A 2026 Timeline of Employment Rights Act (2025) Reforms

With the April 2026 phase of the Employment Rights Act 2025 (ERA 2025) now implemented, attention turns to the next tranche of reforms scheduled to land between August and the end of 2026.

This guide provides an overview of what’s still to come in 2026, when each change is expected to take effect and how you can start preparing for the reforms.

A Summary of Employment Rights Act Changes Taking Effect in 2026

Trade union and industrial action reforms

In August 2026, electronic and workplace balloting for statutory trade union ballots will be introduced. Currently, statutory trade union ballots, including ballots for industrial action, must be held by post. The Government has consulted on a draft code of practice on electronic and workplace balloting (‘the Code’). Once the Code is in place, it will be the principal source of practical guidance on the conduct of ballots using the new methods of voting.

Further trade union and industrial action reforms will be introduced in October 2026 as follows:

Right to a statement of trade union rights

Employers will be required to give workers a written statement advising that they have the right to join a trade union. The statement must be given at the same time as providing the worker’s statement of employment particulars and at other prescribed times (to be determined).

Regulations will prescribe the information that must be included in the statement, the form the statement will take and the manner in which the statement must be given. The Government consultation on this has now closed but the consultation document provides insight into the options that are being considered.

Additional protections from detriment for taking industrial action

Current legislation does not provide any protection against sanctions short of dismissal, intended to deter or penalise trade union members from taking part in lawful strike action organised by their trade union.

Under the ERA 2025, a worker will have the right not to be subjected to detriment of a prescribed description by any act by their employers, if the act takes place for the ‘sole or main purpose of preventing or deterring the worker from taking protected industrial action, or penalising the worker for doing so’. The Government consultation on the types of detriments that employers should be prohibited from imposing on workers will close on 23 April 2026.

New rights and protections for trade union representatives

Trade union representatives will have a strengthened right to reasonable paid time off to carry out their duties and sufficient access to facilities to enable them to fulfil their duties. There will also be a new right for trade union equality representatives to take a reasonable amount of time off to carry out activities to improve equality in the workplace.

The existing Acas code of practice on time off for trade union duties and activities will be revised to incorporate the new rights and protections.

Strengthened trade union workplace access rights

Trade unions will have the right to request access to workplaces (both physically and digitally) to meet, represent or organise workers, for the purposes of facilitating collective bargaining. This will make it easier for unions to engage with workers, including those who are not members of a union.

Employers will need to respond to a request for access within a specific timeframe and, if no agreement is reached, the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) will be able to order access arrangements. The Government is consulting on a new draft code of practice on trade union rights of access, which will be finalised in due course.

Updated ‘unfair practices’ rules in the trade union recognition process

The ERA 2025 tightens the guidance on the standards of behaviour during the recognition and derecognition process which are likely to prevent undue influence or other unfair practices from occurring by:

1. Extending the prohibition on unfair practices so it applies throughout the recognition and derecognition process, not just at the ballot stage.
2. Setting out a clearer list of unfair practices.
3. Updating the complaints framework.

Prevention of harassment

From October 2026, employers will be subject to enhanced duties to prevent sexual harassment and third-party harassment.

Duty to take ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment

Employers are currently required to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees during the course of their employment. Where the duty is breached, tribunals can uplift the employee’s discrimination compensation by up to 25% and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has the power to investigate and take enforcement action.

Under the ERA 2025, employers will be subject to an enhanced duty to take ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment. According to the Government factsheet, what constitutes ‘all reasonable steps’ will depend on the specific circumstances of the employer, such as its size, sector, working environment, resources and other relevant facts. The Government will have the power to make regulations specifying the steps that are to be regarded as reasonable from October 2026. However, the regulations will not come into force until 2027, following consultation. Until then, employers can refer to the existing non-statutory guidance provided by the EHRC in the EHRC technical guidance and the Employer eight-step guide: preventing sexual harassment at work.

The reintroduction of employer liability for third party harassment

The ERA 2025 will reintroduce employer liability for third-party harassment in relation to all relevant protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010. Once in force, an employer must not permit a third party to harass their employees. An employer will have permitted a third party to harass one of its employees if:

• The third party harasses the employee in their course of their employment with the employer; and
• The employer failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent the third party from harassing the employee in the course of their employment.

Employers have far less control over the actions of third parties than they have over those working for them, so the requirement to take all reasonable steps in this context is likely to be particularly onerous. For employers operating in sectors such as hospitality and retail, this duty will be particularly difficult to meet. However, the Government factsheet acknowledges that the steps that an employer can reasonably take in respect of the actions of third parties in their workplace are more limited than the steps they can take in respect of their employees and that this will be taken into account by the Employment Tribunal when considering the facts of a case. The EHRC guidance referred to above is also relevant to the prevention of third-party harassment.

Tightening of tipping law

The ERA 2025 adds a requirement that, from October 2026, employers must consult the workforce before producing their written tipping policy. It is already a legal requirement that employers have a written policy on how they deal with tips where qualifying tips, gratuities and service charges are paid on a ‘more than occasional and exceptional basis’.

Employers will also be required to review the tips policy at least once every three years, also in consultation with the workforce and will need to make an anonymised summary of the views expressed in the consultation available to all workers of the employers.

The Government is currently consulting on how the requirement should be implemented and will publish an updated code of practice later this year.

Public sector outsourcing

In October 2026, the Government will re-introduce the principles behind the ‘two-tier workforce code’ via a statutory code of practice. It will also empower Ministers to make regulations specifying provisions to be included in relevant outsourcing contracts, for the purposes of ensuring specified workers are treated no less favourably than their counterparts working on the same contract.

The two-tier code, which was revoked in 2011, was intended to ensure that, where public services are outsourced to the private sector, the contractor’s direct hires are not treated less favourably than the incoming public sector workers (and vice versa).

Regulations to establish Adult Social Care Negotiating Body

Also in October 2026, regulations will be made to provide for a body known as the Adult Social Care Negotiating Body for England to be established (with Welsh and Scottish Ministers able to set up equivalent bodies with the agreement of the Secretary of State). In due course, the bodies will negotiate minimum pay, terms, and conditions across the social care sector. The Government anticipates that negotiations on pay and other terms and conditions will be held in 2027, with Fair Pay Agreements being implemented in 2028.

The intention behind the bodies being established is to improve recruitment and retention in adult social care services to support the delivery of high-quality care.

Employment tribunal time limits increase from three to six months

No earlier than October 2026, the ERA 2025 will increase the time limit to bring all types of employment tribunal claims from three to six months, except for breach of contact claims arising or outstanding on termination of employment. This follows last year’s increase in the maximum period for Acas early conciliation from six weeks to 12 weeks, extending the time for resolving workplace disputes before an employment tribunal claim must be issued.

The extension of employment tribunal time limits will provide more time for disputes to be resolved before a claimant must submit a claim. However, it could also lead to further delays in employment tribunal claims being resolved, risking the recollection of witnesses fading, witnesses leaving the business and the potential for documentation to be lost.

Steps employers can take now to prepare

While some implementation detail will follow in regulations and codes of practice, employers can take practical steps now to reduce operational disruption, compliance risk and employee relations issues as the next tranche of 2026 reforms come into force.

• Map the changes and assign ownership: create a simple tracker of each reform (including the effective date, who owns it, what needs updating) and nominate HR and operational leads accordingly.
• Monitor consultations, draft regulations and codes: diarise key milestones and plan to update internal guidance once the final versions are published (for example, codes relevant to union access/balloting and harassment prevention).
• Review written policies and procedures: build in time to update template employment documents, including processes, once the detail is confirmed.
• Pressure-test industrial relations processes: review how the business would respond to requests for union workplace access and, where relevant, lawful industrial action, including who has responsibility for responding to communications from unions.
• Refresh anti-harassment risk assessments and controls: identify higher-risk roles/locations, check reporting routes, and ensure managers know how to respond to complaints promptly and consistently; consider where third-party interactions (customers, contractors, patients, service users) create additional exposure.
• Update harassment training and documentation: ensure training is role-appropriate (especially for managers) and keep a clear audit trail of steps taken (policies, communications, training completion, investigations and any remedial actions) to support the “all reasonable steps” defence.
• Check sector-specific readiness: for hospitality and other tipping-affected sectors, plan workforce consultation and a timetable for producing/updating the written tipping policy; for public sector outsourcers/contractors, identify contracts that may need updated provisions once the statutory code and regulations are in place.
• Revisit dispute-resolution strategy and record-keeping: with tribunal time limits expected to extend, plan how to manage longer-running disputes (document retention, witness availability, and internal timelines), and consider whether grievance and early-resolution processes need strengthening to avoid issues becoming entrenched.

Don’t wait for the fine print to start preparing

The next tranche of ERA 2025 reforms is designed to shift both process and risk for employers—from how unions engage with the workforce, to how harassment prevention is evidenced, to the window for tribunal claims. Although key detail will follow in regulations and codes of practice, preparing to refresh policies, training managers, stress-testing employee relations processes and building an implementation timetable—will be best placed to stay compliant and avoid unnecessary disruption as the changes take effect before the end of 2026.