In 1997, following 18 years in opposition, Labour won a landslide election and what followed were waves of progressive employment legislation, at the time, some more controversial than others. Within a few years they had introduced, among other things, the national minimum wage (NMW) at £3.60 per hour which is hardly believable now, lowered the period of employment necessary to make an unfair dismissal claim to one year (from two years), and doubled the number of protected characteristics covered by anti-discrimination provisions.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, after being out of power for 13 years this time around, Labour’s trade union backers have been champing at the bit to push the employment agenda again. Quite apart from the direct experience of rising NMW and taxation, most will have read at least some of the headlines surrounding the new Employment Rights Act 2025 (ERA) aimed at providing increased employment-related protection (or imposing more crushing red tape and unreasonable liability on businesses, depending on your point of view!).
I suspect, as was the case with the much-criticised changes after 1997, the economy or society will not collapse because of ERA (it may do for other reasons, but let’s pray it doesn’t), business will adapt (because it must) and settle into a new rhythm for a few years until the next lot come along and change it all again.
If, as is widely predicted, ERA-critical Reform win the next general election outright or form a coalition in 2029 (or perhaps sooner if scandal-hit Sir Keir doesn’t survive in the medium term), the tide will likely turn once more. Therefore, even if you do not like what you read below, you may not have to tolerate it for very long.
ERA implementation schedule
I do not propose to inform you about everything in one go. This is not least because, depending on what you consider a separate change, ERA proposes to introduce 45 of them between now and January 2027. Moreover, quite a few changes are still subject to consultation, updated guidance and regulatory detail, so implementation dates remain fluid.
That said, last Wednesday 4 February the government published an updated road map and implementation timeline of the changes, which is what we are working with for now. As things stand, we are expecting a few changes to come in the next few days on 18 February 2026, followed by a lot more in three tranches on 6/7 April 2026, October 2026 and January 2027. For now, I will just deal with the key February changes.
What is coming in on 18 February 2025?
Trade Union law simplification
Since its peak in 1979, union participation has fallen from 13.2 million to around 6.7 million.
18 February 2026 marks the beginning of a great many changes aimed at turning those statistics around, by amending the laws governing trade union recognition and activity in the workplace, and their ability to call for industrial action, all of which will be covered in greater detail in subsequent posts.
If your workplace is already unionised, you will likely already know what’s coming because your union will (or should) have told you about it! If your workplace isn’t unionised, then these changes will be unlikely to affect you immediately or at all if there are fewer than 21 workers at your workplace (which is the threshold number for union recognition).
However, in April, ERA will simplify the union recognition process, and in October impose new rights on employers to give unions access to workplaces for recruitment purposes. These changes together may have profound effects on the industrial relations landscape. As an eminent speaker declared at an ERA training talk I recently attended, ‘we are all going to have to become trade union law experts now’.
For the moment, all you need to know is that from next Wednesday, some legislation will be repealed, which hitherto has subjected the unions to:
- strict administrative obligations, notice requirements and validity periods when organising ballots; and
- voter participation thresholds for ballots, for example, a minimum 40% turnout.
Put very simply, if a recognised trade union wants to call for industrial action, it will be easier for it to do so, for example, a simple majority of voting members will be sufficient to carry a ballot.
Moreover, if the ballot is in favour of, say, strike action, then the mandate to take that action without the need for a further ballot will be extended to 12 months (up from 6 months currently).
ERA also reduces some of the existing obstacles to an automatic unfair dismissal claim, where the reason for dismissal was the worker’s participation in lawful industrial action. Stipulations about when the dismissal took place will be removed.
Family leave rights extended
The two other changes effective on 18 February which will affect all employers regardless of size, are:
1. The right for workers to give notices in relation to the new ‘day one’ paternity and parental leave rights which are coming into force on 6 April 2026. I will give more detail on the new rights in later blogs, but for context under the current regulations, workers need:
- 26 weeks’ service to claim 2 weeks’ paid paternity leave (to be taken within 52 weeks of the child’s birth or adoption).
- One year’s service to claim unpaid parental leave of up to 18 weeks for each child up to the child’s 18th birthday
2. Day one paternity leave rights (as per the above) in cases where the mother or adopter has died.
These changes will require employers to revisit their staff handbooks to include and update policies covering these new and existing rights.
There are one or two other changes affecting seafarers which are too niche for my landlubber audience but if you want to know more, please feel free to contact me about this or indeed anything in this post.
In the meantime, watch out for further posts from me in relation to the next tranche of April changes, or contact us for more information.