Employment Rights Act 2025 – The next wave of updates

This autumn, the government is expected to serve up the next round of updates from the Employment Right Act 2025. Here is a summary of the key changes that are expected.

August Changes

Trade union ballots

Currently, statutory trade union ballots must be conducted by post, while union recognition and derecognition ballots can be conducted by post or in person at the workplace. We are expecting legislation to be introduced in August permitting the use of electronic ballots in statutory ballots, with these being extended to union recognition and derecognition ballots in 2027.

October Changes

Further trade union changes

Employers will be required to provide workers with a written statement informing them of their right to join a trade union. This statement will need to be provided alongside their ‘section 1’ statement of particulars (i.e. in or with their contract) or at other prescribed times (still TBC). We await sight of the regulations, which are expected to give more detail on what information the statement must include. It is likely that employers will need to issue a one-off statement to existing employees and update their template contracts to include this information for new recruits.

Trade unions will have a right to request reasonable access to both the physical and digital workplace of an employer to allow them to meet, support, represent, recruit or organise workers and to facilitate collective bargaining. Legislation is awaited setting out the process for the union request, employer response, and handling of disputes and breaches by the Central Arbitration Committee.

Trade union equality representatives will have a new statutory right to paid time off to carry out their duties and undergo any necessary training. This request for time off must be reasonable and is subject to certain conditions being met. The employer will also need to provide equality representatives with facilities and/or accommodation where required – a right that is also being extended to trade union officials and learning representatives (who already have the right to paid time off).

Protection against detriment

Workers who are involved in lawful industrial action are currently protected against unfair dismissal. This protection will be extended to include protection against detriment, e.g. where an employer’s act, or deliberate failure to act, is intended to prevent, deter or penalise an employee from/for participating in lawful industrial action.

Extended time limits for claims

The time limit to bring most employment tribunal claims will extend from 3 months to 6 months. This includes unfair dismissal and discrimination claims. This will create a longer period of uncertainty for employers. With up to 12 weeks pre-claim early conciliation via Acas, and employees often having at least one month thereafter to lodge their claim, an employer could be first faced with a claim up to 10 months after employment has ended! On the other hand, the longer time limit also gives employers additional time to resolve disputes, in the hope of avoiding a claim altogether.

Duty to prevent sexual harassment

Currently, employers must take “reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment of their employees during their employment. The bar will be raised to require employers to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment. What constitutes “all reasonable steps” will depend on the circumstances of the case, including the size of the employer, resources available, and working environment. (The Government is planning to release specific regulations on what “all reasonable steps” looks like, but this is not expected until 2027 or later.)

The new duty will make it harder for employer to defend sexual harassment claims. If an employer has failed to take all reasonable steps, an uplift of up to 25% may be applied to any compensation awarded, and they may be investigated by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Third-party harassment

There will also be a reintroduction of employer liability for third-party harassment suffered by employees during the course of their employment. This applies to harassment of any nature relating to a protected characteristic (age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy, marriage/partnership, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation) and includes sexual harassment.

An employer can be liable for a third party’s actions where it has failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent the third party from harassing the employee in the course of their employment.

This will be particularly tricky for employers in the hospitality sector, where employees frequently interact with customers and other third parties over whom the employer has little control. Employers should be proactively assessing risk areas and taking appropriate steps to protect their employees from harassment, and themselves from claims.

Tips and Gratuities

Changes introduced in 2023 required employers to review their tips practices and ensure that tips are paid in full and are allocated in fair and transparent way. Upcoming tweaks aim to strengthen protections for employees further, by requiring employers to discuss tipping policies with workers or their representatives before these policies can be implemented.

Employers will also need to review and consult with workers or their representatives about their tips policy every three years. Employers will be required to make available to workers an anonymised summary of the views expressed during the consultation.

We can help

We will provide further updates as the detail on these changes emerges, and can assist your business with ensuring your contracts, policies and day-to-day practices are fit to meet these new standards. If you would like to speak to us about the steps you can take to get ready for these changes, or if you need help with any other employment issues affecting your business, please get in touch with our Employment team.

This article was co-authored by Trainee Taylor Foster.

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