Employment Rights Act 2026: What's Actually Changing, and When

There's been enough noise around the Employment Rights Act that a lot of business owners have tuned it out. Understandable, but a mistake. As of this month, several changes are already in force, several more land before the year's out, and the one that matters most for hiring decisions is closer than the "January 2027" date makes it sound.

Already in force

The first major changes landed on 18 February 2026: an easier process for organising industrial action, and dismissal protection extended to cover the full duration of any protected industrial action. Most South Yorkshire SMEs without a unionised workforce won't feel that one directly.

April brought the changes that actually touch most employers. From 6 April, the collective redundancy protective award doubled to a maximum of 180 days' pay. Statutory Sick Pay changed on the same date, with the Lower Earnings Limit and three day waiting period removed, so more employees qualify from day one of illness. Day one paternity leave and unpaid parental leave both became available from 18 February, and the Fair Work Agency stood up on 7 April, pulling enforcement of holiday pay, SSP and other rights under one body. If you haven't updated your policies for any of this, that's not a future task. It's a live gap.

Right now, this month

Two consultations that matter close in the coming weeks. One on misuse of NDAs in harassment and discrimination cases closes 8 July, and the outcome will shape whether standard settlement agreement wording needs revisiting. If you use NDAs in settlement agreements with any regularity, worth flagging now rather than waiting for the final regulations and scrambling later.

Between now and the end of the year

Electronic and workplace balloting for trade union ballots is expected from August, though the 50% turnout threshold for industrial action ballots stays in place until at least then. October brings a cluster: expanded trade union access rights, a new duty to inform workers of their right to join a union, and strengthened sexual harassment duties requiring "all reasonable steps" rather than just "reasonable steps", a meaningfully higher bar. Employment tribunal time limits extending from three to six months are also expected no earlier than October, with the wording deliberately leaving room for slippage beyond that.

January 2027, and why the real deadline is sooner

Unfair dismissal qualifying periods drop from two years to six months, and the compensation cap is removed, from January 2027. Here's the part worth sitting with. Anyone hired from around late June 2026 falls within scope once they hit six months' service, meaning the practical effect starts now, not in six months' time. Fire and rehire restrictions land on the same January date, having been pushed back from an earlier October target.

What this means for a Sheffield employer this week

Anyone you've hired since late June is already on the clock. Probation and early tenure performance management needs to be genuinely robust, not a formality, because the safety net is shrinking in real time rather than at some point next year. If NDAs feature in your settlement agreement template, that's worth a look before the consultation outcome lands. And if a redundancy process is anywhere on the horizon, the documentation standard needs to assume the higher financial exposure that's already in force, not the old one.