Get Ready for 2026… Employment legislation
As part of our December “Get Ready for 2026” Programme, our second focus area is employment legislation.
The Employment Rights Bill (ERB) entered into the “ping pong phase” in September 2025, meaning that changes are still being debated and agreed between MPs and the House of Lords. On the 27 November 2025, the government announced its agreement to a six-month qualifying period for unfair dismissal, a material change from the day one protections originally included. This will come into effect in 2027.
You can view the “Implementing the Employment Rights Bill” document here: Implementing the Employment Rights Bill - Our roadmap for delivering change
We’ve set out the changes likely to affect the VCSE sector below:
From April 2026
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Currently, to qualify for Paternity Leave, a father has to have been employed by the same employer for 26 weeks by the end of the 15th week before the due date (or matching date). This will become a day one right from April 2026.
Parents will also have the right to take unpaid leave from day one of their employment (currently only available after one year).
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From April 2026, the Lower Earnings Limit (LEL) and three waiting days for Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) will be removed.
Currently, only employees earning over £125 per week are eligible to SSP after three days of being ill.
From 6th April 2026, the weekly rate SSP will be paid at will increase from £118.75 to £123.25. or 80% of their earnings (whichever is lower).
You can read the government factsheet here.
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From 1st April 2026, thw following rates of pay will apply:
National Living Wage (the minimum wage all emplloyees aged 21 or over can be paid) increases to £12.71 p/h (£24,454 p.a. for a 37-hour week)
The rate for 18-20 year olds increases to £10.85 p/h (£20,875.40 for a 37-hour week)
The rate for 16-17 year olds increases to £8.00 p/h (£15,392 p.a. for a 37-hour week)
The Real Living Wage is £13.45 with effect from 1 May 2026 (£25,878 for a 37-hour week).
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The ERB provides for enhanced protections for those who report wrongdoing at work.
Changes include:
A broader definition of protected disclosures (including environmental and human rights concerns)
Protection from dismissal, harassment, or victimisation
A requirement for employers to have clear, confidential whistleblowing procedures
You can read the government factsheet here
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Since 2017, under the Equality Act 2010, employers with 250 or more employees are required to publish Gender Pay Gap data annually on a publicly available government website.
In 2027, it will become mandatory for employers with 250 or more employees to publish the evidence-based actions they are taking to improve gender equality, and support employees during the menopause.
Employers can voluntarily adopt these measures from April 2026.
You can read the government factsheet here
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From April 2026, if an employer fails to consult properly during a collective redundancy process (which applies when an employer is proposing to make 20 or more redundancies within a 90-day period), a protective award may be due.
The maximum period for protective awards will increase from 90 to 180 days.
This means that the financial risk of not following the correct redundancy consultation procedures has doubled.
Yu can read the government factesheet here
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Most employment rights are currently enforced by individuals presenting a complaint to an Employment Tribunal. A more limited number of employment rights are enforced by the state on workers’ behalf – such as the national minimum wage or protections for agency workers.
The Fair Work Agency (FWA) will bring together existing state enforcement functions and, over time, take on enforcement of a wider range of employment rights. This will be a single place where workers and employers can turn for help.
You can read the government factsheet here
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The ERB will repeal the great majority of the Trade Union Act 2016 and this will result in the following changes:
• New members joining a trade union will automatically be opted in to contribute to a political fund, unless they expressly opt out.
• Trade unions will no longer have to pay for the administration of check-off in the public sector.
• The requirement for public sector employers to publish information on the amount of facility time taken by union officials will be removed. The power to impose a cap on facility time in the public sector will also be removed.
• Trade unions will no longer have to adhere to certain reporting requirements relating to industrial action. This includes providing additional information on the voting paper, to members and employers, and to the Certification Officer in their annual return.
• For a lawful strike or other industrial action, trade unions will need a simple majority of members who respond to an industrial action ballot to vote in favour of industrial action.
• Trade unions will not be required to secure 40% support in strike ballots for six important public services (fire, health, education, transport, border security and nuclear decommissioning sectors).
• Additional requirements on unions to supervise picketing, including the appointment of a supervisor, will be removed.
• The requirement to consult and publish a review on electronic balloting will be removed. The Government is committed to introducing the use of modern and secure electronic balloting for trade union statutory ballots. We will consult a working group with stakeholders including cyber security experts, trade unions and business representatives, with the view of rollout following Royal Assent of the Employment Rights Bill.
• The Certification Officer will no longer have various investigatory powers to undertake investigations into a trade union following a complaint by a third party or on the Certification Officer’s own initiative, nor the power to require the production of documents and appoint inspectors to investigate. The Certification Officer will also no longer be able to impose financial penalties or make a declaration against a trade union in regard to the annual return requirements added by the Trade Union Act 2016. They will however continue to have the power to investigate financial affairs, which was brought in prior to the Trade Union Act 2016.
• The power requiring trade unions and employers’ associations to pay a levy to the Certification Officer will be removed.
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The statutory weekly pay rate for SMP, ShPP, SPP, SAP, SPBP, SNCP and SPBP will increase from £187.18 per week to £194.32 per week.
From October 2026
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Employers may sometimes need to consider proposing changes to employees’ contracts of employment. If employees do not agree to some or all the contractual changes proposed by the employer, the employer may dismiss employees, before either offering to re-engage them, or offering to engage other employees, in the same or substantively the same roles, in order to effect the changes. This is referred to as “fire and rehire”.
The Bill will restrict employers’ ability to use fire and rehire by amending the law on unfair dismissal so that, where employees are dismissed for failing to agree to a change in their contract of employment, or if the employer dismisses the employee to replace, or to re-engage them on varied contractual terms, those dismissals will be treated as automatically unfair unless the employer can show:
• evidence of financial difficulties that were affecting, or were likely to affect, their viability;
• the changes were to eliminate, prevent, significantly reduce or significantly mitigate the effects of those financial difficulties; and
• the need to make the change in contractual terms was unavoidable.
You can read the factsheet here
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The Social Care Negotiating Body measures in the Employment Rights Bill will enable the Secretary of State, Scottish Ministers and Welsh Ministers to establish the process for FPAs for the adult social care sector in England, and for both adult and children’s social care workers in Scotland and Wales, through secondary legislation, following engagement with the sector. The powers in the Bill will allow the appropriate authority to make regulations that, among other things:
• Establish social care negotiating bodies for England, Scotland and Wales, including provision about the appointment of its members;
• Make provision about the remit of the negotiating body (for example, to specify additional matters relating to employment as a social care worker);
• Specify how matters are to be considered by a negotiating body in its negotiations; 1 https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/who-cares/ 2 CQC update for adult social care providers 3 Social care workforce report 2023 4 Scottish Social Service Sector: Report on 2023 Workforce Data (2024)
• Set out the process for dispute resolution and reconsideration of matters; and
• Ratify a negotiating body’s agreement so that its provisions relating to workers’ pay and terms and conditions are given legal effect.
The government is still to decide what types of roles will be covered by the Social Care Fair Pay Agreement and what pay and conditions it will relate to.
You can read the factsheet here
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Employers to which the duties apply must take these steps while also taking all other preventative steps that are reasonable in the particular circumstances.
Any requirements specified will be reasonable for the employers to which they apply. The steps that may be specified in regulations include, among others:
• carrying out assessments of a specified description;
• publishing plans or policies of a specified description;
• steps relating to the reporting of sexual harassment;
• steps relating to the handling of complaints.
Additionally, an obligation for employers not to permit the harassment (sexual or otherwise) of their employees by third parties will apply.
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The ERB proposes to increase the limitation period for employment tribunal claims from three months to six months.
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The changes proposed include:
Duty to inform workers of their right to join a trade union
New rights and protections for trade union reps
You can view the factsheet here
Extending protections against detriments for taking industrial action
What should I do now?
There’s a lot still to be confirmed and it’s important that employers stay abreast of the changes as they’re announced. You can sign up for the ACAS newsletter here: https://obs.acas.org.uk/subscription/
ACAS has also produced a “Employment Rights Bill implementation: what the roadmap means” webinar
Schedule reviews of your Sick Pay, Whistleblowing and Parental Leave policies for early 2026. Ensure that pay rates for parental leave are updated for 2026.
Ensure that all employees are paid at least the minimum rates of pay from April 2026.
Further information and training
The CIPD has a range of news articles, training and updates to support employers. CIPD | The Professional Body for HR & People Development
You can view news updates from the UK Government via social media and on their website, here: Working, jobs and pensions - GOV.UK
Keep an eye on our News Bulletin for updates and training around the changes Our Mailings | Stay Informed — Join Today — Gloucestershire VCSE Alliance
Our next instalment will look at changes to data management legislation in 2026.