What the Employment Rights Bill Means for Employers

The Employment Rights Bill (the Bill) introduces the most significant overhaul of UK employment law in over a decade. Covering everything from new and extended day one rights and leave entitlements, to changes in redundancy legislation and time limits for bringing tribunal claims, the Bill signals a shift toward stronger and increased employee protections and higher expectations of employers.

Whether you are an SME or a large organisation, these reforms demand attention and will likely affect how you hire, manage, and exit employees moving forward. As many of these reforms reflect wider cultural expectations around fairness, flexibility, and wellbeing at work, businesses that engage with the changes early, are more likely to retain talent and avoid costly employment disputes.

So, What Should Employers Do Now?

The Bill has not yet become law but is expected to receive royal assent in Autumn 2025. While not all provisions of the Bill will come into force immediately, with many not likely to take effect until 2026/2027, the trajectory of reform is clear: greater protection for workers from the start of employment. Employers should therefore start to take proactive steps to ensure legal compliance and operational readiness.

Key actions to take now:

• Review recruitment processes: check that recruitment procedures are as a robust as possible, given that future employees will have day one rights of unfair dismissal. Ensure those involved in the recruitment process are fully trained.

• Review employment contracts and handbooks: Identify the areas within contracts which will likely require change, such as: probationary period clauses and termination provisions (given the new proposed day-one rights for unfair dismissal) and clauses relating to sick pay and other statutory leave, where entitlement will increase and commence from day one.

Disciplinary, capability and sickness absence policies for example will need to be reviewed in light of the anticipated changes.

• Audit your workforce: Identify any zero-hours or agency workers and assess whether those individuals are working regular, predictable patterns. If so, you need to be prepared to offer more secure, fixed-hour contracts to comply with the suggested changes when implementation takes place.

Also, identify those employees who are not performing and actively manage any poor performance early before the changes are implemented.

• Train management and HR: Early training is vital, and even more pressing given the Bill’s introduction of the wider scope of employee rights. As many rights, such as protection from dismissal and access to leave, are proposed to apply from day one, failure to follow fair processes could expose employers to legal risk regardless of length of service.

How Can We Help?

Our Employment & HR team is already working closely with clients across all sectors to help them navigate the changes introduced by the Bill.

They provide:

• Tailored contract and policy reviews
• Strategic advice on workforce planning
• Training sessions for employees, HR and management
• Ongoing day-to-day employment law support

To understand how the Bill may impact your business, or to arrange a consultation with one of our employment specialists, please get in touch with the employment team on 0116 289 7000 or email info@bhwsolicitors.com.