Guide · Employment
Employment Rights Bill 2026/27: What Changes -- A Roadmap to the Reforms
The Employment Rights Bill bundles together one of the largest sets of UK employment law changes in decades -- touching unfair dismissal, zero-hours contracts, fire and rehire, sick pay, flexible working, whistleblowing and trade union law. Because its provisions are being phased in gradually rather than all at once, this guide acts as a roadmap to what is changing and when, linking through to our detailed guide on each individual reform.
Key reforms at a glance
- Unfair dismissal: Becomes a day-one right, replacing the 2-year qualifying period
- Zero-hours contracts: Right to guaranteed hours reflecting a reference period, plus shift notice and cancellation pay
- Fire and rehire: Restricted, with dismissal for refusing a variation automatically unfair in most cases
- Statutory Sick Pay: Day-one right, waiting days and Lower Earnings Limit removed
- Flexible working: Stricter "reasonable" refusal test for employers
- Enforcement: New Fair Work Agency taking on minimum wage, SSP and other baseline enforcement
Day-one unfair dismissal protection
Ordinary unfair dismissal protection has historically required two years' continuous service. The Bill removes this qualifying period, so employees are protected from their first day of employment, while introducing a lighter-touch, modified dismissal process employers can follow during an initial period of employment for straightforward capability or conduct dismissals. Read our dedicated guide on unfair dismissal claims for how bringing or defending a claim works in practice.
Guaranteed hours and zero-hours reform
Workers on zero-hours or low-guaranteed-hours contracts gain a right to be offered a contract reflecting the hours they actually and regularly work over a reference period, along with a right to reasonable notice of shifts and compensation for shifts cancelled or cut short at short notice. See our guide on guaranteed hours and zero-hours contract reform for the mechanics of the reference period and notice rules.
Restrictions on fire and rehire
Dismissing an employee and re-engaging them on worse terms -- to force through an unwanted contract variation -- becomes automatically unfair in most circumstances, subject to a narrow genuine business-necessity exception with its own procedural requirements. See our guide on fire and rehire for how the restriction and exception work.
Day-one Statutory Sick Pay
Statutory Sick Pay currently has a three-day waiting period and a Lower Earnings Limit below which no SSP is payable. The Bill removes both, making SSP payable from the first day of sickness absence regardless of how much you earn, with a modified lower rate for the lowest earners. See our guide on the Statutory Sick Pay day-one reform for the detail.
Flexible working, bereavement leave and whistleblowing
The existing right to request flexible working is strengthened by tightening the test an employer must meet to refuse a request to one of genuine reasonableness. Bereavement leave is extended as a day-one right to a wider range of employees beyond the existing parental bereavement leave provision. Whistleblowing protection is extended to cover disclosures relating to sexual harassment. See our guides on flexible working requests, parental bereavement pay, and whistleblowing protection.
Enforcement: the Fair Work Agency
A new Fair Work Agency is being created to bring together enforcement of a range of baseline employment rights -- including the National Minimum Wage, Statutory Sick Pay, and elements of holiday pay -- under a single body with stronger investigatory and enforcement powers than the fragmented system it replaces.
Trade union law changes
The Bill simplifies the statutory recognition process for trade unions, introduces electronic and workplace ballot options for industrial action votes alongside postal ballots, and repeals several restrictions on industrial action notice periods and check-off arrangements introduced by earlier legislation.
Why the implementation timetable is staggered
Many of these reforms require secondary regulations, statutory codes of practice, or a lead-in period for employers to update contracts, payroll systems and HR processes before they take effect. Rather than a single commencement date, provisions are being phased in across 2026 and into 2027 -- check gov.uk for the current implementation timetable for the specific reform you are tracking, and see the individual guides linked above for the detail of each change.