Two employment law experts have warned that UK workplaces face ‘the biggest change in employment legislation for a decade’ as sweeping reforms edge closer.
With the Government’s proposed Employment Rights Bill having recently received royal assent, now becoming the Employment Rights Act 2025, employers and employees alike are being urged to prepare now for changes affecting workplace protections.
Katie Bullimore and Rebecca Reid, two employment law experts at Derby law firm Smith Partnership, say uncertainty around the final wording of the legislation should not stop businesses and workers from taking early action.
“Six months is not a long period of time”
One of the most significant proposed reforms is the reduction of the qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims from two years to six months.
Rebecca explained: “I think the law in respect of unfair dismissal will be probably the biggest out of everything with the new changes, purely because it’s been reduced. It was initially proposed as a day one right, but now it’s been amended to six months. Currently, the law is two years.
“Six months is not a long period of time to decide whether somebody is fit for that role or not.”
Katie continued: “I think what it will do is it means that employers are going to have to be thinking about their recruitment processes, their probationary period processes, to make sure that they are sufficiently able to identify whether that person is a right fit for the business within a relatively short space of time.”
“Employers aren’t prepared yet”
While the reforms are expected to be phased in from next year, Katie said many employers are not yet ready.
“Not at all as yet, because we still don’t know what this law is going to look like.
“We’ve had this ping pong back and forward between the House of Commons and House of Lords with regards to various amendments”.
The House of Lords backed down with their final amendment on 16 December 2025, finally allowing the bill to be passed: “Employers will need to look at their policies to ensure they are quite stringent and cover everything that it needs to.”
“Don’t leave it until the last minute”
Katie said: “There are some changes that we know are happening. So statutory sick pay, for example, that three-day waiting period that we’ve got at the moment before you can claim statutory sick pay, that will be removed from April 2026.
“The reality is, employers are probably going to need to be updating sick pay policies, perhaps contracts of employment as well. That gives an opportunity anyway to do a sort of wider review of handbooks and policies.”
Rebecca agreed: “You’re not going to be able to understand which areas are your risk points unless you’ve got a detailed knowledge of what your staff looks like, what your staffing body looks like.”
“We do expect an increase in disputes”
The experts also warned that the reforms are likely to reshape the employment disputes landscape.
Rebecca said: “I do think there will be (an increase), especially with employers probably getting to grasp with the changes that are coming about, an increase in the disputes that people may be having.
“It might be that we see a reduction in some other types of claims, particularly things like whistleblowing claims, potentially also discrimination claims, where employees sometimes will bring those types of claims instead because they don’t have the current two years’ service.”
Katie continued: “It might mean that we see more settlement agreements, so employers using settlement agreements in order to exit people from businesses, and indeed employees perhaps wanting settlement agreements to exit.”
Advice for employees
The reforms are not just something for employers to consider. Bullimore said employees should also take an active role as changes come into force.
“Awareness as well, isn’t it? Changes for employees. If their employer is making those changes, then to start reviewing those internally as to what they are looking like and as to whether they’re impacted in any way.
“If you’ve got concerns, raise those with your employer proactively, amicably and pragmatically to try and resolve those directly.”
“This will affect everyone”
“We’ve seen all the hype about it. This is the biggest change in employment legislation for a decade, and I don’t think that is underselling it. Everywhere will be impacted by these changes, big, small, and everything in between them, every sector. So there’s something for everybody.
“Be proactive. If you know something’s happening, do something.”
