Legislation update: Employment Rights Act 2025

What's changing and when

The Employment Rights Act 2025 represents a major overhaul of employment law in Great Britain. The Act introduces a range of new rights and protections for workers, with changes being phased in from Royal Assent in December 2025 through to 2027. Northern Ireland has its own employment law, so most of these changes do not apply there.

Below, we summarise the key changes and the dates by which employers need to be prepared. The dates come from the government's implementation timetable, last updated on 22 October 2026, and future dates may still change.

Unfair dismissal: six months' service (from 1 January 2027)

Currently, employees must have two years of continuous service before they can bring an unfair dismissal claim. Section 25 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 cuts this qualifying period to six months, and removes the cap on the compensatory award, where the effective date of termination is on or after 1 January 2027. Until then, the two-year qualifying period still applies.

This change will have significant implications for recruitment, onboarding, and performance management processes. Employers should review their contracts of employment, probation policies, and dismissal procedures before 1 January 2027.

Flexible working (expected in October 2027)

The right to request flexible working became a day-one right in April 2024. The Employment Rights Act 2025 goes further. Employers can already refuse a request only on one of the business grounds the law lists, such as the burden of extra costs or an effect on meeting customer demand. Once section 9 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 is in force, it will also have to be reasonable to refuse on that ground, and a refusal will have to say why.

Employers should review their flexible working policies and ensure that line managers are trained to consider flexible working requests fairly and consistently.

Zero-hours contracts (timing to be confirmed)

The Act introduces new rights for workers on zero-hours contracts, including the right to be offered guaranteed hours after a reference period, whose length will be set in regulations. Workers will be able to turn the offer down if they prefer to stay on a zero-hours contract. The government says the timing will be confirmed after consultation.

Employers who rely on zero-hours workers should begin reviewing their workforce planning and contracts now, in anticipation of these changes.

Redundancy and fire and rehire

Since 6 April 2026, the maximum period of the protective award for failing to consult on collective redundancies has doubled, from 90 to 180 days. The Act also extends the duty to consult collectively, so that it can be triggered by a threshold number of redundancies proposed across the business within 90 days, to be set in regulations, as well as by 20 or more at one establishment; the government expects this in April 2027. The government also expects that, from March 2027, dismissing an employee because they would not agree to certain changes to their contract, or so that they or someone else can be employed on terms that include such a change, will be automatically unfair. There will be a narrow exception where the employer shows the change was needed to deal with financial difficulties threatening its ability to carry on as a going concern and could not reasonably have been avoided; even then, a tribunal still decides whether the dismissal was fair.

Statutory sick pay (since 6 April 2026)

The waiting period for statutory sick pay (SSP) has been removed, so SSP is now payable from the first full working day an employee is off sick, instead of the fourth. The lower earnings limit for SSP eligibility has also been removed. Both changes apply in Northern Ireland too.

Employers should review their sick pay policies and absence management procedures in light of these changes.

Next steps

The Employment Rights Act 2025 requires employers to take a proactive approach to reviewing and updating their HR policies, employment contracts, and management practices. Our HR consultant is here to support you through these changes. Get in touch today to arrange a review of your employment documentation and practices.