The government stated that the Employment Rights Bill aimed to modernise industrial relations and strengthen employment law enforcement. Its plan to Make Work Pay was seen as one of the main elements of the government's
five missions to grow the economy, by improving productivity and employment. The bill repealed the
Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023, the Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Act 2023 and most, but not all, of the
Trade Union Act 2016. It also amended the Seafarers Wages Act 2023,
Procurement Act 2023,
Equality Act 2010,
Employment Relations Act 1999,
Employment Rights Act 1996 and
Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992.
Hours and pay The main provisions of the Employment Rights Act 2025 on pay and hours include the following: • a limit to
zero hours contracts (ss. 1–8), but with major potential exemptions, particularly for the employment agency industry (Sch 1); • requiring the employer's reasons for rejecting a right to request flexible work are reasonable (s. 9); • reforms to statutory sick pay, including making it available from the first day of employment (ss. 10–13); • new policies on allocating tips (s. 14).
Job security The ERA 2025's main provisions on job security are to: • reduce the qualifying period for unfair dismissal to 6 months (s. 25 and Sch 3), not to "day one"; • restrict the practice of "fire and rehire" (ss. 28–31), but not ban it in cases where employers argue they are in "financial difficulties"; • strengthen provisions for consultation before collective redundancy, including increasing the maximum protective for failure to consult from 90 to 180 days' pay.
Equality The ERA 2025's main provisions on equality are to: • remove the qualifying periods for parental and paternity leave, so they are available like maternity leave from the first day of employment (ss. 15–16), but not changing the disparity between maternity and paternity which is a leading contributor to the
gender pay gap; • require employers take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, make employers liable for harassment by third parties if they fail to take reasonable steps, and protect workers' disclosure of sexual harassment as whistleblowing (ss. 20–24); • forbid dismissal during pregnancy or in a period after return from statutory family leave (ss. 26–27); • create duties for employers with over 250 staff (around half the workforce) to publish "equality action plans" to address the gender pay gap, and include outsourced workers in the calculations of the pay gap (ss. 33–34); • create facility time for equality representatives (s. 65).
Collective rights The ERA 2025's main provisions on collective rights are to: • require a "Fair Pay Agreement" in adult social care (ss. 39–55), and restoring a "School Support Staff Negotiating Body" (s. 38), but not requiring fair pay agreements in any other sector; • create a duty on employers to give workers a written statement that they can join a trade union (s. 58), but not saying what is required in the statement until the Secretary of State drafts rules; • restate a union's right to make an "access agreement" with an employer to publicise the union to workers with appeal to the Central Arbitration Committee in the case of a dispute (s. 59), but not to create an right of access; • remove the 40% turnout threshold for unions to get recognition (s. 60 and Sch 6, para 19(3)) but leaving the duty to bargain solely in enterprises (not across sectors), and on 'pay, hours and holidays' rather than all terms; • restate the power of the Secretary of State to introduce electronic ballots for union elections or industrial action (s. 73, and
Employment Relations Act 2004 s. 54) but not actually requiring e-ballots begin; • make minor updates to the right of workers to not detriment (s. 76), and an employee to not be unfairly dismissed for industrial action (s. 77), but does not extend the right to protection to all workers as international law requires; • remove any requirement for 50% turnout at strike ballots, ensure ballot authority lasts 12 months, reducing notice of strike action from 2 weeks to 10 days (ss. 68–72 and 74), repealing most of the Trade Union Act 2016, but this is subject to the Secretary of State implementing rules which it still had not done by April 2026 • repeal the
Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 (s. 78).
Enforcement The ERA 2025's main provisions on enforcement are to: • create a
Fair Work Agency which can enforce a limited range of criminal offences and certain wrongs in statutes designated as "labour market legislation", including the
Employment Agencies Act 1973,
National Minimum Wage Act 1998,
Working Time Regulations 1998,
Gangmasters (Licensing) Act 2004 (ss. 90–151 and Sch 7), but not the
Employment Rights Act 1996 or the
TULRCA 1992; • enable the Fair Work Agency to enforce Tribunal judgments that have been ignored; • create a power of the Fair Work Agency to bring proceedings for civil cases where it appears a worker will not bring proceedings (s. 116); • increase the time limits for Employment Tribunal claims to six months for most rights, including in the ERA 1996, TULRCA 1992, and the Equality Act 2010 s. 123 (on discrimination at work, equalising with equal pay claims).
Territorial scope The Act mainly concerns Great Britain, as employment law is devolved in Northern Ireland. It is structured into six parts. Parts 1 and 2 of the bill mainly apply to Great Britain except for clause 25, which covers public sector outsourcing and also includes Northern Ireland. Part 3 of the bill applies to England and Wales, as it covers collective bargaining for the adult social care and school support staff sectors, which have different processes in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Part 4 on trade union law and industrial action applies to Great Britain, while part 5 on labour market enforcement and part 6 on more general provisions apply to the entire United Kingdom. ==Developments after passage==