Employment Rights Act 2025: Seven months on… Where are we now?

It feels like we have been talking about the Employment Rights Act for a long time.

There was the initial legislation, the consultations, the implementation roadmap and plenty of discussion about what employers would eventually need to do.

But we are now well beyond simply talking about what is coming.

Seven months on from the first major changes in April, employers across Great Britain are already working with many of the new rights in practice. More changes arrived in October and, perhaps more importantly, another significant milestone is just around the corner in January 2027.

So, this feels like a good moment to pause. Where are we now, and are employers genuinely ready for what comes next?

April was really only the beginning

April brought some of the first changes employers could really feel in practice.

Statutory Sick Pay changed significantly, becoming payable from the first qualifying day of sickness and extending entitlement to more lower-paid employees. Paternity leave and unpaid parental leave also became day-one employment rights.

We also saw the maximum protective award for failures around collective redundancy consultation double, alongside stronger whistleblowing protection in relation to sexual harassment and new requirements around holiday pay records.

For many businesses, April prompted a flurry of policy updates, template changes and communications.

Seven months later, though, the more important question is whether those changes have actually landed. Do managers understand the new rules? Have processes changed in practice? And would the organisation be comfortable demonstrating how it is complying if challenged?

That is where the real work starts.

October raised the stakes again

October brought another important wave of changes.

From 1 October, the general time limit for bringing most Employment Tribunal claims increased from three months to six months.

That might sound like a relatively technical change, but it has very practical implications.

Managers could now be asked to explain decisions many months after they were made. If conversations aren’t recorded properly, decisions aren’t clearly documented or processes haven’t been followed consistently, memories alone aren’t going to be enough.

Good record keeping has therefore become even more important.

And then came 30th October.

New trade union rights and stronger protections around harassment arrived. Employers are moving towards an obligation to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment, alongside new liability relating to third-party harassment.

Again, this is about much more than rewriting a policy.

Have managers been trained? Do employees know how to raise a concern? Have you considered risks involving customers, clients, contractors and suppliers? Could you demonstrate the proactive steps the business has taken?

Having a beautifully written harassment policy sitting on the intranet isn’t enough if nobody knows what it says.

Then there’s January…

And January 2027 isn’t very far away.

From January 2027, the qualifying period for ordinary unfair dismissal is currently due to reduce from two years to six months. The existing compensatory award cap is also due to be removed.

For employers, this is a big one.

It doesn’t mean you suddenly can’t dismiss somebody who isn’t performing or simply isn’t right for the role. But it does mean businesses will have considerably less time to identify concerns and deal with them before unfair dismissal protection kicks in.

And that puts the spotlight firmly on probation.

If somebody isn’t performing at month two, don’t wait until month five to have the first meaningful conversation about it.

If objectives aren’t clear, make them clear.

If managers aren’t comfortable addressing performance issues, give them the skills and support to do it.

And if probation reviews exist in the diary but routinely get postponed, now is probably the time to change that.

The first six months of employment are about to become much more important.

There is still more to come

The challenge with the Employment Rights Act is that January isn’t the end either.

The Government has always intended these reforms to be introduced in stages, and the latest implementation timetable stretches through 2027.

There are further changes ahead covering areas including fire and rehire, collective redundancy consultation, flexible working, bereavement leave, pregnancy and maternity protections, equality action plans and zero-hours contracts. Some of the detail and implementation dates are still being worked through.

That is why we wouldn’t recommend treating Employment Rights Act readiness as a one-off exercise.

There probably isn’t going to be a point where HR can simply tick a box marked “ERA complete” and move on.

So, what should employers be doing now?

Our advice is to keep it practical.

Take another look at what you changed in April and ask whether those changes are genuinely happening in the business.

Review your probation and performance processes ahead of January. Make sure managers know what is expected of them and aren’t avoiding difficult conversations.

Look again at harassment prevention and ask whether you could actually evidence the reasonable steps your organisation has taken, rather than simply pointing to a policy.

And importantly, keep looking ahead.

There are more changes coming throughout 2027, so having a clear roadmap is going to be far easier than reacting to every new implementation date as it arrives.

Seven months on, the conversation around the Employment Rights Act has definitely changed.

We’re no longer preparing for change. We’re living through it.

For employers, the focus now needs to move from understanding the legislation to making sure it actually works in practice.