Employment Rights Act 2025: What Has Changed and When

The Employment Rights Act 2025 is the most significant overhaul of UK employment law since the Employment Rights Act 1996. It received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025, and it covers a wide range of areas - from unfair dismissal protection and zero-hours contracts to statutory sick pay, parental leave, and trade union rights.

This guide explains the main changes, when they are expected to come into force, and what they mean in practice for workers and employers. One thing to understand before reading further: Royal Assent and commencement are different things. Most provisions in the Act require separate commencement regulations before they take effect. Throughout this guide, commencement dates are noted as expected or anticipated where they have not yet been confirmed in regulations. Always check GOV.UK and ACAS for the current position before relying on a new right.

What the Employment Rights Act 2025 Does

The Act makes substantial amendments to the existing framework of employment law. It does not replace the Employment Rights Act 1996 or the Equality Act 2010 - it amends them and introduces new standalone provisions. The changes are being implemented in stages, with different provisions having different commencement dates.

The government described this as part of a broader "Plan to Make Work Pay" agenda. The practical effect is a range of new rights and obligations that workers and employers need to understand as they are brought into force one by one.

Unfair Dismissal: The Qualifying Period

One of the most significant changes in the Act concerns unfair dismissal protection. Under the current law, a worker must have been employed for 2 years before they can bring an ordinary unfair dismissal claim. The Employment Rights Act 2025 is expected to change this substantially.

The Act introduces a new framework designed to give workers meaningful protection from the start of employment. The position is more nuanced than headlines often suggest. Rather than simply abolishing the qualifying period, the Act introduces a concept of a statutory initial period - sometimes referred to as a statutory probationary period - during which a fair dismissal procedure is required but the threshold is adjusted to reflect the early stage of the employment relationship.

This change is expected to apply to new hires from around April 2026, subject to commencement regulations. That date relates to new starters, not to workers already employed. A worker employed today under the current system will need to check whether the commencement date has passed and whether the transitional provisions affect their position.

If you were dismissed before the commencement date, the existing 2-year rule governs your position. If you do not currently have 2 years' service, it is worth considering whether you have any discrimination or other statutory claim that does not require 2 years' service - those rights are unaffected by this change. See the unfair dismissal guide for detail on how the existing claim works.

The detail of how the initial period will operate - including what steps an employer must take before dismissing during it - will be set out in secondary legislation and ACAS guidance. That guidance had not been finalised at the time this article was written. Workers and employers should monitor ACAS updates closely as commencement approaches.

Zero-Hours and Low-Hours Contracts

The Act introduces new rights for workers on zero-hours and low-hours contracts. Existing law gave these workers very limited protection. An employer could keep someone on a zero-hours contract indefinitely, even where that worker was regularly working consistent hours every week, with no obligation to offer a stable arrangement.

Under the new framework, after a qualifying reference period a worker will have the right to be offered a contract that reflects the hours they are genuinely working. The employer must make this offer. A worker who prefers to remain on a flexible arrangement may be able to agree that with the employer - but the default position will shift in the worker's favour.

The length of the reference period and the precise mechanics of the right will be set out in regulations. The government has indicated that commencement for these provisions is expected during 2026. Until commencement regulations are in force, the existing position applies. This reform is most likely to affect workers in hospitality, retail, social care, and other sectors where zero-hours arrangements have historically been most prevalent.

Fire and Rehire

Fire and rehire - where an employer dismisses an employee and immediately offers to re-engage them, but on worse contractual terms - became a major public controversy following several high-profile industrial disputes. Employers used it as a mechanism to impose pay cuts or worsen conditions that employees had refused to accept through negotiation.

The Employment Rights Act 2025 addresses this directly. Under the new law, a dismissal carried out for the purpose of replacing the employee on worse contractual terms will be treated as automatically unfair dismissal in most cases. The employer has a defence only if they can show that the contractual change was genuinely necessary because the employer was facing, or was trying to avoid, financial difficulties serious enough to threaten the viability of the business - and that the dismissal was a proportionate response.

This is a demanding bar. A desire to reduce costs, improve margins, or respond to competitive pressure is not sufficient on its own. The employer must demonstrate genuine financial distress of sufficient severity to threaten the business's survival. These provisions replace the statutory code that previously governed fire and rehire, and give affected employees a materially stronger basis to bring a tribunal claim.

Statutory Sick Pay

The Employment Rights Act 2025 makes two changes to statutory sick pay (SSP). Both represent meaningful improvements, particularly for lower-paid workers.

The first change removes the 3-day waiting period. Under the current rules, SSP does not begin until the fourth day of sickness absence. Those first 3 days are unpaid for most employees. The Act abolishes the waiting period so that SSP is payable from the first qualifying day of absence.

The second change removes the lower earnings limit. Under the current system, a worker must earn at least a minimum threshold - the lower earnings limit for National Insurance purposes - to qualify for SSP at all. Workers earning below that threshold, often those in part-time or lower-paid roles, receive nothing when they are sick. The Act removes that threshold, extending SSP eligibility to workers regardless of their earnings level.

Both changes are expected to come into force in 2026, subject to commencement regulations. Until then, the existing rules apply and SSP remains payable only from day four for workers earning above the lower earnings limit.

Parental and Bereavement Leave

The Act makes several changes to parental leave rights, building on earlier reforms and completing the implementation of provisions introduced by the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023.

Parents of babies who require neonatal care will have enhanced rights to leave and statutory pay, allowing them to be present during that care without facing a choice between their job and their baby. These provisions are being brought fully into force as part of the broader package of changes.

On paternity leave, the Act introduces greater flexibility in how and when leave can be taken. The rigid rules around timing and notice that currently apply - which often mean fathers and partners cannot take leave at the point when it is most practically useful - are being eased to give more genuine flexibility.

Trade Union and Collective Rights

The Act makes changes to trade union rights and collective employment law. These provisions have more direct impact on the relationship between employers and unions than on most individual workers day to day, but they form part of the broader landscape within which workplace disputes develop.

The Act simplifies the statutory trade union recognition procedure, making it somewhat easier for unions to seek and obtain recognition in workplaces where a majority of workers support it. New rights of access for union officials allow them to enter workplaces to recruit members and meet with workers without the previous restrictions.

The Act also makes changes to the regulation of industrial action, including to notice requirements and balloting procedures. These changes are expected to increase the practical ability of unions to take lawful strike action.

What This Means in Practice

The most important practical point is that these changes are arriving in stages. A right that appears in the Act text may not yet be in force. If you are dealing with an employment dispute right now, the question is which version of the law applied at the time the events happened.

If your dismissal or other treatment occurred before a provision came into force, that provision cannot help you. The law in force at the relevant time governs your position. This is especially important for the unfair dismissal qualifying period change. Workers dismissed while employed before the commencement date may not benefit from the new framework in the same way as workers hired after it.

In similar situations, the approach that has worked best is to identify the specific provision you believe applies, verify that commencement regulations have been made, confirm the commencement date has passed, and check that the transitional provisions do not exclude your case. Citing a right in a grievance letter or tribunal claim that has not yet commenced is at best unhelpful and at worst weakens the overall position.

The employment tribunal deadlines guide sets out the procedural steps for bringing a claim. Those procedures are unchanged by the Act.

How to Stay Updated

The provisions with the most immediate practical impact - particularly the unfair dismissal qualifying period and the zero-hours contract rights - are supported by ongoing secondary legislation and ACAS guidance that is being published as each commencement date approaches. Both are evolving rapidly.

GOV.UK publishes commencement orders as they are made under the Act. The ACAS website publishes detailed guidance on each major provision in advance of commencement. Those two sources are the most reliable way to confirm whether a specific right is currently in force and how it applies.

The unfair dismissal guide and redundancy pay guide on this site cover the existing law in detail. Both will be updated as key commencement dates under the Act are confirmed and ACAS guidance becomes available.