explicitly include disclosures relating to sexual harassment
- various changes to the statutory union recognition process
- provisions for electronic and workplace balloting.
October 2026
Other changes currently planned for later in the year include:
- limitations on the ability to fire and re-hire where an employer is seeking to make a restricted variation to an employee’s contract of employment where the employee does not agree to the variation
- trade unions having a right of access to workplaces both physically and digitally
- new protections for trade union representatives and members
- the new obligation on employers to provide a written statement confirming an employee’s right to join a trade union at the start of employment and at regular intervals thereafter
- a duty on employers to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees and to take all reasonable steps to prevent third-party harassment of their employees
- new restrictions on the use of non-disclosure clauses to prevent a worker from making allegations or disclosures about relevant harassment or discrimination
- extension of the time limit for bringing most tribunal claims to 6 months.
Consultations
Towards the end of 2025, the Government published consultations on the new general entitlement to two weeks of unpaid bereavement leave, electronic balloting and workplace balloting, rights of access for trade unions, the requirement to give a written statement of the right to join a trade union and enhanced dismissal protections for pregnant women and new mothers. The Government’s response to these consultations is expected early in 2026.
We are also expecting consultations on other key provisions, including:
- restrictions on the use of fire and re-hire
- the new trigger for collective consultation based on redundancies across an entire business
- changes to the flexible working regime
- the new right for zero hours and low hours workers to be offered guaranteed hours and reasonable notice of changes to shifts along with compensation for shifts that are cancelled or ended early.
The Government has also pledged to review the parental leave system by July 2025.
National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage (NLW)
From 1 April 2026, the NLW for workers aged 21 and over will rise from £12.21 to £12.71 per hour.
NMW rates will also rise as follows:
- apprentice rate: £8.00 an hour
- 16–17-year-olds: £8.00 an hour
- 18–20-year-olds: £10.85 an hour
- accommodation offset: £11.10 per week
Statutory rates of pay
Statutory rates of pay, such as for statutory sick pay and statutory maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental pay and statutory parental bereavement pay, normally increase in April each year. The DWP has announced that this year the weekly rate of statutory sick pay will increase to £123.25, and the weekly rate of statutory maternity pay, maternity allowance, statutory paternity pay, statutory shared parental pay, statutory adoption pay, statutory neonatal care pay and statutory parental bereavement pay will increase to £194.32. The lower earnings limit will increase to £129 a week but the maternity allowance threshold will remain at £30 a week.
Other developments
Consultation to support the draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill which will introduce mandatory disability and ethnicity pay reporting for employers with 250 or more employees was published last year. The response to the consultation along with a draft Bill are expected this year.
The Government has also indicated an intention to reform non-compete clauses in employment contracts as well as to launch a consultation on employment status, both expected to take place this year.
What is clear is that 2026 will be a busy one for HR, in-house employment lawyers and employers getting to grips with all of these changes. We are working with the CIPD in sponsoring a series of thought-leading articles that focus on navigating the key agendas faced by HR directors and their teams and staying future-focused. Look out for more on this series later this month.