United Kingdom: Contract of Employment

Employers face persistent skills shortages even as entry-level opportunities become fewer and more demanding. Yet the experience, confidence and judgement they seek are often developed through the first job itself. As AI reshapes junior work, organisations should treat early-career roles as workforce infrastructure, essential to future skills, knowledge transfer and succession.

The Court of Appeal has issued a significant ruling on training cost repayment clauses in employment contracts, finding that overly broad provisions can be struck down as unreasonable restraints of trade. Employers who require employees to repay training costs upon departure must ensure their clauses are proportionate, fair, and genuinely protect legitimate business interests rather than simply discourage staff mobility. This judgment serves as a critical reminder to review existing contractual provisions,

The UK Government has been publishing responses to its consultations and draft regulations in anticipation of the upcoming reforms. This article provides an overview of the latest draft documents addressing upcoming changes.

The UK Government has published plans to implement significant restrictions on 'fire and rehire' practices under the Employment Rights Act 2025, with measures expected to take effect on 1 January 2027. These changes will make it automatically unfair to dismiss employees who refuse certain contract variations related to pay, hours, holiday and pension, fundamentally altering employers' ability to force through contractual amendments.

The Employment Rights Act introduces sweeping changes to UK employment law, from reducing unfair dismissal qualifying periods to strengthening trade union rights and banning exploitative practices. This comprehensive dashboard breaks down each reform by topic, clarifying current legal positions and what they will become under the Act. With implementation dates ranging from April 2026 through 2027, employers face a transformative period requiring careful preparation across multiple areas of workforce managem

Employers including restrictive covenants in precedent employment contracts may wish to review their applicability during any probationary period subject to short notice.

A job offer marked “subject to” satisfactory references, right to work checks and a probationary period might feel like a holding position, something that binds no one until every box has been ticked. It is a reasonable assumption, and one that employers have often relied upon. But as a recent Employment Appeal Tribunal ruling has made clear, that assumption can also be a costly one.

For many employers, particularly SMEs, the pressure to retain good people is running ahead of what the payroll can support. Salary increases commit a business to ongoing cost, and in a period of squeezed margins and economic uncertainty, that is a commitment many cannot responsibly make. The question, then, is how to keep valued employees engaged and motivated when a pay rise is not the answer.

The Government has now confirmed the timing for the changes to ordinary unfair dismissal law under the Employment Rights Act 2025. Both the removal of the cap on the compensatory award...