The Employment Rights Act 2025 (ERA 2025) is a major overhaul of UK employment law, which received Royal Assent on 18^th December 2025. It will introduce many changes across dismissal rights, working patterns, sick pay, family leave, collective bargaining and enforcement. It is designed to increase job security, strengthen worker protection and modernise employment practices. The changes will gradually roll out across 2026 – 2027.

Below are the initial changes that will be put in place as of 6^th April 2026;

Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)

Support is being offered to employees sooner as SSP will be payable from day one of sickness up to a maximum of 28 weeks. All absence through sickness requires a certificate, for the first seven days a self-certificate is required to comply with the SSP regulations. A doctor’s fit note is required after seven calendar days of sickness. This will be subject to individual company policy. However, we advise the above as best practice to follow. Previous to this change there was a lower earnings limit eligibility of £125 per week to qualify. The limit has now been removed and if an employee’s earnings falls under the SSP rate you will be entitled to receive pay equivalent to 80% of your wage over qualifying days.

We encourage employers to have a more robust absence management process in place. Employers will need to manage and alleviate any unnecessary sickness days and address any issues in relation to occupational health and reasonable adjustments in order to best support an employee in the workplace. The implications of increased staff absence could have a negative impact on the business. Early management intervention is crucial in order to effectively manage workforce planning.

Family Leave

There is greater family-friendly protection as no length of service will be required to qualify for Paternity and Unpaid Parental leave. It will be offered as a day-one statutory right. However, to qualify for statutory paternity pay you will need to have 26 weeks of continuous service with the company. A new entitlement for unpaid Bereavement leave is also being brought into effect which will include pregnancy loss before 24 weeks. The Government will review the statutory parental leave and pay throughout 2026.

Employers must amend their policies to fall in line with the new regulations and ensure the above procedures are followed.

Redundancy process

Employers face significantly tougher penalties if they do not carry out effective collective consultations during a redundancy processes. The collective consultation applies when there are more than 20 or more redundancies at one organisation. The old period was a maximum 90 days pay. Introducing a new period of a maximum 180 days pay. If an employer fails to meet the collective consultation obligations a protective compensation could be payable to each affected employee.

Whistleblowing protections

Whistle Blowing means ‘raising a concern in the public interest’. The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 came into force in 1999 and it protects those individuals who have ‘blown the whistle’ in the public interest.

This is a particularly important update for the workplace safety and reporting culture for individual companies. An employee who makes a report of whistleblowing are protected from any form of detriment or retaliation at work in the form of bullying, demotion, loss of work and victimization. Also, protection from unfair dismissal as a result of the reporting. These protections have been put into place to encourage complaints of such misconduct by giving workers the confidence to speak up without the fear of consequences. Enhanced support for whistleblowers giving access to legal advice and funding for litigation where needed. The new act will strengthen the whistleblowing law by adding sexual harassment to the list of protected disclosures. The right will also come into place for anyone to claim unfair dismissal after making a whistle blowing claim. There will also be a right to claim compensation for unfair dismissal from day one of employment. A broad coverage will be in place include not only employees but also workers, agency workers, contractors and trainee staff. Any confidentiality clauses within employment contracts or settlement agreements that attempt to prevent whistleblowing will not be valid if they restrict the reporting of wrongdoing.

Employers will need to implement or revise their policies. Also train managers on handling disclosures and ensure staff understand their rights and the reporting protection.

Simplifying trade union recognition and introducing electronic and workplace balloting

To foster stronger employee relations, the government believe that increasing trade union recognition through workplace ballots, will increase union activity, therefore the follow changes will apply:

• All new employees will need to be informed of their right to join a trade union when onboarding and will also be required to incorporate reminders of this right to existing employees.
• It will also be the employer’s responsibility to inform all current staff of this.
• The new measures are aimed to reduce the barriers unions face when seeking statutory recognition. The process should be more accessible and less administratively demanding.
• They will introduce electronic and workplace balloting which allows trade union members to vote electronically.
• Trade unions rights to access company premises will also come in force which could have its challenges. However, it is anticipated they will target FTSE top 100 companies initially.
• Also, unions will no longer be required to show majority support threshold when applying. Unfair practises will have protection against them. There will also be no requirement of turnout for industrial action ballot to be valid.

We want to build on the support we already have in place, with the assistance of the advisory service, so that if a union approaches us about membership, we can show that we can demonstrate that we already have a strong support system in place.

Fair Work Agency

The UK wants to make enforcing workplace laws such as fair pay, and holiday entitlement more efficient and effective. The intent to combine several existing government functions into one single agency. The change should help to avoid duplication and improve accountability for a clearer process. The agency would have the ability to investigate various issues like underpayment of minimum wages and holiday pay violations. They will have the power to take legal action against employer who are in breach. The agency is aimed to protect employees who may be exploited by creating a central enforcement body. Bringing together the existing state functions to a create a single body improving efficiency and accountability in how workplace laws are upheld.

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For more detailed information, or if you have any queries concerning any of the above, or if you have any other issues that you would like to discuss, you can contact BMAS by either email advisoryservice@bvna.co.uk or by phone (01822) 870270, quoting your BVNA membership number. This is a free service that forms part of BVNA Membership.