Employment Rights Act 2025: Timeline for UK Employers

The Employment Rights Act 2025 became law on 18 December 2025 and is being phased in until the end of 2027. Day-one sick pay and paternity leave already apply, and tribunal claims now have a six-month deadline. Next: six-month unfair dismissal rights with no compensation cap from 1 January 2027, then fire-and-rehire limits in March 2027.

Updated 9 November 2026, against the government's timeline of 5 November 2026. Dates have moved several times, so check the latest version before you rely on one.

Key takeaways

• From 1 January 2027, anyone with six months' service can claim ordinary unfair dismissal, and the compensatory award has no cap. Staff hired on or before about 1 July 2026 are covered from day one of the new rules.
• Fire-and-rehire protections now start in March 2027, not January as earlier timelines said.
• Already in force: day-one statutory sick pay, day-one paternity and unpaid parental leave, a 180-day collective redundancy protective award, six-month tribunal time limits and a duty to prevent sexual harassment.
• Most employers using a six-month probation period will need a shorter one, so decisions are made before unfair dismissal rights arrive.
• The rules apply to everyone employed in Great Britain, including staff employed through an Employer of Record for an overseas company.

What is the Employment Rights Act 2025?

It is the law that delivers the government's Plan to Make Work Pay, and the largest change to UK employment law in a generation. It touches unfair dismissal, sick pay, family leave, zero-hours work, harassment, redundancy, flexible working and trade unions.

Most of it needs regulations and codes of practice before it takes effect, which is why it is arriving in stages. Northern Ireland has its own employment legislation, so this guide covers England, Scotland and Wales.

What is the full timeline?

This is the government's timetable as updated on 5 November 2026. Future dates are still subject to Parliament and may move.

What has already changed in 2026?

Five changes are live and affect day-to-day HR now.

• Statutory sick pay from day one. The three waiting days and the lower earnings limit have gone, so low earners now qualify and pay starts on the first day of absence.
• Paternity leave and unpaid parental leave from day one. The leave itself needs no qualifying service, although statutory paternity pay still needs 26 weeks.
• A bigger penalty for redundancy consultation failures. The maximum protective award doubled from 90 to 180 days' pay per affected employee.
• Six months to bring a tribunal claim. For most claims arising on or after 1 October 2026, the deadline doubled from three months.
• A duty to prevent harassment. Since 30 October 2026 employers must take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, and must not permit harassment of staff by third parties such as clients and customers.

What changes on 1 January 2027?

Unfair dismissal is the change that matters most to most employers. From 1 January 2027, an employee needs six months' continuous service, not two years, to bring an ordinary unfair dismissal claim. It applies to dismissals taking effect from that date, so anyone who started work on or before about 1 July 2026 is protected immediately.

The cap on the compensatory award also goes. Today it is the lower of a year's pay or a fixed limit that is uprated each April. From January, a senior employee who struggles to find a new job could claim their full loss of earnings, which can run to several years' salary.

Two smaller duties start on the same day: telling workers they have the right to join a trade union, and stronger tipping rules for hospitality employers.

A worked example

A US software company employs a sales manager in London through an EOR. She started on 4 May 2026 on £85,000 with a six-month probation period. In December her manager decides she is not working out and plans to let her go in the new year.

If her employment ends on 8 January 2027, she has just over eight months' service and can bring an ordinary unfair dismissal claim. Her probation period does not change that. If the company cannot show a fair reason and a fair process, and she is out of work for a year, her compensatory award is no longer limited by the old cap.

Had the same concerns been raised, documented and acted on by October, with a fair process, the company would have made its decision before her rights began.

What should probation look like under the new rules?

Probation needs to end with a decision, made and recorded before the sixth month. A plan that works for most office roles:

Two cautions. Notice periods count towards service, so a dismissal given at five months and three weeks with a month's notice ends after six months. And an employee can still bring day-one claims, such as discrimination or whistleblowing, whatever their length of service, so the process has to be fair in any case.

When does the fire-and-rehire ban start?

March 2027, according to the 5 November 2026 timeline. It was first planned for October 2026 and then for January 2027, so treat even this date with care.

Once in force, dismissing someone because they will not agree to a "restricted variation" to their contract, or dismissing and re-engaging them to impose one, will be automatically unfair. Restricted variations are changes to core terms such as pay, hours and holiday. The only defence is narrow: the employer must be in serious financial difficulty and unable to reasonably avoid the change.

If you need to harmonise contracts, for example after an acquisition or a TUPE transfer, the simplest time to do it is before March 2027, and by consultation and agreement rather than imposition.

What changes during the rest of 2027?

• Collective redundancy (April 2027). Consultation will be triggered either by 20 or more proposed redundancies at one establishment, as now, or by an organisation-wide threshold to be set in regulations.
• Bereavement leave (April 2027). A new right to leave after the death of a close relative, including pregnancy loss.
• NDAs (September 2027). Limits on using non-disclosure agreements to silence workers about harassment or discrimination.
• Flexible working and pregnancy (October 2027). Requests can only be refused if refusal is reasonable, and new mothers get stronger protection from dismissal.
• Zero hours (date to be confirmed). Guaranteed-hours offers after a reference period, reasonable notice of shifts and pay for shifts cancelled at short notice.

What should UK employers do now?

Start with dismissal risk, because it arrives first and costs the most.

1. Count who gains rights on 1 January 2027. List everyone with under two years' service. Most of them will have six months by January.
2. Shorten probation. If your probation runs for six months, consider three to five months, with a review meeting before the end, so you decide before rights arrive.
3. Train managers on fair process. Performance concerns need to be raised, recorded and given time to improve. A short email trail is not a process.
4. Bring contract changes forward. Finish any harmonisation that needs consent before the fire-and-rehire rules start in March 2027.
5. Check the harassment duty is real. Risk assessment, training, a reporting route and a policy covering clients and customers. Tribunals can increase compensation where it is missing.
6. Keep records longer. With six months to claim, exit paperwork needs to make sense half a year later. Employment claims are one of the five compliance risks of hiring abroad.
7. Update sick pay and family leave policies if they still mention waiting days or qualifying service for paternity leave.

Does the Act apply if you employ UK staff from abroad?

Yes. These are rights of people working in Great Britain, so they apply whether the employer is a UK company, an overseas company with a UK branch, or an Employer of Record employing someone on your behalf.

What changes is who does the work. Through an EOR, the contract, payroll, statutory sick pay, leave records and policy updates are kept current by the EOR as each measure starts. Decisions about performance, dismissal and contract changes remain yours, and those are where the Act bites hardest. UK employment costs and statutory rules are in our UK country guide, and the employment cost calculator shows the employer cost of a UK salary.

Our view: for overseas companies, the January 2027 change matters more than the headlines suggest. Many have used a two-year window to decide whether a UK hire is working out. That window is now six months. If you hire in the UK, build your first review into month three.

Frequently asked questions

When does the Employment Rights Act 2025 take effect?

It became law on 18 December 2025 and is being phased in until the end of 2027. The main dates still ahead are 1 January 2027 (unfair dismissal), March 2027 (fire and rehire) and April 2027 (collective redundancy and bereavement leave).

Is unfair dismissal a day-one right in the UK?

No. The original bill proposed day-one protection, but the Act sets a six-month qualifying period from 1 January 2027. Some dismissals, such as those for whistleblowing or pregnancy, were already protected from day one and still are.

Who is covered when the six-month rule starts?

Anyone dismissed on or after 1 January 2027 who has six months' continuous service by the dismissal date. In practice, that covers everyone who started on or before about 1 July 2026.

When does the fire-and-rehire ban start?

The government's timeline of 5 November 2026 says March 2027. Earlier timelines said October 2026 and then January 2027.

Does a probation period protect me from unfair dismissal claims?

No. Rights depend on length of service, not on whether probation has ended. If probation is six months or longer, an employee can gain unfair dismissal rights before it finishes.

Are zero-hours contracts being banned?

No. Workers will get the right to be offered guaranteed hours after a reference period, reasonable notice of shifts and pay for short-notice cancellations. The start date will be set after consultation.

Does the Act apply in Northern Ireland?

Mostly not. Employment law is devolved in Northern Ireland, which has its own legislation. The Act applies in England, Scotland and Wales.

Hiring or employing people in the UK? Talk to our UK team about contracts, probation and payroll that are ready for January 2027.

Sources

• GOV.UK: Plan to Make Work Pay and Employment Rights Act timeline update (5 November 2026)
• legislation.gov.uk: Employment Rights Act 2025
• GOV.UK: Employment Rights Act 2025 factsheet
• Acas: Employment Rights Act 2025
• DLA Piper: the impact of changes to unfair dismissal
• Irwin Mitchell: Employment Rights Act 2025 updated timeline