Employment legislation can change frequently which often means changes to our usual practices and policies. Detailed below are any recent and upcoming employment law changes that you should be aware of. As new laws are implemented, the template policy documents, forms and letters in each section of the employee lifecycle will be updated and linked to the articles here, so you will always have the most up to date information available to you in the Parish HR Support Services pages.

At the bottom of this section, under the summary of the new Employment Rights Bill Roadmap, you will see 3 seperate boxes; 1 for current and most recent employment law changes, 1 for changes expected in the next year, and 1 for changes anticipated more than 1 year away. Click on the relevant box to see more detailed information.

Current and Most Recent Employment Law changes:

• Employer National Insurance changes
• National Minimum wage from April 2025
• Neonatal Care and Leave Bill from April 2025
• Prevention of Sexual Harassment law
• Mental Health at Work

Future law changes:

You will be aware that the Labour Government plan to update the Employment Rights Bill and include additional laws and amendments to existing ones. They have released their "Make Work Pay" brochure which includes details about the Employment Rights Bill Roadmap which is being rolled out from October 2025 – 2027.The Bill is currently going through the final stages in Parliament, and since the roadmap was announced by Labour, there have been amendments to the Bill which means in some cases there is very little detail available to publish, other than a broad overview of what the changes are expected to be. Once the wording of the Bill has been agreed in Parliament, it becomes an Act on receiving Royal Assent from King Charles which is expected to occur in Autumn 2025. This doesn’t mean that all the changes will become law in Autumn. The plan is that they will be spread out over the next 2 years, to allow for further consultation and amendments, and for employers to prepare for any changes to policies and processes. The usual custom in employment law is that new laws commence either in April or October of each year.

An approximate timeline of when these changes are due to occur is below. To view more details about each of the changes, please click on the Future Law Updates box.

You will note that there are a lot of Trade Union changes being made. If your employees are not part of a Trade Union then these won’t apply to you, with the exception of the new law where you have to ensure employees know that they have a right to join a Trade Union (due October 2026).

The Amendment to the Seafarers Charter will not be relevant to you as will some of the others be irrelevant, however I have included all the changes here for the sake of showing the full scale of employment law changes being made by the government in the next 2 years.

Autumn 2025 – Currently awaiting Royal Assent

• Repeal of the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023
• Repeal of most of the Trade Union Act 2016
• Removing the 10-year ballot for Trade Union political funds
• Simplifying industrial action ballots and notices
• Protections against dismissal for taking industrial action

April 2026

• Doubling the maximum protective award in collective redundancies where consultation has not occurred
• Paternity leave becomes a day one right
• Unpaid Parental leave becomes a day one right
• Sexual Harassment claims will be protected by Whistleblowing policy
• A Fair Work Agency will be set up
• For Statutory Sick Pay, there will be no waiting days before employees are entitled to SSP, and any employees who previously didn’t qualify for SSP because their earnings are too low, will be entitled to some pay when off sick
• Trade union recognition and the code of practice will be simplified including amendments to electronic and workplace balloting

October 2026

• Fire and Rehire practices will be limited – also known as “Dismissal and Re-engagement” where changes need to be made to the employee’s contract, so they are dismissed and then re-employed on the newer, less lucrative contract
• A 2 tier code for procurement will be introduced
• The Fair Pay Agreement Adult Social Care Negotiating Body will be established
• The laws on “tipping” (for Café’s, restaurants etc) will be tightened to give employees more control
• All workers must be told about their right to join a Trade Union from day 1 of their employment, and regular notifications made to all employees to increase awareness of this right
• Trade Unions right of access to workplaces will be strengthened
• There will be new rights for Trade Union Representatives
• Extensions to the protection of facing detriment for those who engage in Industrial action
• Employers to take “ALL reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace and a requirement to PREVENT sexual harassment by third-parties
• Employment Tribunal time limits will be increased from 3 months, to 6 months, meaning employees have longer to prepare their cases
• Mandatory Seafarers Charter

April and October 2027

• Gender pay gap reporting
• Menopause action plans
• Increased dismissal protection for pregnant workers
• A power to make regulations to specify what the “All reasonable steps” to prevent Sexual Harassment are, in order to decide if an employer has taken all the steps they should have
• Trade Union blacklisting protection
• Industrial relations framework
• Regulation of Umbrella Companies
• Collective redundancy thresholds
• Refusals of flexible working requests will need to be detailed and prove that they are reasonable refusals
• One week of unpaid bereavement leave, although potentially the government may decide to use statutory pay, in line with SSP
• Restriction of the use of Zero-hours contracts, including guaranteed hours measures
• Day 1 protection from unfair dismissal with a caveat about the maximum time period for probation periods. This has changed from employees being unable to claim unfair dismissal in their first 2 years of employment (with the exception of discriminatory dismissals as per the Equality act protected characteristics)

Other law changes expected, not part of the Employment Rights Bill

There are further additions to the above law changes which are part of the “Make Work Pay Plan”. These will not be part of the Employment Rights Bill but will be delivered through different channels over the next few years. We do not know exact dates or specifics about these, but the Employment Law updates page will be updated when we find out, and a communication sent out to Parishes. Subject to consultations, these changes include:

• Paternity Leave Bereavement Act – This has received Royal Assent, but the Government haven’t published a timetable yet for its release. The Act removes the length of employment requirement for an employee, where the mother of the baby (or adoptive Parent) has passed away during/after the baby is born
• A Right to Switch Off
• A strong commitment to end pay discrimination
• A move towards a single status of worker
• Reviews into the parental leave and carers leave systems
• Tightening the ban on unpaid internships
• Strengthen protections for the self-employed through a right to a written contract and tackling late payments
• Removal of the age bands for the National Minimum Wage so that all adult workers receive the living wage
• Supporting workers with a terminal illness through the Dying to Work Charter
• Review of the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Act (TUPE)
• A focus on neurodiversity awareness in the workplace
• Modernising health and safety guidance in relation to extreme temperatures
• Protection of those experiencing Long COVID in the workplace
• Introduction of “Collective Grievances”, allowing several employees to raise a grievance together about conduct in the workplace
• Extend the Freedom of Information Act to private companies that hold public contracts; and extend the Freedom of Information Act to publicly funded employers