Employment Rights Act 2025: The changes every employer must know before April 2026

[Music] A two-year countdown has just started for every employer in Britain. From April this year onwards, some of the most ordinary decisions you make about running your business are about to change. That's everything from sickness to dismissals to hiring employees. So today we're going to break down what's changing and what that means for you. I'm Caitlin Davis and this is the Citation Podcast. [Music] With me today are two people who've been here through every twist and turn of this bill as it's made its way through Parliament in the past 14 months. Citation's professional support solicitor Emma McGrath and direct employment law, Jill Macatier. Jill and Emma, thanks for being with me today. Hi, Caitlin. How are you? Great to be here. So Jill, I'd like to start with a big picture. What is the employment rights act and why are people calling it the biggest overhaul of employment rights in a generation? Well, I think it's probably easier to think of the act as a patchwork quilt of different legal reforms when it comes to employment law. Altogether there are 30 different changes that are put onto one umbrella, one piece of legislation and they will be implemented gradually over the next 18 months. And Emma, this started as the employment rights bill and it's now become an act. But how big and complex did it get and why? Yeah, I mean, it doubled its size during the Parliamentary journey and obviously we're not here to talk about Parliament's process and things, but I mean, it was quite interesting seeing how the Lords push back and things. So actually what we ended up with at the end was there's some quite fundamental differences from what have been in the Labour manifesto. And was that surprising to you too? Because I mean, we've worked together for over five years. We've, you know, just off the back of COVID. So we've seen a lot of legislation make its way through Parliament that affects employers, but was there anything about the passage of this bill that surprised you? I think the Labour government probably put themselves under a bit of pressure because they had this commitment that they were going to produce the employment rights bill within their first 100 days of government, which they did right on the 11th hour and it contained the majority of their proposals. But probably it was a little bit rushed. So I think there were maybe on the back foot and that's why I think it has changed so significantly. Yeah. So it's not a surprise if employers are feeling like, I mean, I've been hearing about this for a while, but I'm not really sure what's in it now, what it means for me, what it means for the next couple of years. Yeah. So that's what your heads do today. So I get all down and make it simple. So we're going to start practically with how we got here, what's in the act and then we're going to focus on three of the biggest changes. So well, maybe to caveat, not necessarily the biggest changes, but three that we think might be particularly significant from employers. So that's sickness, harassment and dismissals. And then we're going to start giving some employers some practical tips on what they can do now to get ready for 2026 and 2027. So Jill, let's set the scene for people. Why did the government feel the need to overhaul employment rights to such a significant extent? It was so broken about the current system when it comes to, I guess, employee rights, when it comes to the way that employers treat their employees. It wasn't just the current government. Obviously, it's a very main focus for them, but even the previous conservative government, there has been a feeling that flexibility in the modern workforce has become to one sided and that this was a detriment, not just to workers, but to the countries that hold in the economy. Yeah. And they also felt very strongly that the way in which employment rights are enforced in this country, where it's usually always down to the individual to seek enforcement through the tribunal system, was not really creating an even playing field because it was ineffective. A lot of employers in their view were getting away with not doing what they were supposed to be doing. And that was actually to the detriment of the good employers who were actually complying with the law. So do we think this was mainly aimed at tackling problems that people would think rightly or wrongly happen in larger businesses? You know, a smaller business is going to be sitting there thinking, "I'm being almost punished for bad practices from big organisations." Or do we think this was something we were seeing across the playing field? I think it's across the playing field, but I think smaller businesses could quite rightly say to actually transition to these changes, it's going to have a much bigger impact on us. Yeah, 100%. So with that ping pong Emma that we talked about, why was it so stormy? What got it caught up in between these houses? I mean, I think probably one thing that employees would have heard on in the news is the unfair dismissal changes. That's not the tension. Absolutely there. So it was very much a day one right was going to be the case for unfair dismissal rights. And then there was going to be a statutory nine month period where it was going to be easier to dismiss during that period. But actually that was then changing. And that was very much something that the House of Laws kept pushing back on. Surprisingly, quite a few times, which was, you know, I'm not a parliamentary expert, but that did seem to be quite unusual from what we'll be expected. And we have ended up with this six month unfair dismissal rights, which we'll obviously talk about later in quite a bit of detail. And when you say would be expected, why, why is that not something we'd necessarily expect? I mean, for people who perhaps haven't tracked a piece of legislation through Parliament before, don't really understand how it works. As I say, you're not a parliamentary expert. This isn't a podcast around politics or anything like that. But why was that surprising? I think because the Labour manifesto was very clear that this is one of their sort of the fundamental changes that they were proposing. And obviously they got in with a huge majority. And I think the idea is that the Lords would sort of go along with that, you know, particularly where there's such a majority in the House of Commons, they would be really agreeing with that. Yeah. I think one of the reasons they did kick back so strongly is the fact that this is really a piece of enabling legislation. So it's saying these are the things we're changing, but a lot of the detail of how it's going to be implemented is going to depend on further consultation and the publication of regulations. Yeah. We heard a lot from the Lords of saying we don't even know what we're being asked to agree to. So the act technically became law in December, but it doesn't switch on all at once, does it? I mean, I don't know how it could because we're talking what over 30 reforms. Yeah. So Jill, can you talk us through practically what happens over the next couple of years in real world terms for employers? So for all of these changes, the government is actually set out an implementation plan. They produced that last July. And that was one of the reasons why there were so much toings and froings and power limit before Christmas because they were absolutely adamant they would stick to that timetable. So that will bring eight changes in April, a further nine in October and then 11 in 2020, seven. And for some of those changes, we have a really good idea of what's going to happen. And it's just a question of the regulations being published and passed and then implemented. But for some, we only have a top level detail. For example, we're probably talking to about the zero-r's changes. All we know is what the plan is going to be top level, but the detail of what it's going to mean for businesses, how it's going to be implemented, how this right is actually going to, these rights are going to kick in. It's something which there's going to be a lot of consultation on. So it really is a mixed bag. So I guess that's a really clear message we want to send out to employers, isn't it? Because yes, the act is passed, but that doesn't mean that there's this big, lovely, you know, I guess, directory of, or an instruction manual for exactly what they need to do right now to prepare for all these changes and actually legal professionals themselves are, like yourselves, even since the act has passed, has been spending a lot of time trying to uncover, okay, what is this likely to look like? There's only so much an employer can prepare today. But I guess the key thing is, yes, they don't have to do everything all at once, but there are some things they can start doing and should start doing right now to get prepared. Because even if you break it down to eight changes in April, nine changes in October, that's a lot of change. So we're already trying to get on with running your business when you've already got the day to day stresses and worries and complications that come with running a business. So I guess to help them out, we're going to start with three areas, as we said, that we think will be, I mean, we already know the areas that clients have asked us a lot of questions about and they've got a lot of press attention. So sick pay, Emma, what is that clear is changing around statutory sick pay? Yes, so from April this year, 2026, there are some quite significant changes to sick pay. So the first thing is that at the moment, for the first three days of somebody's sickness absence, it's unpaid. So there's no, no statutory sick pay, you know, sometimes obviously employers have company sick pay, but if it's just statutory sick pay, there's no pay for those first three days. Those waiting days are being scrapped. And so employers will be paying sick pay from the first day of somebody's sickness absence. Right. And the other big change is that at the moment, you have to earn over the lower earnings limit per week on average of £125 to qualify for statutory sick pay. Again, that's being scrapped. So everybody. Well, so we'll be entitled to Sasha Sikpe, you know, all employees will be entitled to Sasha Sikpe. But what I would say is that the rate will change slightly, so it's 118 pounds 75 at the moment for Sasha Sikpe Per week, I hope I'm right on that. But if you were in the basically lower in as would earn either that or they would get 80% of their pay that's less So you wouldn't have somebody who's actually getting more pay for being off-sick. It would be 80% of their wages But that's a big difference and you know, I was chatting to a client the other day who had They had a they were the calling up because that a warehouse team where the felt there was a bit of a Cult to within the team of People just taking quite a lot of time off-sick and sort of the you know the first knifle they felt people were sort of off-sick when they That's coming isn't it especially those sickness absence rates of skyrocketing absolutely yeah, and naturally there's gonna be quite a few employers that probably have that concern isn't that yeah Absolutely, and I think well they were calling up for sort of some general advice about how can we get on top of this? Obviously we can guide them through that kind of management process But one of the comments they made to me was well at least it's not Costing as any money in terms of sick pay because there would people are generally coming back within sort of a couple of days of sickness But of course with these changes They will be paying such a sick pay for every day of those absences. Yeah, so it's quite a sort of you know It's another financial burden on them on small employers, and I guess that's the thing is it could be potentially very disruptive I'm very costly and I think employers are gonna be I guess the first question I'd have is How can I try and disenter vibes in a way my employees from taking sick days or is there anything I can do to I guess Ensure that I don't have a culture of yeah definitely like present to you zoom or yeah or or a culture where people feel like Taking one or two days off sick is especially now they get a level of statuistic pay for it is acceptable Yeah, no absolutely and I think you know we already it's already an issue sickness absence for employers obviously and you know There's already financial impact in terms of you know Productivity and people having to sort of you know Step into cover over the people's duties et cetera. So he's obviously already a financial impact And we talked to employs a lot about things like sort of as both like accountability So things like you know return to work interviews always do that for every employee You know not just people that you feel have a poor sickness absence record yeah and get them to fill out self-satisfication And see if the reason why they're saying they were off sick marries up with what they said when they called you You know always always ask for a phone call things like that Um, but then the flip side of that is that kind of information gathering can also help you support your employees So you're looking at like well, why were you off? Can we help prevent that in the future things like that? So that's and that sort of also plays into like welfare measures and employee assistance programs sort of you know to have like a sort of Confidential counseling services like that. So there's all those kind of aspects that you can do But I mean ultimately it is possible to sort of discipline somebody even for genuine sickness absence But it just it needs that extra care that extra sort of proper process looking at adjustments You know considering any underlying hill illnesses things like that. So but it is definitely something that employers can manage And it just unfortunately takes a bit of time and an effort which Appreciate that people often are time poor. So it's tricky. Yeah, and I guess Jill this doesn't just in fact affect the business owner like something like sickness absence You know, I guess managers are gonna play a significant role in that in terms of Like Emma said, it returns work process or you know the people that are actually on the ground if you say with the employee that could actually Understand a bit more about what might be going wrong if there is any underlying patterns there or adjustments You know, you can make to the workplace or whether To say there needs to be any kind of disciplinary action. So what tips would you give a business owners in terms of Managers and and what they say to managers and the light of these changes? You're absolutely right to managers are the key to this as they are in in so many areas And so therefore to make sure that you have got a clear policy that manager trained on the policy And really importantly are applying it consistently. I think it's very easy as small businesses when managers are under so much time pressure And I've got so many other responsibilities, you know, they're all there You know so much about employee engagement hangs on their shoulders and supporting employees well-being That it's easy for them to fall into the trap of only doing this when they feel that someone is perhaps been off and that That didn't need to be on yeah, and then once you get into that sort of inconsistent dream and first of all It's not effective and secondly you leave yourself exposed to potential discrimination risks as well So I would say really make sure that your managers are enforcing a consistent policy in this So That's actually sick pay Gonna be a big one But another big one that got a lot of press attention was as you say that day one on third is smistle right so There was it was snappy. I think that was part of it It kind of really caught people's attention and this was something that labor thought was really important To try and keep people on secure point employment um But what is the rule around dismissal rights for those that aren't too clear today and and what's going to change So at the moment to bring an ordinary unfair dismissal claim you need to have two-year service I'm at various times that's been reduced to one year, but it's currently two-year and it's been two years for several years That doesn't mean to say you're always going to need two-year service So for example if your dismissal was linked to a discrimination you can bring a claim for day one Or if it was linked to or some automatic on fire reasons such as I dismissal because of whistle blowing or for easing health and safety issues etc But the general rule is for most employees you need two-year service and from the first of January next year It will be reduced to six months so from the first of January if you have six-month service You'll be able to bring a claim for unfair dismissal and that's quite an important point is it because From the first journey if you already have six-month service So that means actually even though the change is going to come into force from the first January Employers need to think about it a bit earlier. Don't they absolutely because Effectively if you were to take someone or now Um at some point in 2026 They're not going to have to have work two years before they get it So it's about the making good recruitment decisions now But also making sure that you're really on top of Managing their performance and giving people the best possible induction Because you will not have that rather leisurely two-year period to get it right. So When it comes to what does a good probation period look like like what can employers do or should they do in terms of review in their processes today Maybe Emma or point this one at you uh What what could they change or what could they make sure they have implemented to make kind of protect themselves during those that that crucial time period Yeah, so I think um, I'll certainly talk about how to manage But I think as well it's really good just to think about the general process of a um Appalachian period of sort of like you know welcoming somebody in so you know obviously the induction Time table is really important to making them feel welcome in the business and getting them up and running from day one So thinking about you know who they need to meet who they need you know what tasks they need to be shown what systems need to be shown etc But just in terms of general management I definitely say sort of you know try and meet up with the employee regularly because it's a brilliant you know probationary period is a brilliant tool for Um both you sort of raising something in formally if you need to just iron any issues out and equally for the employees They all you know, I wasn't sure about this or you know And it basically helps them settle in so they are really good for you know, just general catch-ups. Yeah Um, but certainly in in terms of those issues happening And then you definitely want to be making sure that you're keeping that sort of evidence trail as well So you know keeping a note of the meetings where where certain issues have been discussed Um and you know having that so you don't need any kind of Formal warnings necessarily during a probation period, but you would definitely want to be evident thing A consistent sort of approach to trying to sort out problems whereas Um minnis jill saying we do it's already a consideration in terms of um, you know short service dismissals Because you want to be you want to be making sure that it's clear why you dismiss somebody and they're not afterwards saying well Actually, it's because you just found out I was pregnant for example If you have got that sort of evidence trail you've already shown well No, there was issues with various aspects of your performance or you know, falling out with colleagues or whatever it is You know, you have got that that evidence in place. So will employees still be able to end a probation period early Yes, absolutely. I mean, you know, obviously you want to have a really good contractual probation period clause in your contract that sort of setting out that you can have that um That just dismissal earlier if you wanted to um, and I mean I was actually talking to a client the other day about because I think they generally use six months probation Repair periods and they were saying while you know, like for example our sales manager rolls, you know They need that long to settle into the job and get going and it's not that you can't have a six months probation period You just need to be aware that at the end of it You know that that person is going to have unfair dismissal rights. So again, just to go back to what I was saying before It's really important to manage them properly and to have that sort of evidence trail of where things have gone wrong And maybe we could give listeners an example So what would an unfair dismissal claim potentially look like are there any big ones? Maybe we saw in the last couple of years that actually went to tribunal or more broadly or the themes we tend to see when it comes to on thyr dismissal claims? Well, usually it's because you haven't given either people it's sufficient warning or you have very often it'll be because something has been treated as gross misconduct and they've been dismissed straight away when in fact that wasn't reasonable. What you need to do to establish that you're dismissing well, I dismissal is unfair. The tribunal will be looking to say whether or not dismissal was within the band of reasonable responses in those circumstances. That doesn't mean to say that they would necessarily have done the same thing as the employer, but was there a reasonable investigation and was the decision that was reached within that band of reasonableness? But I think one of the challenges that employers will have, especially if they have a sixth month probation period is we see all the time when someone's invited to a probation meeting very often they will go off sec and a lot of small businesses, particularly if you're doing really well, you're told informally, you've passed your probation, but if you get a written invitation to a meeting, that means possibly it's not good news. And so therefore, as I say, if you're, for example, invited to a probation review meeting, maybe two, three weeks before that six month deadline, and then you went off sec and you didn't have the meeting until after the deadline, even though you extended the probation, that six month period for bringing a clear mullible ready kicked in, right? And I guess it sounds simple, but actually I think sometimes keeping track of an employees, you know, how long they've been with you as they start is you get at least track, yeah, you get in the depth of it, and you know, I've had it myself. So would you have any tips for people in terms of keeping track of that? I guess this comes back into the documented processes, but and it also comes in back to that point, I think we said around managers, again, managers are going to be crucial here, aren't those? Yeah, no, that's a really great point. I mean, I think, you know, some things are just really simple like diorizing the probationary periods and making sure that they understand the implications of the date. So, you know, if you've got a four month probation period, and there's Jill saying there's like a delay on sickness or holidays or whatever it is, you know, understanding what it means when you get to six months. And also just generally just making sure that managers are trained, again, we're talking about consistency, you know, you want to be making sure they understand about meeting up with employees and kind of maybe sort of the principles behind that as well to get them sort of their buy into it as well, because sometimes they will be thinking, I've got 101 things to do, I don't need to meet up with people sort of, you know, that regularly, but actually it really does give that opportunity to, you know, because we're not obviously what businesses want is brilliant employees, you know, doing a brilliant job. And that is all actually, you know, rather than thinking about sort of the negative side of tribunal claims, what you actually thinking about is how can I get my employees performing brilliantly? - 100%. - Yeah. Yeah, I really like that as a positive message is this should just be a good opportunity to look at, are you doing best job you can? Well, it comes to getting the, you put all that effort into recruitment, keeping those people on board, getting them on board, are you? And potentially part of that is going back out to some of your new highers and asking them maybe to many employers, I guess, spend that time reviewing their current probation period. - Yeah. - But hearing from the employers themselves and asking, was there anything you wanted that you didn't get? Was there something that was particularly useful? I guess it's a employees could think of this as a nice opportunity actually to really kind of check back in with their people? - Absolutely. I think that's a similar thing with a lot of the Employment Rights Act changes, is that, as you say, if you've got better recruitment, if you've got, you've put more focus on getting people on board success for lay and managing with their early stage, because of course, it's not great if you've had someone who hasn't been performing in their business for two years and that's the point you're getting rid of them. It's good if people genuinely are sick that they can stay at home rather than come into work, because actually the cost of presentism are actually higher than the cost of sickness absence. So all of these should make better businesses, but it's just incredibly difficult for small businesses, in particular, to make that transition. - Yeah, 100%. So that's two of the big three. Our third one that we're going to talk about today is harassment. So I think on one level, employers might be thinking, haven't I always had to deal with this and when there changes just over a year ago around harassment. So what's changing with harassment when it comes to the Employment Rights Act? - Well, there are two changes. The Work Protection Act, which you're referring to, which was introducing proactive duty to prevent sexual harassment. That was to take reasonable steps, that is increasing to all reasonable steps. But this was always a very strange piece of legislation because the law is that currently stands is that if someone in your business is harassing another member of your team, you will be liable for that, even if it was against your policy and you didn't know anything about it, unless you can show that you have taken all reasonable steps to prevent that from happening. And what the October changes are going to mean is that this will be extended to third parties as well. So it's actually the person who is harassing your team is not someone employed by you or who works for you, but a member of the public or a supplier or a customer, the same rules will apply. - Incorrect me if I'm wrong, though, but when the Work Protection Act was making its way through Parliament, I feel like I remember this third party harassment conversation happening. So what's the context behind that change and why didn't it come into force with the Work Protection Act? It didn't come into force because the several parties, particularly from the House of Lords, were concerned that this was going to affect free speech. There were lots of talk about, oh, you know, certain authors wouldn't be able to give talks in bookshops, mostly at might offend the people in the staff in the shop or if people can go out for a drink and maybe a member of staff heard a comment that they didn't agree with that, you know. And it was just there was a lot of publicity sort of drummed up on that angle. And I think people were losing sight of the fact that this is taking all reasonable steps, but it's still got to be unresinableness about it. No one's expecting you to completely exclude the possibility. - So I think hospitality is a classic scenario where I think this has been a hot conversation and I think there are already schemes in place to try and protect people who work behind bars, for example, but say I work in a small bar and one of my staff complains that a customer's been harassing them, making unwanted comments towards them, what changes about my approach to this with the change that's coming into force? - Well, first of all, at the moment, if someone complains, it's obviously as a reasonable employer, you should be doing something about it. And even though there isn't a claim under the Equality Act, there are other potential claims that the employee could bring. So it's obviously something we would be telling businesses to deal with and address even though it's not the law at the minute. But from October, you would be able to bring a claim as the employee under the Equality Act and look for damages under that piece of legislation. - So as an employee, when we say deal with it, what does all reasonable steps actually look like? Can we give some examples? Because I think, as you say, it's a broad and when you just say it on its own, quite a vague term. - Yes. I think the important things to note is that it is preventative as well because you want to be able to show you've taken all reasonable steps to prevent it happening. - So actually this is maybe are we saying to employers that focus should more be on, don't always think about, oh, what would I do if this happened? It's putting in those taking these steps in advance of anything happening. Absolutely. There's really four key things to look at here. First of all, your policies and that will be not just in relation to high people should be here and work, but also how they report concerns, also training and to that respect as well. Really importantly, when instance arise, they're dealt with appropriately. But then I think in this will be incredibly important with the third party element of this is doing a risk assessment. - Right. - So if you can show as an employer that you have sat down and actually thought where members of my team come into contact with people outside of third parties, and what can I do to try and control the risk that something inappropriate might happen? You're going to be going a long way along establishing that statutory defence. - Because a lot of those steps were steps that employers had to take as part of the Work Protection Act, weren't they? But now it's I guess the crux is you're extending it to the risk of third parties. We work with a lot of clients in sectors like care or on cleaning, where they'll have people out in the community all the time. - Yeah. - Do you have any advice to them in terms of what they should be doing now or say into their employees? - Yeah, I mean, I had an interesting care case actually a few weeks ago where it was an ambulance paramedic who had come into the workplace into the care home to obviously deal with a service user and had a major racist comment to a black manager and refused to deal with her. And then obviously the manager complained. And the, obviously one of the difficulties for our client was that they didn't employ the ambulance work. I mean, obviously they've been, you know, this was completely inappropriate. But it was, you know, they couldn't take action in the way that obviously they would have done if it had been a member of their staff. But, you know, again, we're talking about things like, you know, having a meeting with the employee and showing that you're obviously taking it as seriously as you can do and doing what you can, making it from like the ambulance service. Obviously saying if he comes into the premises again to obviously let us know, or if you have any other incidents like this at all, let us know. So it's things like that sort of, and then I mean, I suppose again, you know, in care, it's things like, as you say, you've got a lot of people coming in and lots of family members coming in. You could have perhaps like signs up saying to treat staff with respect. As we see, like in, you know, in hospitals and things, perhaps a reminder on like a visitor's book of behaviour. But it is difficult because sometimes you're dealing with, well, service users are dementia, for example, or there is that aspect that, you know, those service users need their family to come in. And it's not their fault if they are, you know, making, yes, exactly. And obviously, you know, to a point part of their care is having access to their family members. So it's a very, very tricky balance to make. And I guess it is, yeah. The key thing is here, we're not saying employers are now suddenly expected to control people and yes, exactly. You can't watch all reasonableness. We're all reasonable steps. And in 2027, there's going to be more regulations, isn't there? We're sort of setting out what those reasonable steps would look like, which will be helpful. Okay. So does something we're still waiting for? Or be it just to a point. Yeah. I think that's an in-live for them. Yeah. And I don't believe you're sending your members of your team item to work on other people's sites, you know, contact cleaners, for example, you could be asking questions from your clients of what policies do you have in place? So it's really just asking the question and giving consideration to it. That will be absolutely key. And maybe just to finish this, zoom back out to the basics of what is harassment? How we kind of, how under this legislation is harassment defined? Because you've mentioned racism and I think people often think of things like sexual harassment, cases like McDonald's, that got a lot of attention over the past couple of years. So just to remind people, what kind of harassment are we talking about here? So those seven protected characteristics of harassment are sex, gender, reassignment, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion and race. And basically, harassment is all about it sort of creating, I mean, it's a very complicated legal phrasing, but it's basically like a hostile or really unpleasant environment for that person because of behavior that's based on that, you know, that protected characteristics. So a really classic example would be, you know, somebody who is of the same Muslim religion and they are working in a work environment where there's banter, which is a horrible phrase, but we're an awful lot of like anti-Muslim jokes, which obviously makes it a really unpleasant environment for them and, you know, makes them feel really uncomfortable. And, you know, that is, you know, fully reasonably, that is their perception that that is, there's really unpleasant. So in a way, there's always, I guess, a bit of a fine line potentially between bullying and harassment, what's the difference? Yeah, so bullying, yeah, absolutely. I mean, you could have a very similar environment where somebody feels bullied, but the difference with the harassment claims are that it's based on that protected characteristic. Right. So you could be bullied for just a reason that, you know, you are disliked by your manager, for example, but that wouldn't necessarily lead to a harassment claim. Great. So that's the difference, but yeah, absolutely and both can lead to claims obviously. Okay, so we focused on those three changes, but the act goes much broader than that. Yeah. Perhaps you can take me through, Joe, but the run through of some other changes that employers should have on their radar. Well, this changes to family friendly rights. So April, for example, we'll see paternity leave and parental leave becoming day one, Mike's right. There's also going to be increased entitlement to bereavement leave and that's going to be a 2027 change. The big change, the one that probably is going to affect most businesses are the changes to zero wars worker rules. So for example, there will be a right to a guaranteed ours contract if you have worked a certain period of time and doing certain number of hours, we think that period of time is going to be 12 weeks. So for example, if I'm on a zero wars contract, but I am working regularly 30 hours a week over a 12 week period, an obligation will kick in to offer me a guaranteed ours contract for that number of hours. And there will also be new rights, not just for zero wars contract workers, but also people who are on any sort of contract where it doesn't really have a defined working pattern for the first time to have reasonable notice of shifts and also reasonable notice of either canceling shortening or moving those shifts with the right compensation if you don't get that notice, which will be a big change to a lot of employers. For example, you talk about hospitality, it's quite common to perhaps have quite a few people working a shift thinking, well, I'll just send people home early if I don't need them, which is great for a business because you can cope with any eventuality, but obviously not great for the worker if they think they're getting any at our shift in their centre, I'm after two hours. And so this will completely change that. Yeah, because zero hour contracts got a lot of debate, didn't it? Because people were saying, well, I like the flexibility. That's the modern workplace. You know, I want to be able to work on my own time and is that really pro-employee? So what would you say to people who, I guess, take that approach to it and were there any, was there any reaction from the government in terms of those criticisms? Well, yes, it's obviously fantastic for employers. There's no doubt about that, but there was a general consensus that it was bad not just for workers, but for the economy as a whole. There was a review of modern working practices by Matthew Taylor, you know, probably a blind about eight or nine years ago now, which said that actually this one-sided flexibility where it was really just all going in the employer's favour meant that there were high levels of under-employment in the economy. So people who could be working more hours and so there weren't classed as unemployed, but there was that capacity to do more. And obviously it's what it does for people with families, etc. this insecure work. And it also was leading to a lack of engagement. So to have, to really strengthen the economy and look at society as a whole, it had to be addressed. And it's not just something, which for example, the UK is focused on. This has been looked at globally and many jurisdictions have tackled this issue. Right. Okay. So zooming back out on all of this, I think another big question will be enforcement. How is all of this going to be enforced? And the fair work agency has been introduced as part of the employment rights act. So what is that? And I guess maybe Emma, what are their powers going to be? Yeah. So no, absolutely. I mean, the idea is to have much more of a single enforcement body, which is looking at a lot of different aspects. Because at the moment we've got it quite sort of piecemeal in terms of like, for example, HMRC deal with National minimum wage, got the health and safety executive looking more at working time breaches. So it's bringing it under one roof more and with increased rights to look at things like a stashy sick pay and holiday pay as well. But also with quite much more draconian enforcement powers as well. So they can go into workplaces. They can require to meet with employees. They can require to see documents. But also they can actually bring a claim on behalf of an employee, even if they don't want to bring that claim themselves. So obviously that's a whole new kettle of fish because quite often there are personal reason for an employee not wanting to bring a claim. But from the fair work agency's point of view, they're just looking at, does this employee a need a claim to be brought against them? I mean, that sounds like a department or an agency that's going to need surely a kind of fairly broad resource. So I mean, has the government said anything about how they're going to hire for that agency? How many people we think might staff it or is it the detail or a little cloudy right now? I think, well, personally, I think it's a bit cloudy. But I mean, one thing I would say is that they are going to make, well, putting force of regulations that are saying about how the fair work agency can get enforcement costs back. So, you know, perhaps similar to fees for intervention with the health and safety executive. So in other words, there's going to be, yeah. I'm sure a cost puts on to the employees who've been found to be in breach and they would be part of that would be paying. So for example, with an, like a national minimum wage breach, there's going to be a 200% fine for that. But also we would imagine there's going to be a charge for the fact of, you know, the fair work agency's time, yeah, not really. - Yeah, okay, wow. So that is in a nutshell, the employment rights and as much as it can be in a nutshell. So a lot of people might have listened to everything we've gone through today and we've not even dived into detail in all of the changes and be thinking, I'm already stretched. This is overwhelming. So what would you say to those people? - I can't give a great deal of comfort to those people because this is going, we're entering into a period of at least 18 months of fairly constant change because not only do we have those, you know, time tables where it's going to be April, October and then more generally, 2027. But there will be facts emerging through like that period. You know, regulations will be issued during those periods, consultation will be issued and responses to consultations. So there's an awful lot of change. I think the one thing that will happen is if you do keep an eye out, follow all the changes, prepare as much as you can in advance. Businesses should be in a better shape at the end of it, but undoubtedly there is going to be a period of pain. - So what are we at citation going to do for clients to help them prepare for all these changes? - Well, we want to take obviously as much of the heavy lifting as possible of businesses. So what we have been spending, well in fact, ever since Labour's plan to make work pair was published, we have been tracking it every step of the way. So what we will do is work out what the changes are, how they're going to impact our clients, educate them through our legal updates, through our webinars, through giving advice to clients, and then making changes to policies, creating extra resources, and we have systems in place so that when, for example, for the April changes, when the handbooks need to be changed, we can do that instantly for all businesses so they don't have to worry about any of that. So it takes just a bit of that pressure off and they can focus a little bit more on what they're doing. We're here for that piece of mind, aren't we, I guess, to summarise it? - Yes, so people can focus on their business. So we will take care of all the legal or machinations behind the scene. - So Jill, Emma, to finish us up, I'm going to ask you a horrible question because we're not everything we've just talked about, but in one single sentence, what's the key message you want employees to take away about the Employment Rights Act in one sentence? I think stay alert to changes. This is going to, this is not something you can get advice on now and then it's done and dusted. It will be a constantly changing landscape and change. So stay alert to developments. - Emma? - Right, gosh, one sentence. So I think I would say don't panic and just be aware that some of these changes are definitely going to help your business be for the better. - Thank you both so much for joining us today and for talking us through all of that. Really appreciate your time. And thank you everyone for listening. Stay tuned for further updates as we get the regulations published, as we get consultation published, we'll definitely be back. So thank you for your time and we'll see you next time. (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]