Employment Law was a key feature of Labour’s manifesto, with their Plan to Make Work Pay promising sweeping reforms.
This article was first published in October 2024, and updated in January 2026 once the Employment Rights Bill had passed.
Shortly after being elected, the government published it's Next Steps to Make Work Pay plan, outlining the party’s long-term plans for making these changes. Including bills, reviews, consultations and codes of practice, it’s a lot to take in – especially for employers who have plenty of other work to get on with.
With such wide reforms planned, it will likely be a relief for employers that the changes will come in stages. However, this can also make it difficult to keep up with. We have tried to summarise the plans to make your life easier.
At the end of this article, you'll find a link to all of our articles examining the impact of the changes.
The Employment Rights Act 2025
After many amendments and a lot of debate between the House of Commons and House of Lords, the Employment Rights Act 2025 is now passed. The Act tackles many of the promised reforms, but there is still further detail to be added through regulations and codes of practice.
The reforms that made it into the bill include
Banning ‘exploitative’ zero-hours contracts. The Act requires employers to offer guaranteed hours in certain circumstances and to give reasonable notice when a shift is cancelled or changed, or else pay the worker for the shift.
‘Day 1 rights’, including entitlement to Paternity Leave and Parental Leave.
Making employers liable for third-party harassment, unless they had taken all reasonable steps to prevent it.
Extending the law around protected disclosures to specifically include protection for disclosures that sexual harassment has occurred, is occurring or is likely to occur.
Strengthening rights for pregnant workers and those returning from other types of family leave.
Closing loopholes that allow fire and rehire / replace. Provide effective remedies, including lifting the cap on the protective award where an employers hasn’t properly followed collective redundancy processes.
Strengthening provisions on collective redundancy.
Preventing employers avoiding equal pay by outsourcing services.
Introducing specific measures to improve pay and conditions in education and care.
Introducing measures to modernise Trade Union laws.
The changes made in the Act are not immediate, but will take effect throughout 2026 and 2027. You can read all of the key dates here.
Consulting
The government has committed to thorough consultations around the reforms, with input from businesses, workers and trade unions. The government intends to amend the bill during its passage to reflect the outcome of these consultations. Some consultations have taken place, with the government now considering the feedback.
Equality (Race and Disability) Bill
In addition to the Employment Rights Bill, the government intends to publish the Equality (Race and Disability) Bill. This will:
extend pay gap reporting to ethnicity and disability for employers with more than 250 staff and measures on equal pay.
extend equal pay rights to protect workers suffering discrimination on the basis of race or disability.
implement a regulatory and enforcement unit for equal pay with involvement from trade unions.
It remains to be seen how equal pay rights will differ from the protection currently offered by the Equality Act 2010. The government is considering the response to it's consultation on implementing ethnicity and pay gap reporting.
Existing powers and non-legislative routes
Not all of the promised change will be achieved through new legislation. The ‘Next Steps’ document outlines reforms that will be achieved using existing powers and non-legislative routes, including:
tightening the ban on unpaid internships.
allowing the use of secure electronic balloting for trade union statutory ballots.
introducing the Right to Switch Off through a statutory Code of Practice (although this is now in doubt).
supporting workers with a terminal illness through the Dying to Work Charter.
These changes began from Autumn 2024 onwards. There has already been some progress, with the Government changing the remit of the independent Low Pay Commission to take account of the cost of living.
Reforms that will take longer
The government accepts that some of the promised changes will take longer to implement. These include:
a full review of parental leave.
a review of carer's leave, considering the option of paid leave.
consultation around workplace surveillance technologies.
protection for the self employed, including a right to a written contract, extended blacklisting protections and extended health & safety protections.
examining a wide variety of issues with TUPE regulations and processes.
a review of health and safety guidance and regulations, with particular focus on neurodiversity awareness, extreme temperatures, long covid, and reflecting the diversity of the workforce.
enabling collective grievances.
The government has not given dates for when it expects to progress these reforms, although most will need time for extensive reviews, consultations and work with stakeholders.
Read more about the key changes in the Employment Rights Bill, and how employers can prepare.
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