Impact of new Employment Rights Act will be interesting

SCHOOLS have broken up and I’ve already received lots of out of office messages announcing that people are away from the office till January 5, 2026 so I'm catching you quickly, before you go.

- BETHAN DARWIN

The Employment Rights Bill received Royal Assent last week and became the Employment Rights Act 2025.

The only immediate change as a result of the Bill becoming an Act is the repeal of the provisions introduced by the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023.

The Bill had been ping-ponged between the House of Commons and the House of Lords for some months, with the upper house repeatedly rejecting the Bill's provisions to introduce day one rights not to be unfairly dismissed.

Eventually this month a compromise was reached. The qualifying period for unfair dismissal will be six months.

The last time the qualifying period for unfair dismissal was six months was in 1974, before increasing to one year in 1979. It has been either one year or two years since then, depending on which party is in power in Westminster.

It was one year from 1999 to 2012 and has been two years since 2012, when the longer qualifying period only applied to employees commencing employment after the change took effect.

It is the UK Government's intention to bring in the new qualifying period of six months from January 1, 2027. This will come round sooner than you think.