Employment Rights Bill: Soon to Become the Employment Rights Act

The Employment Rights Bill (ERB) is now approaching its final stages in Parliament and is set to become the Employment Rights Act once it receives Royal Assent.

On 28 October 2025, the House of Lords will consider the final set of Commons amendments in a process known as “ping-pong”. The Lords can either accept or reject the Commons’ changes, but in either case the Bill will move quickly to Royal Assent. Once this happens, it will formally become law.

What Will Happen Once the Bill Becomes Law

For employers, it is important to understand that not all of the measures will take effect straight away. Only a small number of provisions will commence immediately upon Royal Assent. The majority of reforms will require further consultation, leading to secondary legislation and detailed guidance before they can be implemented.

The first significant changes are expected to take effect from April 2026, giving businesses time to prepare. However, uncertainty remains about exactly how the different elements of the legislation will be phased in and what the final detail of some provisions will look like.

The Key Aims of the Bill

The Bill is designed to modernise employment law and extend protections to millions of workers. Among the most high-profile measures are:

• Day one protection from unfair dismissal for employees, replacing the current two-year qualifying period
• New restrictions on the use of zero-hours contracts, requiring employers to offer eligible workers a contract with guaranteed hours after a qualifying period of service
• Compensation for cancelled or altered shifts at short notice
• Stronger protections for whistleblowers
• Statutory sick pay from Day One and removal of the lower earnings threshold

Why Businesses Still Face Uncertainty

Although the direction of travel is now clear, employers are still facing unanswered questions:

• Details will follow later: Much of the practical guidance will only be set out through secondary legislation. For example, how probationary periods interact with day one dismissal rights, how “guaranteed hours” will be defined, and what counts as short notice for shift cancellations are not yet clear.
• Staggered implementation: With April 2026 flagged as the first substantive date for changes, organisations will need to monitor timelines closely to understand when each obligation will take effect.
• Business impact: Some employer groups have already raised concerns about the costs of implementation, particularly when combined with other pressures such as higher wage costs and national insurance contributions.

What Employers Can Do Now

Even though many details of the Employment Rights Bill will not take effect until 2026, now is the right time for businesses to start considering the impact on their workforce.

From a recruitment and workforce planning perspective, this means:

• Reviewing how you use flexible and agency workers and considering how guaranteed hours requirements could change future staffing needs
• Working with your recruitment partners to build more resilient workforce models that balance permanent, temporary and flexible roles
• Looking ahead at how new employee rights might influence attraction, retention and engagement strategies
• Ensuring that you have access to a talent pipeline that allows you to adapt quickly when reforms come into effect

Our role is to help clients plan ahead, so workforce strategies remain compliant, flexible and effective. Recruitment agencies will continue to play a vital role in helping businesses manage peaks and troughs in demand, and the Employment Rights Act will not change that.

What it will do is make forward planning more important than ever.

 How Cubed is Supporting Clients

At Cubed Talent, we are working with clients to assess workforce models and build resilience into recruitment strategies. Our aim is to make sure organisations are ready to adapt when the Act comes into force, without disruption to business continuity.

Our team is helping organisations to:

• Conduct impact and risk assessments to inform budgets, strategy and planning
• Optimise recruitment processes to attract and retain talent in line with the new landscape
• Explore agile workforce models (permanent, fixed-term, blended) for greater resilience
• Upskill employees to reduce reliance on temporary or reactive hiring

If you would like to discuss how the forthcoming Employment Rights Act could affect your organisation, or if you want support in preparing your workforce planning strategy, our team is here to help.

Contact Cubed Talent today to arrange a consultation and ensure your business is prepared for the changes ahead.