The implications of the Employment Rights Act

Complex care providers will need to ‘reassess their practices’ after the controversial new Employment Rights Act 2025 received royal assent.

Legal experts said the move would have a significant impact on care providers, signifying the most-comprehensive overhaul of UK employment law in decades.

Speaking to Complex Care Management, Lee Ashwood, partner at UK and Ireland law firm Browne Jacobson, said: “While the Act represents the most-comprehensive overhaul of UK employment law in decades, its challenging passage through Parliament has somewhat watered down the original Bill’s promise to fundamentally reform workers’ rights.

“In particular, the Government has been forced to make compromises on key proposals such as ‘fire and hire’ and unfair dismissal protections, while there is still some uncertainty on how other key reforms will look given there are more legislative steps to take.

“Most of the changes in the law require commencement regulations to bring them into force and many require further substantive regulations, together with associated consultation before they can be brought into effect.

“Therefore, some of the biggest changes – including to collective redundancy consultation, guaranteed hours contracts and unfair dismissal – won’t come into force until 2027.

“Equally, the final detail of the secondary legislation may be impacted by the responses to the various consultations.

“That said, the Act still delivers significant impacts on employees and their employers across all sizes and sectors.

“Its 28 major reforms will reshape worker protections across England, Scotland, and Wales by strengthening employee security, tackling exploitative practices and modernising workplace rights.

“For employers and HR professionals, this legislation requires a reassessment of employment practices across all sectors.

“Organisations should be reviewing and updating their policies and procedures covering a wide range of areas, including recruitment, probationary periods, disciplinaries, collective redundancies, trade union relations, non-disclosure agreements and protection from workplace harassment.”