The landmark Employment Rights Bill (ERB) is set to transform the UK workplace, and the Government is now moving to the crucial implementation phase. To ensure these reforms are both practical and effective, a first series of four consultations has been launched, inviting stakeholders to help shape the final regulations.
While the Bill establishes the core principles, the consultations will define the details. A central theme is enhancing security and support for employees during life's most vulnerable moments. This includes significantly stronger protections for pregnant employees and new mothers, who will benefit from an expanded protected period and the classification of maternity as a protected characteristic. The consultation explores applying a stricter test for fairness, potentially making dismissal permissible only in cases of serious safety risks or gross misconduct. There is also consideration of extending these robust protections to parents returning from adoption leave.
Alongside this, the ERB introduces a compassionate, day-one right to unpaid bereavement leave, thoughtfully extended to include pregnancy loss before 24 weeks. The accompanying consultation seeks to make this right as inclusive and meaningful as possible, gathering views on how to define a "loss of a loved one," the types of pregnancy loss that qualify, and the practicalities of taking leave.
A second major focus of the reforms is on empowering workers through greater access to trade unions. The Government is consulting on establishing a new statutory right for unions to access workplaces to communicate with workers, recruit, and facilitate collective bargaining. The proposals outline a process where unions would request access, with unresolved disputes referred to the Central Arbitration Committee. Views are being sought on this process and on proposed financial penalties for non-compliance.
To ensure workers are aware of these rights, a parallel consultation focuses on a new duty for employers to inform all workers of their right to join a trade union from October 2026. This consultation seeks feedback on the content of written statements and the best methods for distributing this information, whether directly to new hires or via noticeboards for existing staff.
The consultation on trade union access and the duty to inform closes on 18 December 2025. The consultations on protections for new parents and bereavement leave close slightly later, on 15 January 2026. With a secondary consultation on a statutory code expected in spring 2026, the implementation of these transformative provisions is on track for October 2026.
Source: Bristows