Employment Rights Bill Timetable, what's happening when?
- Trish Attah
- 6 days ago
- 3 min read
The government have recently published a provisional timetable, or roadmap, showing when we are likely to see the changes from the Employment Rights Bill. As expected, the changes are going to be phased over time seeing them being implemented between April 2026 and 2027. Here's an overview of when the changes are likely to take effect:
April 2026
Collective Redundancy Awards | The financial penalty for employers who fail to consult properly with employees in collective redundancy situations will rise from a maximum of 90 days’ gross pay to 180 days’ gross pay per affected employee. |
Day 1 Paternity Leave and Unpaid Parental Leave | Right to unpaid parental (including paternity) leave begins immediately upon starting a job. |
Whistleblowing Protections | Employers will face double the current potential awards for non-compliance. |
Changes to Statutory Sick Pay | Abolishes the lower-earnings threshold and waiting days, extending SSP from day one and benefiting around 1.3 million low-paid employees. |
October 2026
Fire & Rehire Changes | Employers will generally be prohibited from changing contracts unilaterally by dismissing and rehiring, except in exceptional cases. |
Strengthening trade union rights of access | Strengthened rights for union representatives (e.g. intranet use, recruitment). |
Strengthening tipping laws | A number of changes are proposed including the need to consult with staff, unions or workers representatives when creating or revising tipping policies, written policies needing to be available to all workers, a requirement for policies to be reviewed at least every 3 years and maintaining records of tips and their distribution for 3 years. |
Sexual harassment legal changes around third parties and taking steps to prevent it | Legal requirement for employers to take “all reasonable steps”, including addressing third-party harassment, to prevent harassment in the workplace. |
Employment tribunal time limit changes | Claims for things like unfair dismissal, discrimination and unlawful deductions etc will have their limitation period increased from 3 months to 6 months. There will be some exceptions to these changes. |
2027
Gender pay gap and menopause action plans | Employers will need to publish gender pay and menopause action plans, and new thresholds will apply for collective redundancy & consultation. |
Rights for pregnant women | Employers will be barred from dismissing women who are pregnant, on maternity leave or within 6 months of returning from maternity leave, adoption or shared parental leave unless there are exceptional, clearly defined reasons within fair procedures. |
Day 1 right unfair dismissal protection | Workers will be protected from unfair dismissal from their first day, subject to a statutory probation period (likely nine months). |
Bereavement leave | Legally guaranteed time off following the death of a dependent. |
Ending exploitative zero hours contracts | Ban on exploitative zero‑hours terms. Regular hour patterns over 12 weeks will convert informal arrangements into guaranteed contracts |
Flexible working | Employees will have the right to request flexible working, such as remote or adjusted hours, from day one . |
Collective redundancy consultation threshold changes | The Bill also outlines that consultation will be triggered by 20 or more job losses at a single site within a 90 day period, or similar threshold across multiple sites. |
The Full Overview
This blog doesn't cover every single change, you can see the full overview document issued but the government here:
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Disclaimer
All information within the post is provided for guidance only; always seek your own legal advice.
The information with this post was correct at the time of publishing, July 2025 but may be subject to change.
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