The Government has now issued a new Employment Rights Act 2025 timeline, formally replacing the July 2025 roadmap. The substance of the reforms has not been diluted, but the order in which pressure lands on employers has shifted.
The revised timeline spreads delivery across 2026 and 2027, pushing some of the most financially exposed changes of the Employment Rights Act 2025 later, while bringing enforcement capability, statutory cost expansion and trade union leverage forward.
For business leaders, the mistake is reading this as delay. It is a reprioritisation of risk.
2026: enforcement and baseline cost
The centre of gravity in 2026 is not dismissal law. It is enforcement reach and workforce cost.
From early April 2026, Statutory Sick Pay expands significantly through the removal of the Lower Earnings Limit and the waiting period. SSP rates are also increasing.
At the same time, collective redundancy exposure doubles through the increase in the maximum protective award.
Layered on top of this is the establishment of the Fair Work Agency on 7 April 2026. That date matters because it marks a shift from fragmented enforcement to a more coordinated model. Even where individual rights come later, the enforcement environment hardens first.
Businesses will feel this through earlier engagement, faster escalation and less tolerance for informal compliance.
Trade union & dismissal law changes
The updated timetable also accelerates changes that affect workforce relations rather than termination decisions.
From February 2026, most of the Trade Union Act 2016 is repealed, simplifying industrial action processes and strengthening protections for those taking part. Electronic and workplace balloting follows no earlier than August 2026, with further access and recognition reforms clustered into late 2026.
The sequencing is deliberate. Trade unions gain procedural and access advantages well before unfair dismissal thresholds fall.
For employers, that increases the likelihood of disputes surfacing earlier and being pursued more assertively, even where formal dismissal risk has not yet shifted.
Sexual harassment & wider dismissal reform
Another feature of the revised roadmap is that workplace conduct obligations strengthen before dismissal rules change.
From October 2026, employers face expanded duties to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, including harassment by third parties. There is also a regulation-making power to define what steps count as reasonable.
These duties sit alongside stronger whistleblowing protection linked to sexual harassment, already taking effect from April 2026.
In practice, this increases investigation risk, reporting volume and regulatory scrutiny before the six-month qualifying period for unfair dismissal is introduced.
2027: litigation risk accelerates
The most commercially sensitive changes are now concentrated in 2027.
From January 2027, the unfair dismissal qualifying period reduces to six months for dismissals occurring from that date, and the compensatory award cap is removed. Fire and rehire protections also move into 2027, rather than late 2026 as previously expected.
By the time these changes arrive, employers will already be operating in an environment with stronger unions, wider statutory entitlements and a centralised enforcement body.
The litigation risk is not just higher. It is less forgiving.
Business takeaways
The revised roadmap changes how employers should prepare. The updated timetable shows that the build-up happens earlier, through cost expansion, enforcement capability and workplace rights that affect behaviour long before termination decisions are made.
Probation management, manager capability, documentation discipline and early-stage decision-making all come under pressure before unfair dismissal thresholds fall.
Businesses that wait for 2027 to adjust are likely to find they are already operating in a tougher environment without the systems to manage it.
To discuss how to prepare your organisation, contact us to speak with our employment law specialists.
