TULO Report April 2026
Employment Rights Act 2025
After receiving Royal Assent, the Employment Rights Act is now law. This means millions will benefit from day one sick pay for all, banning fire-and-rehire, curbing zero-hours contracts and giving all of us new powers to fight for better treatment at work through our unions.
Implementation Timeline
The timeline below highlights when key changes take effect, including reforms to trade union and industrial action rules, expanded worker protections, new enforcement bodies, and additional workplace rights.
As implementation is phased, different measures – such as day-one employment rights, changes to industrial action rules and enhanced protections against unfair dismissal – will come into force at different points over the next two years.
- 18 December 2025 – Act becomes law
- 18 February 2026 – First major set of changes
- 6 April 2026 – Workplace rights expand
- 7 April 2026 – Fair Work Agency
- August 2026 – Modernising ballots
- October 2026 – Further rights take effect
- December 2026 – Seafarers’ charter
- January 2027 – Unfair dismissal and fire and rehire
- 2027 – Later phased changes
Summary of Changes in Respect of Trade Union Laws
The Employment Rights Act 2025 repeals major parts of the Trade Union Act 2016. Strong collective bargaining rights and unions are key to tackling problems of insecurity, inequality, discrimination, enforcement and low pay. The changes are as follows:
Simplified rules for taking industrial action
- The 40% support threshold for strikes in important public services (IPS) has been removed.
- Mandates for industrial action are increased to 12 months.
- Unions must give employers 10 days’ notice of industrial action (previously 14).
- Unions no longer need to tell employers in advance how many workers in each role may strike.
Simpler ballot rules
- Ballot papers no longer need lengthy explanations of the dispute or action timetable.
- Members simply vote on the action they want to take: strike action or action short of a strike.
Changes affecting public sector unions
- Employers cannot charge unions admin fees for deducting subscriptions from pay.
- Public bodies no longer have to publish facility time data.
- The unused legal power to cap facility time has been removed.
Unfair picketing rules scrapped
- Unions no longer have to appoint a picket supervisor or follow the previous detailed supervisor requirements.
Stronger protection for workers
- Taking part in lawful industrial action is automatically protected from unfair dismissal, with no 12-week time limit.
Futureproofing Project
The project works with affiliated unions in manufacturing, to assist reps and members to advocate for, develop and negotiate futureproofing plans in their workplace. This includes protecting jobs from offshoring and developing plans so that any workers who are affected have a job-to-job transition.
Trades Unions – and – what would Reform’s plan mean for working people?
If these plans go ahead, they could mean:
- Taking sick pay, bereavement leave and pregnancy protections away from millions
- Legalising fire-and-rehire tactics
- Weakening protections against discrimination at work
- Bringing back “no-fault” evictions and making it easier to raise rents
These aren’t “regulations” – they are hard-won rights that make work fairer, more secure and more equal.
Trevor Hills
Guildford Labour Party TULO