The government has published an ‘implementation roadmap’ for the Employment Rights Bill, confirming that, once the Bill has made it onto the Statute Book, significant changes will arrive from as soon as April next year.
The document confirms that the government intends to introduce sick pay for 1.3 million of the lowest earners and day one rights to parental and paternity leave for the first time from early next year. Its ‘Fair Work Agency’ will also launch from early next year.
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Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner said: “We’re working fast to deliver our promise of better living standards and more money in the pockets of working people as part of our Plan for Change.
“These landmark reforms will kick in within months, demonstrating our commitment to making work pay for millions of workers across the country and delivering real change.”
Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds added: “Since the beginning, we have been working with businesses big and small to ensure this Bill works for them, and this roadmap will now give them the clarity and certainty they need to plan, invest and grow.
“By phasing implementation, our collaborative approach balances meaningful worker protections with the practical realities of running a successful business, creating more productive workplaces where both employees and employers can thrive,” he said.
Under the roadmap, once the Bill has passed, the government has said we will see:
- The immediate repeal of the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 and the majority of the Trade Union Act 2016.
- The introduction of protections against dismissal for taking industrial action.
The next tranche of changes will then come in from April 2026. These will include:
- Collective redundancy protective award – doubling the maximum period of the protective award.
- ‘Day one’ paternity leave and unpaid parental leave.
- Whistleblowing protections.
- Fair Work Agency established.
- Statutory sick pay – removing the lower earnings limit and waiting period.
- A package of trade union measures, including simplifying trade union recognition process and electronic and workplace balloting.
These changes will then be followed, from October 2026, by:
- Ending unscrupulous fire and rehire practices.
- Regulations to establish fair pay within adult social care.
- A tightening of the tipping law, including mandating consultation with workers to ensure fairer tip allocation.
- Requiring employers to take ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment of their employees.
- Introducing an obligation on employers not to permit the harassment of their employees by third parties and to extend protections to all work environments, including public-facing roles.
- A further package of trade union measures including new rights and protections for trade union representatives, extending protections against detriments for taking industrial action and strengthening trade unions’ right of access.
Looking further ahead, the roadmap outlines that, from 2027, we will see:
- Gender pay gap and menopause action plans (introduced on a voluntary basis in April 2026) to promote gender equality and support women’s health in the workplace.
- Enhanced dismissal protections for pregnant women and new mothers.
- Further harassment protections, specifying steps to determine whether an employer has taken all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment to provide clearer guidance and stronger enforcement against harassment.
- Creating ‘a modern framework for industrial relations’.
- Bereavement leave.
- Ending exploitative use of zero-hours contracts.
- ‘Day 1’ right to protection from unfair dismissal.
- Improving access to flexible working.
Guidance for employers
Alongside this activity, the government has pledged to “produce clear and comprehensive guidance to help organisations navigate the changes”. This, ministers emphasised, will be made available in advance of implementation deadlines, with the government also working closely with Acas.
CIPD chief executive Peter Cheese said of the implementation roadmap: “We’re pleased to see that the measures are being phased in gradually over many months. This will give more time for further consultation on key points of detail, and organisations more time to update their policies and practices.
“It’s positive to see the recognition of the critical role for Acas in supporting employers to comply with the new measures. We will work with the government to help provide the guidance the HR profession and managers need to implement the upcoming changes. Small businesses in particular will need clear advice and guidance to help them comply,” Cheese added.
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “It’s welcome that workers will start to benefit from these long overdue changes from later this year – but this timetable must be a backstop. We need to see these new rights in action as soon as possible.
“Decent employers don’t need to wait for the law to change. They should be working with staff and unions right now to introduce these changes as quickly as possible. It’s time to level up Britain’s workplaces and end the scourge of insecure work.”
However, Katie Palmer, employment services director at Peninsula, warned that firms and HR teams will have their work cut out to meet these implementation deadlines, especially the first ones next year.
“Although nine months [to April 2026] sounds like a long time, there is a lot for employers to do during this time to make sure their absence management procedures are robust enough to help mitigate the impact of the requirement to pay statutory sick pay from the first day of absence and to, for the first time, include the lowest earners in their sick pay system. And then just six short months later, further changes are planned, followed by another raft of change in 2027.
“The roadmap covers the next two years of employment law change. Whilst long term clarity is useful, any employer taking stock of what’s to come will certainly realise there is a lot to do,” added Palmer.
Recruitment and Employment Confederation chief executive Neil Carberry said the timings for the Fair Work Agency were welcome.
“It’s important that any employment protections are enforced in the right way by a well-resourced agency that understands the agency sector and builds on the expertise of the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate,” he said.
He added: “This clear timeline on the Employment Rights Bill gives room for full and frank consultation on how the new rules will be structured. It also gives businesses important time to plan.
“Now we have the roadmap, ongoing and meaningful engagement will be critical to ensuring new regulations allow the flexibility workers and companies value to remain.”
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