What the Employment Rights Bill Means for Leaders and Inclusion Professionals in the UK

1. Six-month unfair dismissal

A culture of “getting it right early”

Under the new Act, the qualifying period for ordinary unfair dismissal will drop from two years to six months, with the government also proposing to lift the cap on unfair dismissal compensation. Existing protections for discrimination and automatic unfair dismissal remain from day one, but many more employees will soon be able to challenge dismissals as “unfair”, including those who never get past probation.

What this means

• It’s more important than ever to get hiring right
  Rushed, relationship-led hiring that relies on “fit” rather than evidence suddenly becomes a much more expensive cultural habit. Inclusive, competency-based recruitment and structured interviews are now risk-management tools as well as fairness tools.
• Onboarding: get it right, and make it inclusive
  If people can claim unfair dismissal after six months, you can’t afford for new joiners to drift without clarity. Inclusive onboarding means clear expectations, early access to networks and ERGs, psychological safety to ask questions, and visibility of support routes.
• Early feedback conversations
  “Probation didn’t work out” will no longer cut it if there’s no record of feedback, support or adjustments. Equip managers to have early, specific, bias aware feedback conversations and to document performance concerns fairly and consistently.

2. Parental Leave and SPL

Normalising care, especially for men

The Act moves towards day one rights for paternity and unpaid parental leave from April 2026, and is part of a broader package that will simplify how parental leave interacts with shared parental leave (SPL). Over time, this should make it easier for more parents – especially fathers and partners – to take meaningful time away from work.

What this means

• SPL has been notoriously difficult to navigate
  Few people use shared parental leave because it’s complex and poorly understood. Organisations should provide employees with clear guidance, FAQs and manager scripts that demystify the options and show how different types of families (including same-sex couples and adoptive parents) can use them. (Read our article Why Shared Parental Leave is Failing to Deliver for Dads )
• Encourage men and senior leaders to take leave
  Culture shifts when people with power role model it. Capture and share stories of senior men and leaders taking extended leave, and track whether men and non-birthing parents are actually using the enhanced rights.
• Watch for “career penalty” bias
  You will need to monitor performance ratings, promotion and opportunity allocation for parents who take leave, and intervene where patterns suggest that “availability” is being confused with commitment.

Done well, these reforms become a platform for more equal caregiving and a more honest conversation about how careers and families coexist.

Side note – any work you do on this can contribute to your ‘Equality Action Plan’ – more on this below!

3. Taking “ALL Reasonable Steps” to Prevent Sexual Harassment and Getting Rid of NDAs

From secrecy to accountability

The Act will ban NDAs that prevent workers from making allegations or disclosures about harassment or discrimination, including disclosures about how an employer responded. This builds on the Worker Protection Act, which already requires employers to take reasonable – and soon “all reasonable” – steps to prevent sexual harassment, including by third parties such as customers and clients.

What this means

• No more NDAs as a default response
  You’ll need to work closely with Legal and HR to revisit template settlement agreements and ensure you are not relying on confidentiality to protect reputation at the expense of people and truth.
• Use this as an opportunity to stress that no one is above reproach
  If senior people have historically been ‘quietly moved on’, staff will notice if your messaging dodges accountability. Your values, your anti-harassment training and your actual decisions need to align. For all financially regulated organisations this is a must from 1 September when the FCA is extending its Code of Conduct Rules to cover serious non-financial misconduct.
• “All reasonable steps” is a culture standard, not a training tickbox
  Tribunals will be looking for evidence of serious, ongoing action: leadership role modelling, effective routes to speak up, trauma-informed investigations, bystander training, and data on what happens after people report.

For all organisations, this is another meaningful shift away from “how do we handle this case?” to “what does this case tell us about our system, and what will we change?”

To achieve this, our most progressive clients have spent 2025 working with Mix to generate quality policies and bite size videos for all staff, along with in-depth training for managers so that everyone can play their part in creating a safe, proactive culture to be proud of.

4. Pregnant workers and New Parents

Redefining “risk” and “capability”

The Act introduces enhanced dismissal protections for pregnant employees and new mothers, with consultation underway on how narrow the grounds for dismissal should be and how long the protection period should last (likely extending up to 18 months after birth, mirroring redundancy protections). Similar protections are being considered for people on other forms of family leave.

What this means

• More training for managers on how to look after pregnant team members
  Managers will need to understand risk assessments, reasonable adjustments, and the line between legitimate performance management and discriminatory treatment linked to pregnancy or maternity.
• Better processes around returners
  Protection stretches into the return-to-work period. Make sure returners are not quietly parked in less visible work, and that any concerns about performance are dealt with transparently and with support, not assumptions.
• Pregnancy loss and bereavement
  From 2027 there will be a day-one right to unpaid bereavement leave, including following pregnancy loss before 24 weeks. You’ll need policies, guidance and manager training that treat pregnancy loss and bereavement with empathy, flexibility and consistency.

This is your opportunity to acknowledge pregnancy, loss and return as natural parts of life that deserve understanding and support, rather than being “problems” to work around.

A personal aside from me – although I think these new protections are brilliant, I’m concerned that it will deter some individuals even further from hiring women who are ‘likely’ to have children in the near future. Continued training and awareness programmes will go some way to mitigating this.

If there are one or two senior individuals in your organisation who are known to have bias around this area, consider whether they could undertake some 1:1 DEI Executive Coaching. Coaching provides a ‘safe space’ where leaders can air their objections and questions without judgment. And because a coach is independent, they’re often better placed to challenge assumptions or push back on misconceptions in a way that might be harder for someone inside the organisation.

5. Equality Action Plans

Menopause and lifestage inclusion

Currently, only gender pay gap reporting is mandatory for larger employers – and even then, action plans are voluntary. The Act will require many employers to publish equality action plans aimed at closing gender pay gaps and supporting employees going through menopause, with penalties for noncompliance. These will be voluntary from April 2026 and mandatory from 2027.

What this means

• Probably the most substantial part for inclusion teams
  You’ll move from producing static reports to owning live, accountable plans that are updated at least annually. These plans will need to be business owned, not just HR owned.
• Menopause moves centrestage
  Menopause is explicitly called out in the Act. Expect questions from boards, unions and employees about your data, your policies and your line manager capability around menopause and other lifestage issues.
• Data that actually drives decisions
  Equality action plans will sit alongside emerging requirements for ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting*. That means you’ll need robust data governance, intersectional analysis and a clear narrative about what you’re doing and why.

This is a good opportunity to pull disparate DEI dashboards into a single, coherent story: where inequity shows up, what you’re doing about it, and how you’ll know it’s working.

*Note: Alongside the Employment Rights Act, the government is also progressing a separate Equality (Race and Disability) Bill that is expected to introduce mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting for larger employers, running in parallel to – rather than within – these reforms. Sign up to our newsletter to be get early insights and recommendations

6. Flexible Working and “How” Work Happens

The right to request flexible working is already a day one right for all workers. The Act doesn’t change the basic grounds for refusal, but it will require employers to follow a more prescriptive process and be explicit about the reasons for refusing a request (and why they are reasonable). Changes here are expected to take effect in 2027 after further consultation.

What this means

• Flexible working as a fairness issue, not a perk
  Flexibility is central to retaining carers, disabled employees, parents and those managing menopause or other health conditions. Inconsistent “manager discretion” will become harder to defend, both culturally and legally.
• Team-level job and workload design
  Inclusion and culture professionals can help teams redesign roles, workflows and collaboration norms so flexibility is genuinely workable, rather than creating a two-tier experience between those in the room and those remote.
• Guarding against proximity bias
  You’ll need to monitor outcomes (development, recognition, progression) for those who work flexibly versus those who don’t – and equip leaders to value impact and outcomes over physical presence.

Flexible working will be the arena where many of the other reforms (pregnancy protections, caring responsibilities, mental health, menopause) either integrate into a holistic people model or remain isolated policy documents.

7. Other Changes and Why Legal Advice is Essential

Alongside the reforms most directly related to inclusion, the Employment Rights Act 2025 also makes big changes in areas like:

• Employment Tribunal claims – time limits for most tribunal claims will extend from three to six months from October 2026. That has knock on effects for how long you hold records of grievances, investigations and performance processes.
• “Fire and rehire” and collective redundancy consultation – there will be significant restrictions on using dismissal and reengagement to impose changes to key contractual terms, and collective consultation thresholds will start to look across the whole business, not just single sites, with higher protective awards from April 2026.
• Trade unions – it will become easier for unions to gain recognition and to access workplaces (physically and digitally), with higher turnout and support thresholds for lawful industrial action and ongoing protection from dismissal for those taking part.
• Zero hours contracts and guaranteed hours – employers will be required to offer contracts that reflect regular hours worked (a “guaranteed hours offer”), and to provide reasonable notice of shift changes and compensation for cancelled or curtailed shifts, with implementation expected in 2027.
• Carers’ leave and other family-friendly reforms – the government is consulting on turning the existing one week unpaid carers’ leave into a paid entitlement, and on broader parental leave reforms, though timelines are less clear.

Culture and inclusion specialists like Mix can help you turn policy into practice and navigate these major changes with confidence. It’s also imperative to seek specialist legal advice on how the Act applies to your specific context, and keep that advice under review as the legislation and codes of practice evolve.

8. Rough Timelines to Keep in View

Most of these reforms will phase in over 2026-2027 rather than landing overnight. Based on current government and legal commentary timelines:

From April 2026

• Extended tribunal time limits (to six months for most claims)
• Initial trade union reforms (balloting thresholds, recognition process)
• Strengthened sexual harassment framework (including whistleblowing protection for disclosures)
• Voluntary equality and menopause action plans for larger employers
• Day one rights for paternity and unpaid parental leave

From October 2026

•  Tightened restrictions on “fire and rehire”
• Enhanced trade union access rights
• Further sexual harassment duties and third party harassment liability

From 2027

• Six-month unfair dismissal regime
• Enhanced dismissal protections for pregnant employees and new mothers (and possibly other family leave returners)
• Day one right to unpaid bereavement leave (including pregnancy loss before 24 weeks)
• Mandatory equality action plans (gender pay gap and menopause)
• Guaranteed hours offers for zero hours and low hours workers
• Updated, more prescriptive flexible working procedures

Timing still to be confirmed

• Ban/restrictions on using NDAs to silence harassment and discrimination disclosures
• Potential reforms to the wider parental leave regime
• New requirements for ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting
• Code of practice on the “right to disconnect”
• Possible reforms to noncompete clauses and unpaid internships
• Consultation on employer use of surveillance technologies

These milestones will move as consultations close and secondary legislation is drafted. For now, they are useful way markers to plan manager training, policy changes and culture work over the next 18–24 months – in partnership with your legal advisers.

A Rallying Call to Leaders & Inclusion Professionals

The Employment Rights Act 2025 is more than a legal update – it’s a catalyst for building workplaces that truly live their values. These changes give leaders and inclusion & culture professionals a unique opportunity to lead the way, shaping environments where fairness, flexibility and accountability aren’t just compliance boxes but cultural norms.

Your role in this transformation is critical. By embedding inclusive hiring, supporting managers, and championing equality action plans, you’re not only protecting your organisation – you’re driving progress that benefits every employee. Legislation like this doesn’t just set minimum standards; it creates momentum for meaningful change.

At Mix, we’re here to support you every step of the way – whether that’s through tailored onboarding e-learning, manager training, or strategic advice on equality plans and culture initiatives. Together, we can turn these reforms into a platform for stronger, more inclusive workplaces. Get in touch to start now.