Employers and trade bodies like the CIPD have welcomed the government’s newly published ‘roadmap’ to help implement the incoming Employments Rights Bill; a piece of legislation that marks the biggest changes to workplace reforms in decades and pledges to create “greater fairness and security at work” for all employees.
Several ways the Bill intends to do this include the banning of exploitative zero hours contracts, enabling workers to have a stronger voice and ending unscrupulous “fire and rehire” practices.
‘A turning point’
Commentators, such as councillor Becky Everett, are heralding the Bill as not just a piece of legislation but “a turning point, a transformative moment”. Employers such as the Co-op Group’s CEO Shirine Khoury-Haq are describing it as a way to “strengthen rights for workers” and “do right by colleagues”, adding:
“We are convinced that treating employees well promotes productivity – it helps employers recruit, develop and retain the talent they need. Working in partnership with Government we believe this Bill is a once in a generation opportunity to ensure all workers are treated fairly whoever their employer might be.”
Phased approach
With such a complex and technical piece of legislation, the government has laid out why the Bill is coming into force, how to prepare for its implementation and the nature of the planned “phased approach”.
Rt Hon Angela Rayner MP, Deputy Prime Minister and Rt Hon Jonathan Reynolds MP, Secretary of State for Business and Trade said:
“We always said that this Bill must work in practice, not just on paper. This is why we are consulting on key aspects of our Plan to Make Work Pay and taking a staggered approach to implementing several of the most significant reforms.”
Businesses need to be ready
The phased approach is meant to ensure that there is a “proper business readiness period” and that employers fully understand the details of the reforms and can prepare well in advance.
CIPD Chief Peter Cheese said he was pleased the measures are being phased in gradually:
“This will give more time for further consultation on key points of detail, and organisations more time to update their policies and practices.”
The roadmap gives clarity on key timelines. Some most relevant to employee wellbeing include:
After the bill is passed:
- Protections against dismissal for taking industrial action to ensure workers can defend their rights without fear of losing their jobs.
April 2026:
- Collective redundancy protective award – doubling the maximum period of the protective award to provide stronger financial security for workers facing mass redundancies.
- ‘Day one’ paternity leave and unpaid parental leave to support working families from the very start of employment.
- Whistleblowing protections to encourage reporting of wrongdoing without fear of retaliation.
- Fair work agency established to enforce labour rights and promote fairness in the workplace.
- Statutory sick pay – removing the lower earnings limit and waiting period
October 2026:
- Ending unscrupulous fire and rehire practices to protect workers from being forced into worse terms under threat of dismissal.
- Regulations to establish the fair pay agreement adult social care negotiating body in England to raise standards and pay in the social care sector.
- Tightening tipping law – strengthen the law on tipping by mandating consultation with workers to ensure fairer tip allocation.
- Requiring employers to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment of their employees to create safer, more respectful workplaces.
- Introducing an obligation on employers not to permit the harassment of their employees by third parties to extend protections to all work environments, including public-facing roles.
2027:
- Gender pay gap and menopause action plans (introduced on a voluntary basis in April 2026) to promote gender equality and support women’s health in the workplace.
- Enhanced dismissal protections for pregnant women and new mothers to safeguard job security during pregnancy, maternity leave and a return-to-work period.
- Further harassment protections, specifying reasonable steps which will help determine whether an employer has taken all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment to provide clearer guidance and stronger enforcement against harassment.
- Creating a modern framework for industrial relations to build a fairer, more collaborative approach to workplace relations.
- Bereavement leave to give workers time to grieve with job security.
- Ending the exploitative use of zero hours contracts to provide workers with stable hours and predictable income.
- ‘Day 1’ right to protection from unfair dismissal to ensure all workers are treated fairly from the start of employment.
- Improving access to flexible working to help people balance work with family, health, and other responsibilities.
One of the government’s key election pledges, said Rayner, was “to rebuild [the UK] economy so that it serves working people once again”. But, as TUC general secretary Paul Nowak, also said “decent employers don’t need to wait for the law to change, they should be working with staff and unions right now to introduce these changes as quickly as possible”.
The Government is working closely with Acas, which support it in both implementation of the new measures and continuing to provide support to employers and workers moving forward.
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