The Employment Rights Act 2025 is claimed to be key pillar of the government’s Plan to Make Work Pay, which is aimed at growing the economy, boosting wages, and reducing insecure work.
The Act was developed in close collaboration with business and trade unions and is said will help bring UK employment rights legislation into the 21st century, extending modern protections to millions more workers.
So what has changed?
The government states that these changes will achieve the following:
- An end to exploitative zero-hours contracts
- An end to unscrupulous ‘fire and rehire’ and ‘fire and replace’ practices
- ‘Day 1’ rights to paternity leave, unpaid parental and bereavement leave
- Enhanced protections against dismissal for pregnant women and new mothers
- Strengthened collective redundancy rights
- Strengthened Statutory Sick Pay by removing the lower earnings limit and
- Establishment of the Fair Work Agency
Roadmap of Employment Rights change
For more information on the changes see:
Resources on the Employment Rights Act changes
PAYadvice.UK have published a number of articles and resources on the employment rights act and will add additional resources and articles as and when the government issue further information on steps being taken:
PAYAdvice.UK also have resource pages on the following employment rights areas which form part of the regulatory duties of the Fair Work Agency (FWA):
| Holiday Entitlement and Pay – PAYadvice.UK |
| National Minimum Wage – PAYadvice.UK |
| Statutory Sick Pay – April 2026 – resources – PAYadvice.UK |
PAYadvice.UK 18/2/2026 last updated 14/5/2026