2025 is shaping up to be a major year for employment law developments, with significant reforms expected under the proposed Employment Rights Bill. While details are still evolving, employers must start planning now to ensure compliance when the changes take effect.
Key Reforms on the Horizon
If passed, the Bill aims to enhance employment protections and ban exploitative working practices, that include:
- Banning exploitative zero-hour contracts
- Introduce a right to give workers reasonable notice of work schedules and wages for shifts cancelled at short notice
- Adapt and build on the recently implemented changes to flexible working rules
- Make parental leave a day one right for all workers
- Give all workers a statutory entitlement to bereavement leave
- Strengthen protections for new mothers
- Make changes to the Trade Union Act 2016
- All new starters to be informed of their right to join a Trade Union
- Reinstating the School Support Staff Negotiating Body
- Making the process of statutory recognition for trade unions simpler
- Creating a new right for workers (and union members) to access a union within workplaces
- Remove the lower earnings threshold for qualifying for Statutory Sick Pay and to remove the waiting days, making it available from day 1 for all workers
- Remove the National Minimum Wage age bandings so all adults are entitled to the same minimum wage
- Change the criteria for determining the National Minimum Wage to ensure the cost of living is a factor when setting the minimum pay level
- Create a ‘Fair Pay Agreement’ to allow for sectoral collective bargaining in the adult social care sector
- Place a new duty on large employers to produce ethnicity and disability pay gap reports
- Unfair dismissal to become a day 1 employment right for all workers (subject to rules around probation periods)
- Restrictions placed on the practice of fire and rehire (dismissal and reengagement)
- Create a single enforcement body to enforce employment rights, called the ‘Fair Work Agency’.
What Should Employers Do Now?
While the reforms are still progressing through Parliament, strategic planning is essential. Start by:
- Tracking updates to the Bill and preparing for potential budget implications (e.g., SSP changes, family leave).
- Reviewing policies to ensure they align with upcoming reforms.
- Identifying training needs for managers, employees, and HR teams to stay compliant.
- Assessing recruitment and retention strategies, particularly with changes to probation rules and minimum employment rights.
Why Early Preparation Matters
With some reforms not expected to take effect until 2026, businesses have time to plan. However, the scale of these changes is significant—the largest we’ve seen in decades—making early preparation critical for compliance, managing costs, and minimising disruption.
We’re Here To Help
At HR Solutions, we’re here to support you through the upcoming employment law changes in 2025.
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