On 10 October 2024, the Labour Government introduced The Employment Rights Bill (‘ERB’). The ERB received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025 becoming the Employment Rights Act 2025.
This was the Government’s first step in delivering its plan to ‘Make Work Pay’ and, as promised, it was introduced within 100 days of the new Government being formed.
Since its introduction, there has been much talk of the raft of new changes aimed at increasing worker protections and ‘cracking down’ on poor employment practices.
We understand that the changes have not been easy to keep up with and, with so many being proposed, employees and employers alike may feel overwhelmed and unsure of where they currently stand and what comes next.
Over the next two years, we can expect to see those proposals coming into effect and there is no doubt that employers will have to make changes to their ways of working.
To help you get to grips with the lengthy proposals, we have put together some useful guidance on:
- Where we are now;
- What is set to happen next; and
- What this means for you.
Where are we now?
Before a Bill can become law, it must pass through a number of stages within the House of Commons and the House of Lords before finally receiving Royal Assent. The ERB received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025. This is the process where the King formally agreed to make the ERB an Act of Parliament. This means that the ERB has become law and is now known as the Employment Rights Act 2025 (ERA 2025).
What is set to happen next?
Many of the proposed changes still won’t be implemented for some time. This is because, for some of the proposals, the ERB simply gives the Government further powers to set out the detail in regulations, secondary legislation, Codes of Practice and the like.
Before doing so, the Government will continue consulting with stakeholders such as employers, workers, and trade unions on many of the proposals to try and make the interventions work for everyone.
When you can expect to see changes in practice
In July 2025, the Government produced a ‘roadmap’ for delivering its plan to make work pay. This sets out its phased approach to consultation as well as when we can expect to see measures taking effect. On 3 February 2026, the Government published the Government published an updated timeline for the implementation of new rights and reforms under the ERA 2025. There are some changes to the original roadmap, although the plan has remained much the same.
To assist you, we have produced a summary of the proposed timetable with details of the key changes and how they are expected to affect you in practice. This has been updated to reflect the Government’s updated timeline.
Implementing the Employment Rights Bill – The Government’s roadmap for delivering change
On 1 July 2025, the Government published a roadmap outlining its plan for implementing the highly anticipated measures contained within the ERA 2025. The roadmap also provides details of the Government’s plan to engage and consult with employers, workers and trade unions, in line with ensuring business readiness ahead of the reforms coming into force. This was updated on 3 February 2026 with plans for consultations and dates for when new measures will be introduced.
The Government will adopt a phased approach to the commencement of measures to provide stakeholders with sufficient time and certainty to prepare for the changes coming into effect. Whilst many key measures will not be implemented until 2027, the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 was repealed following Royal Assent. Further updates will follow as the Government’s consultation and commencement period develops.
However, in the meantime, we have set out a summary of the estimated implementation timeframe below to assist with any preparatory measures you plan to take. We have also explained what we currently know about the key changes and how they may affect you in practice in each of the blogs (accessed by clicking on the relevant link below).
Timetable for implementation
Measures to take effect at Royal Assent or soon afterwards include:
- Immediate repeal of the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 and the majority of the Trade Union Act 2016 to create a better relationship with unions/prevent the need for strikes
Measures planned to take effect on 18 February 2026 include:
Measures planned to take effect in April 2026 include:
- Doubling the maximum period of the protective award for collective redundancy
- Paternity leave and unpaid parental leave from ‘day 1’ of employment
- Whistleblowing protections
- Fair Work Agency established
- Reducing eligibility requirements for statutory sick pay
- Simplifying the trade union recognition process
Measures planned to take effect in October 2026 include:
- Strengthening rights of access to trade unions
- Tightening tipping law
- Duty on employers to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent (and not permit) sexual harassment of employees by third parties
- Extending employment tribunal time limits
- Extending protections against detriment for taking industrial action
Measures planned to take effect in 2027 include:
- Unfair Dismissal
- Fire and rehire amendments
- Gender pay gap and menopause action plans (introduced on a voluntary basis in April 2026)
- Protection of pregnant workers
- Ending exploitative use of zero-hour contracts, in addition to applying zero-hour contract measures to agency workers
- Bereavement leave
- Collective redundancy and the consultation threshold
- Flexible working
As with the implementation of the measures contained in the ERA 2025, the Government will also take a phased approach to consultation. The Government continues to undertake extensive engagement and consultation on the implementation of the Plan to Make Work Pay and the ERA 2025 to ensure these changes work for both workers, and businesses of all sizes. Following each consultation period, we can expect the Government to publish policy, regulations and guidance ahead of implementation deadlines.
To review the previous timetabling period for the measures and consultation in full read ‘The roadmap for delivering the Government’s Plan to Make Work Pay‘
To review the updated timetable period for the measures and consultation here: ‘Plan to Make Work Pay and Employment Rights Act: timeline update’
To review the Government’s accompanying press release to their original roadmap read ‘Roadmap unveiled to boost rights for half of all UK workers and provide certainty to employers‘
If you would like to discuss any of the points raised in this blog, please contact a member of the Employment team.
We are grateful for the contribution by Rebecca Paterson of Pump Court Chambers.
We publish blogs and social media posts to give a general overview of legal and commercial issues, relevant at the time of publication, which we hope you will find interesting. Please note that legal rules often change depending on the specific facts of a situation. The law also changes over time following changes in legislation or new court cases. We do not actively update our blogs or posts once they are published to reflect changes in the law.
As such, our blogs and posts are not intended to advise you on the law and must not be relied upon as legal advice. If you require advice on a particular issue then please contact us and we will be pleased to help.