Early 2026
The Employment Rights Act received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025. That set the ball in motion on the "once in a generation" changes to the world of work promised by the Labour Government. Changes following Royal Assent, or shortly thereafter, include:
- Repeal of the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023
- Repeal of most of the Trade Union Act 2016 (some provisions will be repealed later via a commencement order)
- Simplifying industrial action notices and industrial action ballot notices
- Enhanced protection against dismissal for taking industrial action
It was announced by the UK Government that we can expect to see 26 consultations relating to other measures to be introduced by the Employment Rights Act 2025. These are to be published following Royal Assent, and no definitive timescale has been provided beyond what was set down in the Implementation Roadmap. This states the following measures will be consulted on during Winter 2025/early 2026:
- A package of trade union measures, including protection against detriments for taking industrial action and blacklisting
- Tightening tipping law
- Collective redundancy
- Flexible working
Consultations that have already been launched are:
- Rights of trade unions to access workplaces – closed in December 2025
- Duty to inform workers of their right to join a trade union – closed in December 2025
- Consultation on leave for bereavement, including pregnancy loss – closes on 15 January 2026
- Consultation on enhanced dismissal protections for pregnant women and new mothers – closes on 15 January 2026
- Draft Code of Practice on electronic and workplace balloting for statutory union ballots – closes on 28 January 2026
Unrelated to the Employment Rights Act 2025, the UK Government has also published a working paper seeking views on options to reform non-compete clauses in employment contracts. It is open for responses until 18 February 2026.
April 2026
Employment Rights Act 2025
The UK Government has indicated an intention to use the commencement dates of 6 April and 1 October to commence the majority of regulations that will implement many of the provisions in the Employment Rights Act.
If the Implementation Roadmap schedule is met, the following rights are expected to come into force with effect from April 2026:
- Increase in maximum period of collective redundancy protective award
- Day one rights to paternity leave and unpaid parental leave
- Whistleblowing protections
- Establishment of the Fair Work Agency
- Removal of the lower earnings limit and waiting period for Statutory Sick Pay
- Simplifying trade union recognition process
- Electronic and workplace balloting
- Equality action plans (gender pay gap and menopause) introduced on a voluntary basis
National Minimum Wage
1 April will see the changes to the National Living Wage ("NLW") and National Minimum Wage ("NMW") take effect. As of that date:
- NLW (for those aged 21 and over) will increase from £12.21 to £12.71 per hour
- NMW (for those aged 18 to 20) will increase from £10.00 to £10.85 per hour
- NMW (for those aged 16 and 17, and apprentices aged under 19 or in the first year of their apprenticeship) will increase from £7.55 to £8.00 per hour
Statutory benefits
With effect from 6 April, Statutory Sick Pay will increase from £118.75 per week to £123.25 per week. Statutory maternity, paternity, shared parental, adoption and parental bereavement pay will increase from £187.18 per week to £194.32 per week. The lower earnings limit required to qualify for the various family leave payments will increase from £125 per week to £129 per week.
Tribunal compensation
It is likely that the new rates for the 2026/27 year will be announced in March and will apply to dismissals occurring on or after 6 April 2026. In 2025, the limit on the compensatory award for unfair dismissal increased to £118,223. Also in 2025, the limit on a week's pay (used for calculating statutory redundancy payments and the basic award for unfair dismissal) increased from £700 to £719, meaning that the maximum basic award and maximum statutory redundancy payment increased to £21,570.
Very late in the day, the Employment Rights Bill was amended to allow for the removal of the statutory cap on the compensatory award for unfair dismissal claims. It is likely that this will happen either on 1 January 2027 or 6 April 2027.
Guidelines for injury to feelings awards
An award for injury to feelings is made to compensate for harm caused by discrimination. This award is separate from an award to compensate for financial loss and can be made even where no financial loss has been suffered. To assist employment tribunals, the Court of Appeal previously set out guidance for quantifying awards for injury to feelings, known as the Vento bands. For claims presented on or after 6 April 2025, the bands are as follows:
- Lower band (less serious cases) – £1,200 to £12,100
- Middle band (for cases that do not merit an award in the upper band) – £12,100 to £36,400
- Upper band (for most serious cases) – £36,400 to £60,700
Awards of more than £60,700 will only be made in the most exceptional cases. The bands are reviewed annually, and any increases for 2026/27 are likely to be announced in March and will apply to claims presented on or after 6 April 2026.
Gender pay gap reporting
- 30 March – deadline for public sector employers (using 31 March 2025 as a snapshot date)
- 4 April – deadline for private companies and voluntary organisations with 250 or more staff, using a snapshot date of 5 April 2025
The pace of the reduction in the gender pay gap remains very slow. The introduction of equality action plans covering the gender pay gap may help. However, production of the equality plans will only be voluntary in 2026, becoming mandatory in 2027. Any impact they may make is unlikely to be felt in the short term.
Paternity Leave (Bereavement) Act 2024
This Act came into force with effect from 29 December 2025. The Act applies to bereaved partners when the mother or adopter of a child dies during childbirth or within 12 months of birth or adoption placement. With immediate effect the 26 week qualifying period for paternity leave was removed, as was the restriction on taking paternity leave after a period of shared parental leave. Draft regulations, required to bring further provisions of the Act into force, were laid before Parliament in January. If approved by both Houses of Parliament they will provide for up to 52 weeks paternity leave for bereaved partners, along with some of the mechanics involved in managing that right. The regulations are intended to take effect on 6 April and will apply to bereavements that take place on or after that date.
Draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill
A draft Bill was promised during the 2024/25 Parliamentary session. This timescale has not been met, but some reports suggest it will be published before the end of this Parliamentary session (July 2026).
October 2026
Assuming the Implementation Roadmap schedule is met, the following rights will take effect from October 2026:
- Extension of tribunal time limit from three to six months
- Ban on dismissal and re-engagement (except in very limited circumstances)
- Requirement to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment
- Requirement to prevent third-party harassment
- New rights and protections for trade union representatives
- Duty to inform workers of their right to join a trade union
- Strengthening of trade union rights of access to workplaces
- Tightening tipping laws
Non-disclosure agreements
The amendments to the Employment Rights Bill that introduced restrictions on the use of non-disclosure agreements post-dated the publication of the Implementation Timetable, so it is currently not known when those provisions will take effect. However, the UK Government has indicated that they intend to progress this fairly swiftly. A consultation is still to take place, so an April implementation date is perhaps unlikely, but October 2026 may be possible.
Later in 2026 and beyond
The qualifying service required to raise an ordinary unfair dismissal claim will be reduced from two years to six months with effect from 1 January 2027. This means that any employees with at least six months' service at that date will have protection from unfair dismissal. As mentioned above, the cap on the compensatory award for unfair dismissal claims may also be removed on 1 January 2027.
A number of other impactful provisions of the Employment Rights Act are also not scheduled to take effect until 2027. These include:
- The introduction of a new collective consultation trigger threshold
- Mandatory equality action plans covering gender pay gap and menopause
- Ending "exploitative" zero-hours contracts via guaranteed hours provisions for zero- and low-hours workers
- Enhanced protections for maternity returners
- Broader right to bereavement leave
Key cases for 2026
There are a number of high-profile cases that may be heard in 2026, most notably:
Augustine v Data Cars Ltd – an important decision relating to the rights of part-time workers. The claimant worked as a part-time hire car driver but had to pay the same "circuit fee" as his full-time colleagues. A date for a hearing before the Supreme Court is awaited. The issue is whether the Part-Time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000 apply if a worker's part-time status is an effective cause, but not the sole cause, of their less favourable treatment. Our summary of the Court of Appeal judgment is available here.
During 2026 we should also see judgments handed down in relation to a number of cases heard in 2025. These include:
Lister v New College Swindon – the claimant is appealing an employment tribunal judgment that, although his gender-critical beliefs were protected, dismissal was a proportionate response by his employer to the manner in which he had expressed those beliefs. Our summary of the case can be found here.
Miller v University of Bristol – an appeal was heard in November 2025 against an employment tribunal judgment that an academic's anti-Zionist beliefs were protected beliefs under the Equality Act 2010 and that his dismissal was both unfair and discriminatory. Further details of the tribunal judgment are available here.
Groom v Maritime and Coastguard Agency – the Court of Appeal heard this case, which concerns whether a volunteer coastal rescue officer is a worker with employment rights, in November 2025.
Afshar & Others v Addison Lee Ltd - an appeal has been made to the Employment Appeal Tribunal following an employment tribunal finding that the two year backstop to unlawful deduction of wages claims imposed by the Deduction of Wages (Limitation) Regulations 2014 was ultra vires. A date for hearing is yet to be fixed. More information on the tribunal judgment can be found here.
