It’s Official: The Employment Rights Act 2025 Receives Royal Assent

The changes to workers’ rights contained in the Employment Rights Act 2025 are significant, however, these will not be enforceable straight away and instead will be implemented according to the roadmap published by the government, which can be found here: Implementing the Employment Rights Bill - Our roadmap for delivering change. Due to the delay to the Employment Rights Bill receiving Royal Assent, there had been speculation that the timetable for implementation may be delayed, particularly as some of the consultations that were due to be launched in accordance with the implementation roadmap have yet to materialise. However, the government have been urged by Union leaders, in particular Unite union’s general secretary Sharon Graham, to implement the Act without “any further dilution or delay.”

The Employment Rights Bill had a tumultuous passage through Parliament, with changes to some of the key provisions being made during the final stages of its passage. In particular, the Employment Rights Act 2025 provides for a qualifying period of employment of 6 months prior to an employee being able to claim unfair dismissal in the employment tribunal, rather than the day one right that was a key part of Labours manifesto promises. However alongside this change in the qualifying period of employment, the government announced the removal of the caps on the compensatory award available for ordinary unfair dismissal, so that the current caps of the lower of £118,233 or 52 weeks’ pay will be removed. The government have committed to an impact assessment considering the removal of the unfair dismissal compensatory award cap, which will take place after Royal Assent. It is currently expected that the change to the unfair dismissal qualifying period will come into force on the 1st January 2027, with no details as yet on when the government intends to remove the cap on unfair dismissal compensatory awards.