Employment Rights Act 2025: your new rights

Statutory sick pay (SSP) is the minimum amount of sick pay an employer must pay their workers when they are off work due to illness or injury. It is currently the lesser of £123.25 per week or 80% of average earnings, and can be paid for up to 28 weeks. Two major changes to SSP took place from 6 April 2026.

Day one sick pay. Workers are now entitled to SSP from their first day of sick leave. Previously, workers could only claim SSP from their fourth day off work. 

No lower earnings limit. All workers are now entitled to SSP, regardless of income. Previously, workers only qualified for SSP if they could prove they earned £125 a week in a qualifying period.

Workers are eligible for certain types of family-related leave, including Statutory Paternity Leave for partners of new mothers and unpaid parental leave, to spend more time with their children. These are now rights from day one of work. 

Statutory paternity leave from day one. Fathers, partners of new mothers, adoptive parents and intended parents (if there are surrogacy arrangements) are all eligible for either one or two full weeks of Statutory Paternity Leave. Previously, a worker had to be employed for at least 26 weeks up until the 15th week before the baby’s due date in most cases. This has now been removed, making statutory paternity leave a day one right.

Unpaid parental leave from day one. Previously, one year of service was required to become eligible - this is now a day one right. Workers are entitled to 18 weeks of unpaid parental leave (for things like finding a new school) for each child, which must be taken before the child’s 18th birthday. This entitlement applies across different employers, so if a worker took 10 weeks with one employer, they will have no more than eight weeks left to take with all other employers.

From 6 April 2026, whistleblowing legislation will be expanded to explicitly include reports of sexual harassment. The change is designed to encourage and protect workers to disclose sexual harassment that “has occurred, is occurring or is likely to occur”, meaning that any worker who reports past, ongoing, or likely future sexual harassment will receive protection as a whistleblower. 

For more information on how to make a protected disclosure, take a look at these guides from Acas or Protect. 

What is whistleblowing?

Whistleblowing is when someone reports wrongdoing in the workplace to their employer or an external body. This report is called a protected disclosure if the worker makes the report in the public interest - their motivation must be because the issue affects other people and not just them. 

There are a limited number of issues that qualify as a protected disclosure - complaining about unpaid wages or a redundancy process does not qualify as a protected disclosure, but breaches of health and safety, or a criminal offence, would.  Now, complaining about sexual harassment also qualifies as a protected disclosure.  

How are whistleblowers protected under the law?

Whistleblowing legislation does two things: 

• It offers workers protection against retaliation from their employer, such as harassment, unfavourable treatment or a change in the terms of their employment.

• It makes the dismissal of a worker who blew the whistle unlawful, no matter the duration of their employment. This is called automatically unfair dismissal. Only those with “employee” status are protected in this way (check your employment status). If you are a worker, you may be able to claim your dismissal as a detriment.  

Until now, employment rights in the UK were enforced by several government bodies. This made it very confusing for workers. From 7 April 2026, there will be a new single enforcement body called the Fair Work Agency that will be responsible for enforcing workers’ rights protections.

It merges the HMRC National Minimum Wage Team, Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA), and the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate (EASI), which will individually cease to exist.

Workers can contact the Fair Work Agency, while pursuing a claim in the Employment Tribunal for the same issues.

What can the Fair Work Agency help with?

Initially, the Fair Work Agency will only be able to help with issues related to:

• The National Minimum Wage

• Agency workers’ rights

• Modern slavery and serious labour exploitation

• Exploitation in agriculture

This list may expand in the future, but for now, most other breaches of employment rights will have to be addressed by putting in an Employment Tribunal claim.

How quickly will the Fair Work Agency deal with my issue?

The Fair Work Agency has published timeframes for dealing with complaints it receives. It should:

• Acknowledge all complaints within five working days

• Resolve all complaints within six weeks

• Provide updates every six weeks if a complaint takes longer than six weeks to resolve

How do I contact the Fair Work Agency?

• Phone - 0345 161 6000, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm (except public holidays)

• Email - contact@fairworkagency.gov.uk

• Reporting an issue about pay using this complaint form

• Report an issue about serious exploitation or modern slavery using this complaint form

The time limit for bringing a claim to the Employment Tribunal is being extended to six months for all claims. This has doubled the previous time limit of three months, which left workers with little time to seek advice, prepare their claims and submit them. 

How do time limits work?

Workers will have six months from the incident (or the last of a series of incidents), such as non-payment of wages, or from when the employment ended, to file their claim with Acas.

If you are bringing multiple claims, these may have different deadlines: a claim for unfair dismissal and religious discrimination will mean the deadline for the unfair dismissal claim will be six months after the last day of employment, and the claim for religious discrimination will be six months after the discriminatory incident took place. 

How to file an employment tribunal claim:

1. Notify Acas about your intention to make a claim, within the six-month deadline. Acas will facilitate mediation to try to reach an agreement between you and your employer without resorting to legal action. 

2. If a resolution cannot be reached, Acas will issue you with a certificate that allows you to take your case to the employment tribunal. From the date on the Acas certificate, you will have at least one month to submit your employment tribunal claim.

What if I was exploited more than six months ago?

The deadline for submitting a claim to the Employment Tribunal is strict. In exceptional cases, the Tribunal may grant an extension of time to allow late claims, but we recommend that you seek legal advice before submitting a late claim.

The Employment Rights Act will strengthen existing measures on sexual harassment (or harassment due to any of the protected characteristics), harassment by third parties (including clients, customers, suppliers, or members of the public), or less favourable treatment as a result of harassment. Employers who fail to protect a worker from harassment, could face an employment tribunal claim. 

How will workers be better protected from sexual harassment?

Employers have a proactive duty to take “reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace, but from October 2026, employers will be required to take “all reasonable steps”. However, what these reasonable steps will entail is yet to be announced, and likely to arrive in 2027.

Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) that have been used to silence victims of sexual harassment or discrimination will be made void. We are yet to find out the details of this measure, and when it will be introduced, as it is subject to consultation.

The Employment Rights Act will require employers to consult with workers on how tips should be distributed. Specifically, it introduces “new requirements for employers to consult with workers at their place of business when developing or reviewing their tipping policies.” 

This builds on previous legislation, the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023, which mandated employers to distribute tips, gratuities and service charges among staff in full. This applies to all payments that employers have control or significant influence over. Employers must have a policy about their distribution and keep relevant records.

Wages in the adult social care sector are very low, affecting staff recruitment and retention. The government hopes to address this by instituting a Fair Pay Agreement for adult social care in England to establish minimum terms of employment, working hours, and wages.

When will employment conditions be improved?

The Fair Pay Agreement will not be implemented before 2028. A negotiating body of experts, who will decide what the new, improved terms of employment in the sector will be, is expected to be established in October 2026.

Workers with the legal status “employee” (check your status here) are protected from unfair dismissal if they have worked for the employer continuously for two years. This means employers must have a potentially fair reason and follow a fair process if they want to dismiss someone.

From 1 January 2027, employees will receive protection from unfair dismissal after six months continuous employment, reduced from two years under previous rules. 

Protection from constructive unfair dismissal  

After six months’ continuous employment (instead of the current two years), employees will also become entitled to claim constructive unfair dismissal. This is where the employee resigns because of a serious breach of contract on the part of the employer. For example, this may include regularly not paying the correct wages without a good reason, or the employer taking no action on allegations of workplace harassment or bullying.  If you think you might have a constructive unfair dismissal claim, you should seek legal advice before you resign. 

A reminder about automatically unfair dismissal protections

Employees can claim automatically unfair dismissal no matter how long they have worked for their employer. This can be claimed where the reason for dismissal is a prohibited reason, for example because the employee asserted a statutory right, made a protected disclosure (blew the whistle), or acted as a trade union representative.

Fire and rehire is used by employers to change the terms of employment (usually making them worse) without the workers’ agreement.

This is done by: 

• Firing the worker and rehiring them on worse terms

• Firing the worker and hiring someone else to do the role with worse terms

What is changing?

From 1 January 2027, fire and rehire will become unlawful in most cases, unless there are serious financial circumstances allowing the employer to act this way. The exact circumstances that allow this fire and rehire are being consulted on and are not yet defined.

Dismissing a worker in this way will become a ground for claiming automatically unfair dismissal. Effectively, it is a day one protection for workers, no matter how long they’ve worked for their employer.

What are the changes to terms of employment that would be unlawful?

There are eight ways an employer can change the terms of employment (also called restricted variations) that would be unlawful, including reductions in pay, changes to contractual hours, and changes to pensions. There is an ongoing consultation on whether employment expenses, benefits and changes to shift patterns will be restricted variations.

For many workers on zero-hour contracts, the reality of their working week does not match what it says on their employment contract. The Employment Rights Act will give qualifying workers, on zero or low-hours contracts, a day one right to have contracts of employment that reflect the hours they actually do. It is yet to be defined who will count as “qualifying workers”.

How is the law changing?

From some point in 2027, employers will need to offer each qualifying worker guaranteed hours of work, which reflect the actual hours that the worker regularly does. To calculate these hours, the employer will need to consider a worker’s working pattern over a reference period, most likely 12 weeks (yet to be confirmed in regulations). This will mean that every 12 weeks, counting from the first day of employment, employers will need to make “qualifying workers” offers of guaranteed hours. 

Can I stay on a zero or minimum hours contract if I want the flexibility?

Absolutely - workers are not obliged to accept the offers of guaranteed hours. But, if they do accept, their employer must change the contractual terms of employment to reflect the guaranteed hours.

Are there any exceptions?

Forthcoming regulations will carve out exceptions for when employers will not have to provide guaranteed contractual hours of work. These will be particular business reasons (for example, if the job is temporary) that make offering guaranteed hours unfeasible.

Agency workers - who is my employer?

If an agency is hired to work regular hours for a specific company, the duty is on the company (rather than the agency) to make a guaranteed hours offer. If an agency worker accepts an offer of guaranteed hours of work, they will become a “worker” (not an “employee”) of the end hirer. This means they will no longer have an employment relationship with the agency. 

Currently, employers can sign workers up for shifts, cancel shifts, or make changes to shifts with very little notice. From some point in 2027, the Employment Rights Act will give workers a day one right to get reasonable notice if any of these things happen. Workers will also have a right to compensation, where a shift is cancelled, moved or curtailed without reasonable notice. Any exceptions will be defined in the future.

Reasonable notice is yet to be defined in regulations. If a worker does not get reasonable notice or does not get associated compensation, they can make a claim in the Employment Tribunal.

Workers with the legal status “employee” (check your status here) already have a day one right to make a flexible working request, but the new legislation will make it harder for employers to unreasonably reject a request. 

All employees have the right to make a flexible working request which could include a request to work part-time, staggered hours, compressed hours, or remotely (fully or partially). In response to a request, the employer must:

1. Discuss the request with the employee

2. If they reject the request, they must give a genuine reason why not (there are currently eight permitted reasons)

3. Provide their decision within two months of the request

How is the law changing?

From some point in 2027, the Employment Rights Act will introduce three reforms to the current rules:

1. Introduce a reasonableness test. Employers will only be able to reject a flexible working request if the employer’s reasons pass this test. This means Employment Tribunals will be able to check if the employer’s decision actually makes sense, rather than just checking if they followed the right paperwork.

2. Introduce a mandatory consultation process. This will require employers to follow a specified process to consult with the employee, to explore alternative flexible arrangements if the original request isn't feasible

3. Written justification. This will require an employer to explain their reasons for refusing a request in writing, setting out the specific ground and specifying why they consider that ground to be reasonable. 

The details of the reasonableness test and what a consultation process must look like are being consulted on.

Protection from dismissal for requesting flexible working

Employees are already protected from being treated unfairly just because they made or planned to make a statutory flexible working request, or raised an issue related to this request. This means they cannot suffer detriments (such as harassment or a change in their terms of employment), and they cannot be dismissed for these reasons. This is a day one protection, so all employees are protected, no matter how long they have worked for.  

A failure to comply with a flexible working request may amount to indirect discrimination, usually where the person requesting has caring duties. Compensation for failure to comply with the statutory flexible working regime is capped at eight weeks pay.  

Workers with the legal status “employee” (check your status here) have a day one right to statutory bereavement leave. The existing legislation will be expanded to grant one week of unpaid leave to people who experience pregnancy loss (miscarriage) before 24 weeks of pregnancy. 

Bereavement leave allows employees to take:

• Two weeks of paid leave if a child under 18 dies, or if the employee experiences pregnancy loss after 24 weeks of pregnancy

• A reasonable period of unpaid leave if a dependant dies. This includes a partner, spouse or parent

See Acas for details on when an employee qualifies for bereavement leave.