Employment Rights Act 2025: Where We Are Now, What's Coming, and What We're Learning
If you've been following our updates over the past six months, you'll know the Employment Rights Act 2025 has been dominating conversations in every boardroom, staff kitchen, and HR inbox across the country. Now that several waves of change have actually landed, it feels like the right moment to take stock: what's already in force, what's still ahead, and what we're learning as businesses start living with the new rules.
Where we are now
The Act received Royal Assent back in December 2025, and since then it's been rolling out in stages rather than arriving all at once. That's been deliberate — the government wanted to give employers time to prepare rather than facing a single cliff-edge of change.
Here's what's already live:
Statutory Sick Pay from day one — since April 2026, employees have been entitled to SSP from their first day of illness, with the old waiting period gone.
Day-one parental and paternity leave rights — also from April 2026.
The Fair Work Agency — the new enforcement body launched its soft launch in April 2026, bringing together several existing enforcement functions. It's not sitting idle either — it's already secured its first prosecution, against an individual supplying workers without the correct licensing.
Trade union balloting reform — electronic and workplace balloting became available from 25 August 2026, alongside other changes to union rules.
So the first waves have already reshaped some day-to-day realities for employers, even if the headline-grabbing changes are still ahead of us.
What's coming up
This is where it gets urgent for a lot of the businesses we work with.
From late October 2026:
The employer duty to prevent sexual harassment is being strengthened — moving to a requirement to take "all" reasonable steps, not just "reasonable" ones.
A brand new duty to prevent harassment of employees by third parties comes into force. This is a meaningful shift: for the first time, employers will need to think proactively about protecting staff from customers, clients, and other third parties, not just colleagues.
The employment tribunal claim time limit extends from three months to six months, giving employees significantly longer to bring a claim.
From 1 January 2027:
The unfair dismissal qualifying period drops from two years to six months. This applies to employees with six months' service on or after that date, meaning anyone starting a role from 1 July 2026 onwards will build up protection under the new rules.
The statutory cap on unfair dismissal compensation is removed entirely.
Fire and rehire practices become heavily restricted. This one has actually moved — it was originally due in October 2026 but has been pushed back to land alongside the unfair dismissal changes in January 2027, giving it real teeth.
That January 2027 wave is the big one. Three major changes landing at once means the practical impact — on probation processes, performance management, and how businesses handle contract variations — is going to be significant.
What we're learning from the rollout so far
A few themes have emerged as businesses start putting these changes into practice:
Probation and performance management need to tighten up now, not later. With six months' service being the new trigger point for unfair dismissal protection, businesses that haven't traditionally been rigorous about documenting performance during probation are having to build that discipline quickly. Waiting until January 2027 to think about this will be too late — anyone hired from July 2026 is already on the clock.
"All reasonable steps" is a genuinely higher bar. The shift in the sexual harassment duty isn't just a wording tweak. It requires more thought and depth than businesses may have applied previously — a documented policy alone won't be enough. The same goes for the new third-party harassment duty, which asks employers to think about risks from people who aren't even their own staff.
Employment tribunals are watching disability knowledge closely. A recent Employment Appeal Tribunal decision highlighted how much can count towards an employer's "knowledge" of an employee's disability — including occupational health reports, information from the employee, and even common public knowledge about a condition. It's a useful reminder that disability discrimination risk doesn't only arise from what's written down; it can come from what an employer reasonably ought to have known.
Consultation season is in full swing. Several government consultations are currently open, covering areas like zero-hours contract reform, holiday pay enforcement, and workplace monitoring technologies. Acas has also launched a consultation on a revised Code of Practice for disciplinary and grievance procedures, with more emphasis on informal resolution. These will shape the detail of how several ERA 2025 provisions actually operate in practice, so it's worth keeping an eye on outcomes over the coming months.
Why this matters for growing businesses
We know the temptation with legislation like this is to wait until it's actually in force before doing anything about it. But the businesses coming through this well are the ones treating each wave as advance notice rather than a deadline — reviewing contracts, refreshing probation processes, and training managers before the rules bite, not after.
Meanwhile: tribunal time limits double in October. The unfair dismissal qualifying period drops to six months in January. The compensation cap disappears entirely. And ACAS is planning to rewrite the Disciplinary and Grievance Code for the first time since 2009.
None of that means you're heading for a tribunal.
It means the margin for getting the ordinary things wrong has narrowed considerably, and it's more important than ever to ensure you have great HR practices in place.
We’ll be running some workshops over the next few months, so keep an eye out for the details. They will be in-person, practical, no jargon, built for businesses without a full HR function.
Want to talk through what this means for your business specifically? Get in touch to start a conversation.
