A significant update to UK employment law is coming. From 1 December 2025, the Acas Early Conciliation period will be temporarily extended from six weeks to twelve weeks.
This change, introduced by The Employment Tribunals (Early Conciliation: Exemptions and Rules of Procedure) (Amendment) Regulations 2025, gives individuals and employers more time to settle disputes without a formal tribunal hearing.
HR teams are proactively updating their probation periods and dismissal policies in preparation for the introduction of day-one unfair dismissal rights under the new Employment Rights Bill.
While the bill is still progressing through parliament, a survey from WorkNest and Personnel Today shows that organisations are not waiting to begin their preparations. The research found that more than a third (37%) of HR professionals plan to change their probation periods, and a further 32% are reviewing or updating their dismissal policies ahead of the reforms.
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.
In a powerful demonstration of solidarity, frontline staff at the Tate galleries have voted overwhelmingly to strike, rejecting a pay offer that would plunge them deeper into financial hardship. The move is a direct response to an institution that values its directors' bonuses over the well-being of the very workers who make its world-class exhibitions possible.
An incredible 98% of Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) members, on a massive 87% turnout, have mandated strike action, sending an unequivocal message to management that they will no longer accept poverty pay. The strike, set for 26 November to 2 December, is a necessary step after Tate’s management offered a derisory 2-3% pay increase—a significant real-terms pay cut during a crushing cost-of-living crisis.
Phones 4U founder, worth £1.5bn, claims basic job security and sick pay would make Britain "less investable," exposing a stark divide between corporate interests and employee wellbeing.
In a move that has ignited fury among labour advocates, billionaire Tory-turned-Labour backer John Caudwell is publicly pressuring Sir Keir Starmer to abandon the party's flagship Employment Rights Bill. The Phones 4U founder, whose fortune is estimated at £1.5bn, has voiced alarm that granting fundamental protections to employees would make the UK “less investable.”