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You will be aware that there have been a number of changes to employment rights brought in under the Employment Rights Act 2025.

Over the next 6 to 12 months, further changes will come into effect. This blog sets out what we know now, however there will undoubtedly be changes, especially to timescales, and some changes are likely to undergo consultation before being finally put in place.

The Act includes a significant number of changes to union membership, balloting and strike action, which we have not included here. If your business is unionised and you want to know more about these changes, please contact us.

October 2026 changes:

Trade union statement

There will be a requirement to include a statement in contracts of employment that employees have a right to join a trade union, the content and form of this statement will be set out in future secondary legislation.

At present, employers don’t need to make further changes to the employment contracts. We’ll keep an eye on this and let you know as soon as the secondary legislation has been published.

Sexual harassment

Employers are already required to take ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment of their employees.

We are expecting updated guidance on what ‘all reasonable steps’ looks like and the government has also indicated that the secondary regulations on this won’t come in until 2027, so we will keep you posted on this.

Employers will also be liable for third party harassment, for example, if a supplier harasses a member of staff.

Employment tribunal time limits

Employment tribunal time limits will be extended from 3 months to 6 months.

This means that an employee will have 6 months from the date of dismissal (or other act) to start ACAS early conciliation, ACAS early conciliation was extended to 12 weeks in December 2025. You don’t need to change anything to respond to this. With tribunals being overburdened with claims this means it could take in excess of nine months before you are aware of a claim against you.

January 2027 changes:

These changes are currently scheduled for implementation in 2027.

Qualifying period

The qualifying period to bring an ordinary unfair dismissal claim will be reduced to 6 months. At the moment, employees need to have two complete years’ service to bring an unfair dismissal claim. This is one of the most well-known changes brought by the Employment Rights Act. The qualifying period was originally meant to be removed altogether and replaced with a lighter procedure during an initial period.

Statutory Compensation Cap

The statutory cap on unfair dismissal compensation is also being lifted. The cap is currently the lower of £123,543 or 52 weeks’ actual gross pay.

The method of calculating compensation is unchanged. Although this change looks concerning, the awards for compensation are generally much lower than the cap, so the removal of the cap will not make a significant difference in most cases.

It is likely to encourage the very highly remunerated employees to bring claims in the employment tribunal in circumstances where in the past, because of the cap, there was little incentive to do so.

Fire and rehire

Restrictions on fire and rehire will come into place. This is where employers serve notice to terminate an employee’s employment and then offer to re-engage them on different, typically worse, terms. The legislation as currently drafted is far more wide- ranging than it seems and may seriously affect the ability to make changes to employment contracts. See our previous blog here.

This part of the ACT was meant to be implemented in October 2026 but has now been pushed back to January 2027.

Further proposed changes in 2027 – no timescale currently

While we will try to be as accurate as possible regarding implementation, the need for secondary legislation means that timescales are not quite set in stone.

Collective consultation

There is a new threshold test for collective consultation for redundancy. If you are considering making redundancies please get in touch, as the provisions regarding collective consultation are already quite complex.

Flexible working

It is proposed to change flexible working arrangements so that a refusal must be reasonable. You must state the grounds you rely on for the refusal and why it is reasonable.

This doesn’t change the flexible working policy, but it does mean that if you receive and refuse a request for flexible working, you will have to explain why.

The grounds for refusal have been set out in the flexible working legislation for years and you are not obliged to accept any flexible working application. The change just means that you need to explain which ground you rely on and why it is reasonable.

Bereavement leave

It is intended to introduce a new right to at least one week’s bereavement leave on the death of a loved one. Once the specific details are available, employers should revisit and revise their staff handbooks to account for this change.

Dismissals during pregnancy

We expect to see regulations potentially banning dismissals during pregnancy, maternity leave or for a fixed period following return to work from maternity, other than for specified reasons.

This protection may apply to other forms of family leave. Although the consultation has closed and you can read the consultation, there will need to be regulations to set out what this will look like. We will keep you posted as details come through.

Non-disclosure agreements

There will be a change in the law around the use of non disclosure agreements to prevent employees from speaking out about work-related harassment and discrimination.

When implemented this change may have a considerable impact on the employer’s willingness to settle discrimination claims. One of the main reasons an employer may want to settle such claims is to be able to turn the page and kill the negative buzz. When a claim is meritless in the eyes of the employer, it may make more sense for the employer to fight and win the claim rather than settling it and risking a negative campaign from the disgruntled employee.

Duty to offer guaranteed hours

Coming from the principle of fighting against the abuse of zero hours contracts, this new right is proving far more complex than initially envisaged. The principle is that employers of staff under zero hours contracts or low hours contracts will have to offer guaranteed hours to these staff. There is a consultation on many aspects of the legislation such as the minimum hours this right will apply to, the reference period, how often will the employer have to make this offer of guaranteed hours, how will seasonal work be excluded and defined and even what will be the remedy for failure to offer these hours.

Duty to provide reasonable notice of shifts and compensation for cancelled, moved of curtail shifts.

This is also a right for zero hour or low-hour workers. It will apply to workers as well as agency workers. Again, regulations will be needed to define who this right will apply to.

As the changes rumble through consultation, secondary legislation and guidance, we will give you updates and we will also focus on the changes as they happen.

For more specific information or to discuss your requirements please call either Amanda Galashan or Julie Calleux at Employease on 03339398741 or email us at info@employease.co.uk. This note does not constitute legal advice on any particular situation you may have.

Copyright: Employease 2026

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