Big News from Westminster: Employment Rights Bill Roadmap

The start of July has brought some BIG news in terms of employment law! The government has published its Implementation Roadmap for the Employment Rights Bill, laying out when key changes are expected to happen.

Once more there’s plenty to unpick with government updates, but here are the main points:

Fire & Re-Hire

Fire and re-hire (also known as dismissal and re-engagement) is a practice where an employer terminates an employee’s current contract and then offers to rehire them on new, often less favourable terms and conditions.

Currently, fire and re-hire can be lawful if the employer has a genuine business reason, has consulted about the change and follows the Statutory Code of Practice. But once the new law comes into force, dismissals of this kind will be automatically unfair if:

·        The employee refused to accept new terms

·        The employer attempted to rehire the same person (or someone else) for the same role on different terms

·        The only exception is where serious financial difficulties left the employer with no reasonable alternative to changing the contract

Originally expected this year, this is now delayed until October 2026.

Why the wait? The government plans to consult further on the issue in Autumn 2025 as this legislation change may also restrict employers from making other simple changes to T&C’s like working hours or patterns as an example, which is not practical for employers needing to adapt quickly to business changes.

Guaranteed Hours (Zero Hour Contracts)

A new right to be given guaranteed hours is on the horizon, aimed at zero and low-hours workers. 

The idea? If someone has worked regular hours over a set period (likely 12 weeks), you may need to offer them a contract that reflects those hours, which in turn will also affects their wider rights including holidays entitlements and mutual obligation on work.

They don’t have to accept, but you’ll have to offer, and agency workers may be covered too on this.

Originally expected in 2026, this has now been pushed back to 2027.

This is another topic that is up for discussion this autumn as we suspect it has now been acknowledged it will have a much wider impact than first thought. It remains to be seen whether the consultation will provide clear solutions or simply gather evidence.

There is a long road ahead before this becomes law if ever now!

Day One Paternity & Unpaid Parental Leave

The bill is set to make unpaid parental leave and paternity leave available from the first day of employment. This marks a shift from the current rules, where employees must work for a year before becoming eligible for unpaid parental leave and twenty-six weeks for paternity leave.

According to the roadmap, these changes will come into force in Spring 2026.

Day One SSP Rights

Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) is currently payable from day four of absence and only applies to individuals earning above a certain weekly threshold. However, under the proposed changes, SSP will become payable from day one, and the earnings threshold will be removed.  This means individuals previously ineligible may now receive 80% of their usual earnings from the start of their absence.

We originally anticipated this would come into effect in Autumn 2025, but it has now been confirmed for Spring 2026.

While this change will provide much-needed support for employees facing genuine ill health, it also presents significant financial pressure for small employers.

Additionally, there’s a risk that extending eligibility to those who were previously excluded could unintentionally encourage a culture where some individuals feel less motivated to attend work, particularly when they could now receive 80% of their earnings for staying at home or in bed.

Employers will need to be proactive with their absence management processes on this one, and need to start getting things in place to manage this sooner rather than later.

Day One Rights for Unfair Dismissal

Currently, only employees with at least 2 years’ service are able to claim ordinary unfair dismissal.

The government had proposed that all employees (regardless of length of service) will, once they have started work, be able to claim ordinary unfair dismissal.

However, the government still needs to decide on what the probationary period (initial period) of employment will look like, which will still enable employers to have a process they can use to monitor and manage a new employee’s performance and suitability to a role without getting tied up in knots.

Changes will likely require updates to the ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures, which means agreement from both employer and employee groups.

This was originally scheduled to come into force in Autumn 2026 but has now been pushed back to at least 2027.

Nikki’s further thoughts…

‘Although we’ve finally had some clarity on the timelines, much of the detail still remains a mystery.

The confirmed dates at least offer a little more breathing space for businesses to start preparing for the changes ahead, which will hopefully help with the volume of work needed in the planning and implementation of many new processes and policies.

That said, the potential financial impact on small businesses shouldn’t be underestimated.

And as for Guaranteed Hours and Day One Rights to Unfair Dismissal… I’m still wondering if they’ll ever actually happen!’