05.01.2026

For those who work in HR and employment law, much of 2025 was spent tracking the progress of the Employment Rights Bill through the Parliamentary process. Now, as we emerge into 2026, the Employment Rights Act (ERA) is in force, meaning it is time for businesses to take some active steps towards preparing for the changes that lie ahead. 

Below, we suggest some action points you could add to your 2026 New Year ERA To-Do List:

  1. Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) will soon become available from day one of sickness absence and for low-paid workers (expected from April 2026). These changes will increase the number of employees who are eligible for SSP and bring forward the point at which payments must begin. If you haven’t yet done so, now is a good time to work with your payroll team to calculate any extra costs for your organisation arising from this change and to adjust the mechanics of payment. You will also need to review your policies dealing with sick pay, and, if you foresee a potential increase in short-term sickness absence resulting from the change, you could review your attendance management procedures more generally and train your managers to ensure they are well-equipped to apply them. To read more, see Statutory Sick Pay: Spotlight Series.
     
  2. Statutory paternity leave and unpaid parental leave are expected to become “day one rights” from April 2026 (instead of requiring minimum periods of employment, as they do currently). The current requirement for paternity leave to be taken before shared parental leave will be removed too, with the aim of giving employees more flexibility on which type of leave to take. There will also be changes in relation to flexible working requests. You will need to update your family leave (including flexible working) policies and practices as these changes take effect. In addition, your managers will need updated guidance on how to correctly apply these new rules, and how these changes are likely to impact your organisation. For further details, see Family Friendly Reforms: Spotlight Series and Flexible Working: Spotlight Series.
     
  3. Changes to unfair dismissal rights came under much scrutiny during the Parliamentary process and will have a significant impact on the employment relationship. From 2027, employees with at least six months of employment will be able to claim ordinary unfair dismissal (rather than the current qualifying period of two years). In addition, the cap which limits the maximum unfair dismissal compensation an employee can receive (which is either the lower of 52 weeks’ gross salary or a statutory cap (currently £118,223)) will be removed. If you work in HR or as a manager, you have an important role to play in preparing your organisation for these reforms (particularly with respect to your recruitment and on-boarding documents and procedures). See Unfair Dismissal: Spotlight Series for further details.
     
  4. Various changes under the ERA will impact how you interact with trade unions in the future. For example, from February 2026 certain rules relating to strike action, notices and ballots will be simplified, and from April 2026 changes will be made to streamline the statutory recognition process (making it easier for trade unions to gain recognition for collective bargaining purposes). In addition, new rights and protections will apply for trade union representatives and workers involved in industrial action, and trade union access rights will be boosted (expected from October 2026). These reforms mean now is a good time to invest in training your managers and HR to ensure they have the skills they need to work successfully with unions (especially skills in negotiating and managing conflict). Even if your organisation does not currently recognise a union, your managers and HR still need to be trained to look out for early warning signs of potential industrial action and the first steps towards gaining union recognition. To read more, including about how Make UK can help, see Trade Unions/Industrial Action: Spotlight Series.
     
  5. From April 2026, it is expected that the “protective award” (i.e. the maximum amount which can be awarded against an employer for failing to comply with statutory consultation obligations on collective redundancies) will be doubled, from 90 to 180 days’ pay per affected employee. This will significantly increase an employer’s costs if they fail to comply with the consultation rules in a collective redundancy situation. In addition, from 2027, the threshold that triggers the need for collective redundancy consultation is expected to change and so make such consultation more common. Our Collective Redundancy: Spotlight Series outlines steps you can take to prepare for these changes (for example, creating centralised systems to track proposed redundancies across sites and workplaces, strengthening relationships with employee representatives, and refreshing manager training on how to run a statutory collective redundancy consultation).
     
  6. Significant restrictions on an employer’s ability to use “fire and rehire”/”fire and replace” to implement changes to employees’ contractual terms (expected in October 2026) will make it more difficult for employers to make certain changes to which employees do not agree. Make UK can help with change management programmes in this new landscape and with reviewing and updating flexibility clauses in employee contracts. To read more, see Fire and Rehire: Spotlight Series.
     
  7. Taking active steps to prevent harassment at work needs to remain a key HR priority for 2026. Harassment protections will be bolstered in stages, with changes coming into effect in both April and October 2026. See Harassment: Spotlight Series for guidance on how you can prepare (including checking and updating your policies and arrangements, running workforce and manager training, examining your organisation’s culture, reviewing how you handle harassment complaints, taking steps to prevent third party harassment and ensuring you have a sexual harassment risk assessment in place for all parts of your business).
     
  8. The introduction of the Fair Work Agency (FWA) – expected from April 2026 – means that the risks to an employer of non-compliance with the rules relating to minimum wage, sick pay and holidays are likely to materially increase. It is important to keep your policies and practices in these areas under close review, ensure good record keeping and take active steps to minimise the likelihood of concerns being flagged with the FWA. See Fair Work Agency: Spotlight Series. 
     
  9. Significant changes under the ERA relating to zero hours contracts and notice requirements for shift working could impact how you manage variable workloads or demand within your organisation. To get ahead, you should start to map out which parts of your organisation use zero hours contracts, minimum hours contracts, annualised hours contracts, fixed-term contracts, overtime and/or agency workers and consider how you will need to adjust your operations when the new requirements come into force (expected from 2027). Our Zero Hours Contracts and Shift Notices: Spotlight Series explains how these changes could impact you and how Make UK can help you to prepare.
     
  10. If your organisation is likely to have 250 or more employees in 2027, you will need to develop and publish an equality action plan showing what steps you are taking in respect of certain prescribed matters, including your gender pay gap and how you are supporting workers during the menopause. These measures are expected to be introduced on a voluntary basis in April 2026, before coming into force in 2027. (Even if you are unlikely to meet the 250 employees threshold in 2027, it is worth considering now whether, as a matter of good practice, you wish to develop an equality action plan in any event.)  This requires some careful strategic planning: to read more, see Action on Equality: Spotlight Series. 

To be clear, the list above does not include all the measures under the ERA, and the timing of some of the recommended actions above will depend on when the detail of the new laws is finalised and when the particular changes come into force. One thing is certain, however: given the huge number of reforms that lie ahead (including in relation to trade unions/industrial action, fire and rehire and collective redundancies), it will be increasingly important moving forward for you to listen to and involve your workforce, and to address their concerns. Have you considered undertaking a workplace survey to understand more about what issues your workers are concerned about? A survey could reveal, for example, frustrations around working conditions, pay and/or low morale, which you could then take active steps to address. Taking time now to review your current employee relations and improve engagement within your organisation (including potentially setting up works councils) could be hugely beneficial in the long-term.

You can and should start to plan now. You can find all 13 of our Spotlight Guides in our ERA Knowledge Base, together with a Roadmap and comprehensive ERA Planner. Whether you are looking for information and insights or need bespoke legal or HR support, we are here to help you prepare for the changes that lie ahead.