With the Employment Rights Act 2025 bringing significant changes for employers, our latest webinar focused on a key question facing many HR professionals and business leaders: where should organisations focus their efforts first?
Led by Employment Partner Greg Jones with Angharad Ellis Owen, Senior Associate Barrister and Katie Harris-Wright, Senior Associate, the session explored how employers can prioritise compliance activities and prepare for upcoming reforms without becoming overwhelmed by the scale of change.
Changes already in force
Several important employment law changes came into effect in April 2026, including:
- Statutory Sick Pay become a day-one right, with the lower earnings limit removed.
- Changes to family-friendly rights, including day-one eligibility for parental and paternity leave.
- Sexual harassment becoming a qualifying disclosure for whistleblowing purposes.
- New obligations to maintain adequate holiday pay records for six years.
- The introduction of the Fair Work Agency (FWA), which will take enforcement action in areas including holiday pay.
The team emphasised that if employers had not already done so, they should review and update their policies to reflect these changes. They should also ensure that records are kept of holiday taken, dates, payments made and how this has been calculated. Given the FWA powers it is also a good idea to carry out an audit of statutory payments — SSP, NMW and holiday pay — to confirm they’re being calculated and paid correctly; and building in regular checks to ensure any discrepancies are picked up early.
Preparing for 30 October 2026: harassment prevention
One of the most significant upcoming changes is the introduction of employer liability for third-party harassment, alongside strengthened duties to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. These changes will take effect on 30 October 2026.
Employers are encouraged to begin preparations now by:
- Conducting a staff survey to assess awareness (e.g. reporting routes, policies), confidence in reporting, and any areas of concern.
- Conducting workplace risk assessments for both third-party harassment and sexual harassment in workplace.
- Reviewing reporting procedures.
- Update or create – Anti-Sexual Harassment Policy – to reflect duty to take ‘all reasonable steps’ and to capture third party sexual harassment.
- Update anti-bullying and harassment policies – to reflect change.
- Training managers and employees.
- Communicating behavioural expectations to customers, contractors and other third parties.
We highlighted that a robust risk assessment is likely to be one of the most important steps employers can take to demonstrate they have taken “all reasonable steps” to prevent harassment.
The six-month unfair dismissal qualification period
A major change from January 2027 is the reduction of the qualifying period to pursue an ordinary unfair dismissal claim from two years to six months. When this change comes into force in January 2027, employees who have completed six months’ service will be entitled to this protection.
As a result, organisations should review:
- Current workforce performance and conduct issues.
- Recruitment processes.
- Onboarding and probationary procedures.
- Employment contracts and probationary periods.
- Manager training on performance and capability management.
The speakers stressed that employers will have less time to identify and address concerns before employees gain unfair dismissal protection, making effective recruitment, onboarding and performance management more important than ever. As a practical step, employers with six-month contractual probation periods may wish to consider shortening them to avoid employees reaching the qualifying service threshold before any performance or conduct concerns have been properly identified and managed.
Looking ahead to 2027
The webinar also examined longer-term changes expected in 2027, including restrictions on changing contractual terms through dismissal and re-engagement, often referred to as “fire and rehire”. Employers considering significant contractual changes were advised to review their workforce arrangements and future business plans now.
Other changes on the horizon include:
- New collective consultation triggers for large-scale redundancies.
- Increased compensation for failures in collective consultation.
- Additional requirements to explain the basis for refusing a flexible working requests, including explaining why a refusal is reasonable.
Key priorities for employers
The webinar concluded with four areas employers should prioritise:
- Harassment and third-party harassment risk assessments.
- Employment contract reviews.
- Review and strengthen recruitment and onboarding processes.
- Conduct workforce audit to identify potential performance and conduct issues.
Whilst many changes are due to take effect in the autumn and next year, taking proactive steps now will place organisations in the strongest position to manage risk, maintain compliance and adapt successfully to the evolving employment law landscape.
To learn more about the Employment Rights Act 2025 and access further resources, visit our Employment Rights Act Hub or contact a member of our Employment team.
This is only intended to be a summary and not specific legal advice.
