The Employment Rights Act 2025 is significantly changing employment law, and a raft of reforms are coming into force from this month. Any organisation employing people, including within lighting, needs to be on top of what’s already changed, what’s due to change, and what further changes are coming down the line.
By Sophie Askew and Howard Crossman
The Employment Rights Act 2025 (ERA 2025) presents the biggest transformation of UK employment laws in decades. It will bring (in fact is bringing and already has brought) with it significant changes for any organisation or professionals employing or managing staff, including of course within the lighting industry.
So, it is imperative you are aware of what is changing, when, and what the likely impact for you will be.
The first thing to recognise with the ERA 2025 is that it is being implemented in stages, with some of the biggest changes due to come into force this month (in other words October 2026), with others happening beyond that. So, you need to be prepared right now!
ERA 2025 CHANGES ALREADY IN FORCE
For completeness, the following changes under the ERA 2025 have already been introduced (from 6 April 2026):
- Day-one statutory sick pay (SSP). The previous three-day waiting period and lower earnings limit were removed, which means that sick pay entitlement now begins on day one of an absence. For workers earning below the standard SSP rate (or £123.25 per week), a new system will pay the lower of 80% of normal weekly earnings or the standard SSP rate.
- Day-one parental, paternity, and bereaved partner leave. The changes here are: unpaid parental leave and paternity leave have now become day-one rights; paternity leave and statutory paternity pay can now be taken following a period of shared parental leave; and a bereaved father or partner is entitled to up to 52 weeks of paternity leave if the mother or primary adopter dies within the first year of the child’s life.
- Collective redundancy. The maximum protective award for failing to collectively consult in a redundancy situation has now increased from a maximum of 90 to 180 days’ pay for each affected employee.
- Whistleblowing. A disclosure that sexual harassment ‘has occurred, is occurring, or is likely to occur’ now constitutes what is known as ‘a qualifying disclosure’ under whistleblowing legislation. The practical effect of this will be felt in how complaints are received and investigations conducted, as organisations will need to decide whether complaints fall under their grievance, whistleblowing or dedicated harassment policies.
ERA 2025 CHANGES FROM 1 OCTOBER 2026
From here is where get to the meat of what is changing from this month and beyond, and so what to be preparing for now and horizon-scanning for coming months.
- Tribunal time limits. From 1 October 2026, the time limit for bringing most claims to an employment tribunal will increase from three to six months. This is doubling the window in which claims can be brought. Keeping accurate and up to date employment records and decisions will be more important than ever.
- Sexual harassment. This change will come in from the end of this month (in other words from 30 October 2026). Since October 2024, an employer has had to take ‘reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. From 30 October 2026, the ERA will extend the preventative duty to require employers to taking ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment from taking place.
Regulations for this are expected in 2027 or 2028 to help employers identify specific steps, including risk assessments, plans and policies, reporting mechanisms, and complaint-handling procedures, to help meet the preventative duty. In the meantime, employers must be more proactive than ever in their approach to risk management, as well as being able to demonstrate all of the steps they have taken to comply with the preventative duty.
This is particularly important for employers in the lighting industry, where staff regularly come into contact with a wide range of individuals and/or where lone working is prevalent.
- Liability for third-party harassment. This change is also due from 30 October 2026. From this date, all employers could find themselves liable for harassment (in relation to all relevant protected characteristics) taking place in the course of a person’s employment if they fail to take all reasonable steps to prevent the harassment from taking place.
Again, employers within the lighting sector must be vigilant to this change in the law as they could face claims based on the conduct of any person their staff come into contact with during the course of their employment.
- Trade union rules. Various changes to existing trade union rules are expected to come into force on 30 October 2026, including a right for trade unions to access the workplace. Other changes are also expected, which are relevant only to unionised employers or employers facing recognition requests.
Any employer with 21 or more workers may be subject to an access request from a trade union wanting access to the workforce. Once a request is received, there will be a “negotiation period” for the union and employer to agree written terms on which the union access will apply.
- Public sector outsourcing: two-tier workforce. The changes here will mean that workers who are transferred to a new employer as part of an outsourced public services contract, and those working alongside them, are protected with the aim of preventing a ‘two-tier workforce’.
This will be achieved by ensuring that the contractor’s direct hires are not treated less favourably than the incoming public sector workers (and vice versa). The power to make these changes in the law will come in from October, but further legislation is needed to introduce the substantive provisions.
However, be aware, once introduced, this could be a significant and burdensome change for organisations who contract with the public sector.
ERA 2025 CHANGES FROM JANUARY 2027
Looking to next year, a further tranche of ERA-related changes will be coming down the line. So, here is what to be preparing for.
- New unfair dismissal rights. All employees will have the right to claim unfair dismissal after just six months’ continuous service, reduced from the current two-year qualifying period. The current cap on compensation will also be removed, putting unfair dismissal claims on a level playing field with discrimination claims in respect of the level of compensation which could be awarded where processes and procedures go wrong.
The change in the qualifying period is significant and implementing a robust probationary process to deal with underperformance at the outset of employment will be crucial. The lifting of the compensatory cap will have the biggest impact where disputes with high earners arise, as it will curtail an employer’s ability to enter into a swift commercial settlement with these employees.
- ‘Fire and rehire’ rights/restricted variations. Except in cases of genuine financial difficulty (which will be very difficult to establish), an employee will be automatically considered unfairly dismissed where the reason for dismissal is that the employer sought to make what is termed a ‘restricted variation’ to their contract and the employee refused.
Restricted variations include terms relating to pay, performance measures, pensions, working hours and shift timing.
- Trade unions – statements of rights. A new right for workers to receive a statement of trade union rights from their employer will be introduced on 1 January 2027.
For new workers, the statement must be provided to the worker directly at the same time as their ‘section 1 statement’ (in other words, their contract of employment or engagement).
For existing workers, it must be provided directly or indirectly by 5 April 2027. Reminders must also be provided to workers annually thereafter – detailed guidance on how this will work in practice is expected in November 2026.
ERA 2025: 2027 AND BEYOND
Moving to ERA 2025 changes coming over the horizon, albeit on a longer timeframe, probably the key one for employers to be watching closely is changes to zero-hours contracts, as follows.
- Zero-hours contracts. The ERA 2025 will introduce a duty to offer guaranteed hours, provide reasonable notice of shifts (with compensation where shifts are cancelled, moved, or curtailed) and protections from detriment for workers engaged on zero hour or low hour contracts. Crucially, these protections will also be extended to agency workers.
Whilst we are still waiting for a lot of the key detail to be set out in regulations, organisations within the lighting sector which rely on zero hour or agency staff should expect to face increased administrative and financial burden as a result of these changes.
- Other changes. A raft of other changes are also expected throughout 2027 and beyond. These will include the implementation of mandatory employer ‘action plans’ on gender equality and menopause, flexible working rules, and bereavement leave.
Other changes coming will include the banning of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in discrimination and harassment cases, greater protections in respect of the dismissal of pregnant workers and those returning from family leave, and changes to the threshold for the number of employees in respect of collective redundancy consultation.
UNDERSTANDING THE ERA TIMELINE
As the main article makes clear, the ERA’s changes have already begun (as of April) and are set to continue into next year and beyond, even if some of the detail of the more distant changes is yet to become fully clear. Broadly, however, this is the timeline you need to be keeping in mind:
OCTOBER 2026
✓Tribunal time limits
✓Duty to prevent sexual harassment
✓Liability for third-party harassment
✓ Trade union rules, including a right of access
✓Public sector outsourcing
JANUARY 2027
✓Unfair dismissal
✓ ‘Fire and rehire’/restricted variations
✓ Trade union – statement of rights
2027 AND BEYOND
✓Zero-hours contracts
✓Flexible working
✓Bereavement leave
✓Pregnancy/maternity protections
✓More collective redundancy changes
Sophie Askew is a partner in the employment department and Howard Crossman (hcrossman@greenwoodsgrm.co.uk) is head of construction at Greenwoods GRM. With offices in London, Cambridge and Peterborough, Greenwoods GRM is a UK commercial law firm providing legal advice and pragmatic solutions to local, national and international clients.
This is an abridged version of the article that appears in the October edition of Lighting Journal. To read the full article, simply click on the page-turner to your right.
Please note as well, the online version of this article has been amended to reflect some late changes made to the ERA implementation timeline after the print edition went to press.
Image: Pexels
