Day one unfair dismissal rights will not take effect until 2027 while most key employment law changes will happen in 2026 - according to the government's new roadmap for implementing the Employment Rights Bill.
The Employment Rights Bill is nearing the end of its journey through parliament and is expected to pass soon – possibly before the summer recess or (probably more likely) in early September. Ahead of its passing, the government has just published a roadmap confirming that the measures in the Bill will take effect in phases.
The headline news is that day one unfair dismissal rights will take effect in 2027, not Autumn 2026 as the government first indicated. Most other changes will take place in April or October 2026, with a limited number of trade union-related reforms happening this year.
Timeline for changes
According to the roadmap, here is the government's current view of when key changes will happen:
2025
- Repeal of the need for minimum service levels during strikes
- Repeal of most of the Trade Union Act 2016, which would roll back almost all of the restrictions on calling strike action introduced by Conservative-led governments since 2010
- Stronger protections against being dismissed for taking industrial action (this looks to have been brought forward, in contrast to many other measures which have been pushed back)
- Simplification of industrial action notices
April 2026
- Doubled protective award for breach of collective redundancy consultation requirements (from 90 to 180 days' pay)
- A day one right to paternity leave and unpaid parental leave (scrapping existing service requirements)
- Making statutory sick pay available to low earners and scrapping the waiting period so that it is payable from the first day of sickness absence.
- Fair Work Agency body established (although it is not clear when it will be fully up and running)
- Changes to trade union recognition rules
October 2026
- Ban on "fire and rehire" (except in limited circumstances)
- Rights for trade unions to access workplaces
- Upping the requirement on employers to prevent sexual harassment to "all" reasonable steps (not just reasonable steps)
- Employers to be held liable if employees are harassed by third parties
2027
- A 'day one' right for employees not to be unfairly dismissed
- Change to the trigger for collective redundancy consultation requirements
- Regulation of umbrella companies
- New guaranteed hours offer for zero- and low-hours employees and agency workers
- Stronger rights to request flexible working
- Gender pay gap and menopause action plans (introduced on a voluntary basis in April 2026)
- Rules restricting dismissal of pregnant workers
- New statutory right to bereavement leave
- Further regulations about harassment
For full details of the changes and their expected implementation date, visit our Employment Rights Bill dashboard which we are keeping up to date with all latest developments.
Practical impact on employers
It is helpful to have a timetable and the sequence in which the measures will take effect. It's also re-assuring to have confirmation that (for most businesses) very few changes will take effect in 2025. If you are facing potential industrial action, then you'll need to keep a close eye on the trade union-related measures which are being front-loaded. For most employers, however, there will be little legislative change in 2025.
The government will be keen to claim some quick wins in 2026 (reforms to sick pay, day one paternity leave, the fire and re-hire ban and tougher harassment laws) but the biggest changes (including the introduction of day one unfair dismissal rights) have been pushed back to 2027. This will come as a relief to many employers currently battling difficult trading conditions.
If you are considering redundancies or restructuring, then it's a mixed picture. The doubling of the protective award for failing to carry out collective consultation is set to be one of the earliest changes to take effect - in April 2026 - making it harder to buy out or ignore collective consultation requirements from that date. Restrictions on fire and rehire will come into force in October 2026, giving you over one year in which to make contract changes under the current legal regime (which is already heavily regulated and a sensitive area). However – and as a further concession to employers on top of delayed day one unfair dismissal rights - the change to the trigger for collective redundancy consultation (in other words the additional test to apply alongside the current 20-redundancies-at-one-establishment-within-90-days test) is not slated to take effect until 2027.
Delaying implementation of the biggest measures until 2027 also gives the government a window of opportunity to address the extreme delays in the employment tribunal system before more tribunal claims are generated by those measures. The roadmap states that the government is committed to "ensuring the enforcement landscape has the necessary capacity and capability to uphold the new requirements" but without significant extra funding it is hard to see how that is going to be achieved.
While there will be little legislative change in 2025, the government is launching some weighty consultations including, for example, consultations on day one unfair dismissal rights and the guaranteed hours regime. The consultations should start to answer some of the key outstanding questions including, for example, what the new "light touch procedure" for dismissals in the early months of employment will actually involve (i.e. just a letter, or a letter and a meeting) and how many hours will need to be guaranteed to lift a worker out of the new guaranteed hours regime. The upcoming consultations will be a crucial opportunity to shape the future of employment law, so don't breathe too big a sigh of relief about the timetable, as HR professionals and employment lawyers still have a busy year ahead.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
