Timeline & current thinking
ERB Update Hub
Your home for the latest news and thinking
Implementation timeline
Learn about the latest updates on Government's stated timeline of implementation.
Autumn 2025
Consultations:
- Giving employees protection from unfair dismissal from 'day 1’
- Reinstating School Support Staff Negotiating Body
- Fair Pay Agreement for the Adult Social Care sector [issued]
Autumn/Winter 2025
Consultations:
- A package of trade union measures including:
- electronic balloting and workplace balloting - simplifying trade union recognition processes; - duty to inform workers of their right to join a union; [issued] - rights of access. [issued] (New rights and protections for trade union representatives will be covered by an Acas Code of Practice consultation.)
- Fire and rehire
- Regulation of umbrella companies
- Bereavement leave [issued]
- Rights for pregnant workers [issued]
- Ending the exploitative use of Zero Hours Contracts
October/November 2025
- Repeal of the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023
- Repeal of the majority of the Trade Union Act 2016
- Removing the 10 year ballot requirement for trade union political funds
- Simplifying industrial action notices and industrial action ballot notices
- Protections against dismissal for taking industrial action
Winter 2025/early 2026
Consultations expected on:
- A package of trade union measures including protection against detriments for taking industrial action and, blacklisting.
- Tightening tipping law
- Collective redundancy
- Flexible working
April 2026
- Collective redundancy protective award – doubling the maximum period of the protective award
- 'Day 1' Paternity Leave and Unpaid Parental Leave
- Whistleblowing protections
- Fair Work Agency body established
- Statutory Sick Pay – removal of the Lower Earnings Limit and waiting period
- Simplifying the trade union recognition process
- Electronic and workplace balloting
- Gender pay gap and menopause action plans (introduced on a voluntary basis in April 2026 and required from 2027)
October 2026
- Fire and rehire
- Bringing forward regulations to establish the Fair Pay Agreement Adult Social Care Negotiating Body
- Procurement - two-tier code reinstated
- Tightening tipping law
- Duty to inform workers of their right to join a trade union
- Strengthen trade unions' rights of access
- Requiring employers to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment of their employees
- Introducing an obligation on employers not to permit the harassment of their employees by third parties
- New rights and protections for trade union reps
- Employment tribunal time limits extention
- Extending protections against detriments for taking industrial action
Mandatory Seafarers Charter in December 2026
2027
- Day 1’ right – protection from unfair dismissal
- Gender pay gap and menopause action plans (introduced on a voluntary basis in April 2026)
- Rights for pregnant workers and family leavers
- Introducing a power to enable regulations to specify steps that are to be regarded as “reasonable”, to determine whether an employer has taken all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment
- Blacklisting
- Regulation of umbrella companies
- Collective redundancy – collective consultation threshold
- Flexible working
- Bereavement leave
- Ending the exploitative use of Zero Hours Contracts and applying ZHC measures to agency workers
