Employment Rights Act Bill 2025 UNISON FAQ
What’s happening?
The government’s Employment Rights Act 2025 (formerly Employment Rights Bill or ERB) is set to make game-changing improvements to working life in Britain through a raft of new individual and collective rights.
For Individuals it includes
- Strengthened flexible working rights
- Ending exploitative zero-hours culture
- Sick pay from the first day you’re ill
- Bereavement leave widened to close family members
- Improved pregnancy and maternity rights
- New ‘day one’ rights to parental and paternity leave.
Collective rights to help UNISON support members, include:
- New access and recognition rights
- Improvements to facility time so reps can better represent members
- Protections against detriment and dismissal when taking industrial action
- Improved collective redundancy provisions
- A new Fair Work Agency to help enforce rights and resolve disputes.
- An Adult Social Care Negotiating Body to deliver a Fair Pay Agreement for care workers (in England at first)
- A new School Support Staff Negotiating Body (in England at first)
- A two-tier workforce code to stop outsourcing driving down pay and terms.
For the past year, UNISON has been examining how the new law will change the way we organise and support members, ensuring they receive the full benefit and that we are ready for each tranche as it’s implemented over the next two years.
This preparation will be led by our activists and branches. Without local readiness for these changes, we will not be able to support members effectively.
Key things for branches to start doing over the coming months
- Audit workplace policies and ask employers how they intend to comply with elements of the act – will it be discussed in normal joint meetings, or are they setting up new meetings to implement the law? For example, if workers are on zero-hour contracts, how are they going to comply with the new rules? This is especially important for Statutory Sick Pay changes, which come into force on 6 April 2026; request that employers bring forward these worker-friendly new rules before legal deadlines.
- Review access and recognition agreements discuss with other local unions and raise any changes quickly with employers to ensure policies are updated to reflect the new regulations.
- Elect local equality officers, noting that facility time will be available from October 2026 if they complete the required training. Discuss how branch will allocate facility time appropriately, when the new regulations come in.
- Contact regional staff if you believe your employer faces specific challenges or is not planning to follow any part of the act.
- Ensure employers understand the increased trade union powers both on collective and individual rights, as soon as possible, and that they plan to involve unions earlier and more substantively as equal partners on matters such as pay.
- Update promotional and recruitment materials to reflect the new rules and to ensure members are aware of their new rights. You may want to do a local event on these also.
- Watch for employers exploiting the implementation period, e.g. using fire and rehire before it becomes an automatic unfair dismissal in October 2026.
- Identify targets for workplace access agreements away from your core employers and using the easier statutory recognition procedure. Consider Branch Support and Organising Fund (BSOF) bids to your region.