The employment law issue that will dominate 2025 is the Employment Rights Bill – which at some stage in the Spring or summer will become the Employment Rights Act 1996. The Bill is huge, both literally and in terms of its importance. It is the most wide ranging and important single employment law measure since the 1970s. I’m very excited about it. 

And it has been introduced really quickly. In its election manifesto the Government promised to legislate for its “Plan to Make Work Pay’ within 100 days of coming into office. They hit that deadline – just – but at a cost. The Bill was published before the consultations that would normally take place on how particular provisions would work and without taking the time that is needed to consider how to translate the political promises made in opposition into workable legislation. 

As a result, the Employment Rights Bill is a work in progress. More than 100 amendments have been made to the Bill during its Commons Committee Stage and there are likely to be more before it completes its Parliamentary stages. But there are also a lot of details that will need to be filled in later through Regulation. According to the Delegated Powers Memorandum published by the Business Department there are 82 Regulation-making powers in the Bill. 

That’s a lot. 

They cover a full range from entirely technical matters to major questions of policy that have simply not been decided yet. 

As a result, although the sheer volume of reforms proposed by the Bill might strike many employers as overwhelming, it is important to realise that they will not all be implemented at once. When the Bill is given Royal Assent that is really just the beginning. We will see a series of commencement orders bringing individual provisions of the Act into force as a well as further consultations and draft regulations aimed at fleshing out the missing details in the Act itself. This is a project that will run throughout this Parliament. In the Next Steps document published alongside the Bill the Government acknowledged that the majority of the reforms in the Bill will take effect ‘no earlier than 2026’. Actually, I suspect that while Labour has kept its promise to introduce legislation within 100 days of taking office, there will be parts of the new Act that will still not be in force by the time of the next election.

In terms of planning for the changes to come I think we can generally assume that those measures that do not rely on further Regulation will be implemented first, perhaps as early as the summer of this year. 

The main exception is the abolition of the unfair dismissal qualifying period. Schedule 2 of the Bill repeals s.108 of the Employment Rights Act where the qualifying period is to be found. That in itself requires no further Regulations, it could just take effect and although employers might be unhappy, the law would make perfect sense. However there is also a power to make Regulations modifying the application of the right not to be unfairly dismissed during an ‘initial period of employment’ which we expect to set out a ‘lighter touch’ to reasonableness during a probationary period. The Government clearly intends to use this power and will only remove the qualifying period once it has come up with Regulations dealing with the initial period of employment. They are currently suggesting that the change will not take effect until autumn 2026. 

But leaving aside the unfair dismissal qualifying period, here are the Employment Rights Bill measures that will be ready to be implemented once the Bill gets Royal Assent:

1. The repeal of the Workers (Predicable Terms and Conditions) Act 2023 
2. The measures repealing almost all of the Trade Union Act 2016 
3. Reform of the statutory union recognition procedure
4. The enhanced right to request flexible working so that any refusal by the employer must be ‘reasonable’
5. The removal of the three-day waiting period for Statutory Sick Pay 
6. The requirement for employers to consult any recognised trade union about the allocation of tips and gratuities
7. The enhanced duty to prevent sexual harassment requiring an employer to take ‘all’ reasonable steps
8. Making employers liable for the third-party harassment of employees 
9. The categorisation of sexual harassment allegations as public interest disclosures
10. The removal of the ‘at one establishment’ test in the collective redundancy consultation threshold
11. The duty to notify the Secretary of State of collective redundancies affecting a ship’s crew (closing a loophole highlighted by the P&O case) 
12. Dismissal for failing to agree a variation of contract (or the “banning of fire and rehire”). I think the importance of this change has not yet been fully grasped in much of the commentary I have seen. This is a big one)
13. The new right to a statement of trade union rights – although provision is made for Regulations setting out just what an employer has to include in that statement so it seems the intention is to issue detailed Regulations before the requirement is imposed. 
14. The right to paid time off for trade union Equality Representatives
15. The increase in Employment Tribunal Time Limits from three months to six
16. Changes paving the way for the Government enforcement of employment rights related to agency workers, sick pay, holiday pay, the National Minimum Wage Gangmasters licencing  and Modern slavery. 

On the enforcement issue it is worth noting that although the powers given to the Secretary of State do not need further Regulation in order to come into effect, the SoS does need to appoint enforcement officers and an Advisory Board. There are budgetary considerations here so let’s see how quickly these appointments are actually made.

Although all of these measures will in theory be ready to go from the time of Royal Assent onwards it would be surprising if they were all brought into force on the same day. I would expect them to go through in batches from the summer or autumn of this year through to 2026. 

At the same time the Government will need to start moving on the measures that need further Regulation before they can be implemented. This will usually involve a consultation exercise where the Government will have to produce a detailed document setting out what its proposals are and then give interested parties about 12 weeks (usually) to respond. The Government then needs to formulate its response – a process which can take several months even when the Government is keen to push the measure through – before it lays Regulations before Parliament.

So with that in mind – here are the measures where further consultation and Regulation is needed before they can be brought into force

1. The Right to Guaranteed Hours Extensive regulations are needed to define the scope of the new right, determine when it applies, and determine how the offer from the employer must be framed.
2. Reasonable Notice of Shifts / Cancellation of Shifts / Payment for Cancelled Shifts Regulations here are needed to describe the kind of contract that the right applies to. Regulations are also needed to determine the presumed length of the notice required and the cap on the compensation that can be awarded.
3. Statutory Sick Pay (removal of lower earnings limit) The amount of SSP is set as the lower of £116.75 and ‘the prescribed percentage of the employee’s normal weekly earnings. So Regulations are need to know what the abolition of the LEL means for the calculation of SSP for low paid workers. 
4. Parental Leave  (qualifying period) The Bill amends  S.76 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 so that Regulations for parental leave can no longer specify a qualifying period. However, the current Regulations (the Maternity and Parental Leave etc Regulations 1999) are not revoked or amended by the Bill. Those Regulations will have to be amended anyway to address other issues raised by the Bill so we can expect the qualifying period to be removed at the same time as the other amendments. 
5. Paternity Leave (qualifying period / leave following shared parental leave) Same issue here  as with Parental leave, but this time we are talking about the Paternity and Adoption Leave Regulations 2002 which will need to be amended separately to remove the qualifying period and allow leave to be taken after shared parental leave.
6. Bereavement Leave The Bill replaces the current right to parental bereavement leave with a general right to bereavement leave of at least two weeks in the case of parental bereavement and one week in the case of other bereavements. But the details of the right will need to be set out in separate Regulations. 
7. Dismissal During Pregnancy or Following Family Leave.  The Bill introduces a Regulation making power to deal with the dismissal of pregnant employees and those on or recently returned from family leave – amending the current powers that relate to redundancy. What the new rights actually entail is left entirely to Regulations.
8. Public Sector Outsourcing: protection of workers. The Bill makes detailed provision for regulations and a code of practice dealing with the working conditions of workers on contracts outsourced from the public sector. All of the detail of the new right will have to be consulted on and set out in new Regulations. 
9. Equality Action Plans. The Bill introduces a power requiring employers of 250 employees or more to publish action plans in relation to gender equality. All of the detail will be contained in those Regulations.
10. Information Relating to Outsourced Workers The Bill allows the rules on gender pay gap reporting to be extended to require employers to disclose the employment agencies that supply them with workers. Regulations will be needed. 
11. School Support Staff Negotiating Body / Adult Social Care Negotiating Body.Schedule 3 paves the way for the setting up of a negotiating body setting terms and conditions for non-teachers in education and current clause 29 allows for another covering the Adult Social Care Sector. But this needs extensive consultation and further Regulation before they can actually be set up. 
12. Right of Trade Unions to Access Workplaces. The Bill introduces a right for unions to seek access to a non-unionised workplace and envisages a complex procedure for negotiating an access agreement and bringing in the Central Arbitration Committee where agreement is not reached. The full mechanics of this will need extensive consultation and detailed Regulations. 
13. Blacklists. The Bill creates a Regulation-making power enabling the SOS to tighten up the law against maintaining blacklists of trade union members and activists. 
14. Electronic Balloting for Industrial Action. The Bill repeals the Trade Union Act 2016 provision (never used) for a pilot scheme allowing electronic ballots. It then emphasises that this does not affect the existing power under S.54 of the Employment Relations Act 2004 to make Regulations about the permissible means for conducting union ballots. I have to admit that power had completely passed me by. The Government clearly intends to use this existing power to allow for electronic industrial action ballots, which is technically not a measure reliant on this Bill at all.
15. Detriment on Grounds of Industrial Action. The Bill introduces a new right not to be subjected to a detriment for taking part in industrial action. However the new right states that an individual must not be subjected to a detriment ‘of a prescribed description’ so in order for the right to come into force we need Regulations telling us what detriments count. 

Just from a practical point of view I would not be surprised if it is well into 2027 before some of these become law and perhaps later. The Government can’t consult on all of these issues at the same time, they will have to pace themselves. When it comes to some of the big structural changes – such as the negotiating bodies for adult social care and in relation to staff in schools – I think the Government will be doing well if it manages to get them up and running before the next election. 

There will also be some areas where coming up with workable Regulations proves to be more difficult than the Government currently expects. I am very sceptical about the ‘right to guaranteed hours’ that takes up the first dozen or so pages of the Bill. There are 15 specific regulation making powers relating to this right alone and I struggle to see how the Government can knock this mess of a provision into workable shape. With so much else to be getting on with, I wonder if this measure might just get lost along the way? 

On the whole there is no reason for employers to feel overwhelmed by the changes just yet. My thoughts are with those interested parties that will be responding to the many consultations that they will see over the next year or so.