The Employment Rights Act 2025 became law on 18 December 2025, and it is the biggest shake up of UK employment law in a generation. If you employ anyone, even one part time employee, parts of it already apply to you, and the most serious changes are landing over the next 18 months.
Here is the whole timeline in plain English, based on the official Acas Employment Rights Act guidance. Diary the dates that apply to you.
Already in force (since April 2026)
These are not coming. They are here. If you have not acted on them yet, this is your catch up list.
- Statutory Sick Pay from day one. SSP is now paid from the first day of sickness, not the fourth, and the minimum earnings threshold has gone. Every worker qualifies, including your Saturday staff. (More on this in our SSP guide.)
- Paternity and unpaid parental leave are day one rights. No more qualifying periods of one year or 26 weeks.
- Holiday records are now a legal duty. You must keep records of annual leave and holiday pay for at least six years. A spreadsheet is fine, but it must exist.
- The Fair Work Agency exists. A single enforcement body now polices holiday pay, sick pay and other rights. Small employers are not too small to be noticed.
- Collective redundancy penalties doubled. The protective award for failing to consult is now up to 180 days of pay per employee.
October 2026: three months away
- You become liable for third party harassment. If a customer, client or supplier harasses your staff and you have not taken all reasonable steps to prevent it, that is your legal problem. This applies to all types of harassment.
- Sexual harassment prevention steps up. The duty moves from taking "reasonable steps" to "all reasonable steps", which is a materially higher bar.
- Tribunal deadlines double. Employees will have 6 months to bring most tribunal claims, up from 3. Expect more claims, brought later, with better preparation.
1 January 2027: the big one
- Unfair dismissal protection after 6 months, not 2 years. Today you can generally part ways with someone in their first two years with limited risk. From January 2027 that window shrinks to six months. Your probation process stops being paperwork and becomes your main legal protection.
- The cap on unfair dismissal compensation is removed. Awards are currently capped; from January 2027 they will not be.
- "Fire and rehire" becomes automatically unfair in most cases.
Later in 2027
- Zero hours and low hours workers get the right to guaranteed hours, compensation for cancelled shifts, and reasonable notice of shifts.
- Flexible working refusals must cite one of eight statutory reasons, with a written explanation of why refusal is reasonable.
- New statutory bereavement leave, and stronger protection for pregnant employees and those returning from maternity leave.
What a small employer should actually do
You do not need an HR department. You need three things: documents that reflect the new law, a probation process you actually follow, and records (sickness, holiday, conversations) you can produce if challenged. That is genuinely it. Done early, none of this is frightening.
Start with a free check: our HR Risk Checklist shows you where your gaps are in ten minutes. When you are ready to fix them, every template in our HR bundles is already updated for the Employment Rights Act 2025.
This article is guidance for employers in England and Wales, not legal advice. Timeline details are subject to ongoing government consultations. We update our templates and this blog as implementation dates are confirmed.