On your radar

Published: 14 November 2024 | Updated: 3 April 2025 | by Brightmine Editorial Team

This is your overview of employment law developments that are in the pipeline, where you can learn what’s happening, what might be happening and what isn’t happening, as well as how you can start preparing for upcoming changes. Throughout, we aim to bust myths around upcoming changes.

What’s happening

National insurance and minimum wage increases (1 and 6 April 2025)

Employers’ national insurance contributions will increase by 1.2%, to 15%, from 6 April 2025. The threshold at which employers begin to pay national insurance on an employee’s salary will be lowered from £9,100 to £5,000. The national living wage—the minimum legal wage for over-21s—will increase from 1 April 2025 by 6.6%, to £12.21 per hour.

New right to neonatal care leave and pay (6 April 2025)

The Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023 will provide parents with a day one right to take a period of neonatal leave (and pay subject to 26 weeks’ service) if their baby needs neonatal care. On 20 January 2025, the Government announced that the right will come into force on 6 April 2025. Parliament approved the draft Regulations, Neonatal Care Leave and Miscellaneous Amendments Regulations 2025 and Statutory Neonatal Care Pay (General) Regulations 2025, on 11 February and publication of the final version is awaited on the UK legislation website.

New statutory maternity, paternity and sick pay rates (6 April 2025)

Statutory maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental pay will go up from £184.03 to £187.18 a week. Statutory sick pay will rise from £116.75 per week to £118.75. The new rates will take effect on 6 April 2025. Further details can be found here. The rates have been confirmed in the draft Social Security Benefits Up-rating Order 2025, which Parliament is expected to approve by the end of February.

New right to paternity bereavement leave (likely 2025)

The Paternity Leave (Bereavement) Act 2024 will allow an employee to take paternity leave as a day-one right if the mother, or a person with whom a child is placed or expected to be placed for adoption, dies (although the Employment Rights Bill will make paternity leave a day-one right in any event). However, the intention behind the Act is to allow a bereaved employee to take up to 52 weeks’ leave during the first year of their child’s life/the year immediately after the child’s adoption. The Act was passed under the previous Government and much of the detail relating to the right is awaited in the form of secondary legislation. It’s not yet known when it will come into force but likely during 2025.

Employment Rights Bill — what we know, what HR can do now

The Government published its Employment Rights Bill on 10 October 2024. Below we look at its wide-ranging proposals, described as “the greatest shift in employment legislation in decades”.

We also look at the much-anticipated measures that are not included in the Bill.

Most of the changes are unlikely to start coming into effect before 2026, so HR departments will have time to prepare.

The Government published an updated list of Employment Rights Bill amendments on 6 March 2025. These proposed amendments include:

• Guaranteed hours for zero and low hours workers: An option to bypass the complex rules on offering guaranteed hours to zero and low hours workers if the employer and trade union reach a collective agreement setting their own rules on the issue.
• Parental bereavement leave following miscarriage: The extension of the right to two weeks’ parental bereavement leave to parents who experience a pregnancy loss before 24 weeks (ie miscarriage). Currently, in a pregnancy loss situation, parental bereavement leave is available only to parents who experience the loss after 24 weeks of pregnancy (ie stillbirth).
• Collective redundancy consultation: The triggering of collective redundancy consultation obligations if there are 20 or more redundancies at one establishment, or if a different threshold is met (to be confirmed – likely to be expressed as a percentage of employees in the establishment). This replaces the previous proposal to base the trigger for collective redundancy consultation obligations on the number of redundancies across a whole organisation, rather than per establishment.
• Protective awards in redundancy consultation cases: A doubling of the maximum protective award that an employment tribunal can hand out in collective redundancy and “fire and rehire” cases from 90 to 180 days’ pay.
• Statutory sick pay: The setting of the prescribed rate of statutory sick pay at 80% – ie rather than a flat rate, entitlement will become 80% of average weekly earnings or the current rate of statutory sick pay, whichever is lower.

The Employment Rights Bill received its second reading in the House of Lords—a general debate on all aspects of the Bill—on 27 March. The House of Lords Committee stage—a line-by-line examination of the Bill—begins on 29 April. Brightmine will be providing updates and guidance throughout the legislative process. To find out what it takes for a Bill to become law, see our FAQ.

The majority of the provisions in the Employment Rights Bill apply to England, Wales and Scotland. In Northern Ireland, the Government is consulting on The ‘Good Jobs’ Employment Rights Bill, which contains proposals introducing and reforming various employment rights.

Additional harassment changes

Changes to harassment law took effect on 26 October 2024. The Employment Rights Bill now proposes to go further, introducing enhanced protection against third-party harassment and requiring employers to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of employees in the course of their employment.

For more detail, take a free trial to see our employment law guide on harassment. Employers can start preparing now with our leading practice guide series on building a harassment-free environment.

Unfair dismissal protection extended to all employees from day one in a job

The Employment Rights Bill proposes to remove the qualifying period for unfair dismissal, so that all employees from their first day in a job can bring an unfair dismissal claim. The Government has said that the change is not likely to take effect until autumn 2026.

In Next Steps to Make Work Pay, the Government has said that it will allow employers to operate a probationary period which will give them an initial period during which there will be a lighter-touch process for employers to follow to dismiss an employee who is not right for the job.

For more detail about the change, see our Employment law guide on Unfair dismissal.

Further reforms to flexible working

While in Next Steps to Make Work Pay the Government says that it will make flexible working the default, the actual changes in the Employment Rights Bill provide that employers can still refuse a request for flexible working on the existing grounds, but the refusal will need to be reasonable, and they will need to explain why the refusal is reasonable. Regulations are expected on what steps an employer needs to take to consult with an employee about their request.

For more detail, see our Employment law guide on the Right to request flexible working for more detail.

Fire and rehire dismissals will be automatically unfair

The Employment Rights Bill will make it automatically unfair to dismiss an employee if the principal reason for dismissal is either that the employee refused a contract variation, or to enable the employer to recruit another person or rehire the employee under new terms but with substantially the same duties (although there is a limited exception around financial difficulties).

The Government has launched a consultation around interim relief for employees who bring an unfair dismissal claim under this right.

For more detail, see our Employment law guide on Variation of contracts.

Statutory paternity leave and ordinary parental leave to become day-one employment rights

The Employment Rights Bill will remove the qualifying periods for both paternity and unpaid ordinary parental leave. It will also remove the restriction on employees taking paternity leave and pay after they have taken shared parental leave and pay.

For more detail, see our Employment law guide on Family-friendly rights.

Wider statutory right to bereavement leave

The Employment Rights Bill will extend bereavement leave beyond the death of a child to provide employees with time off to grieve the loss of loved ones. For the moment, the necessary relationship with the deceased to qualify for the leave is undefined but it is likely to mirror that used in time off for dependants.

For more detail, see our Employment law guide on Family-friendly rights. Find out about bereavement leave arrangements in other organisations in our Bereavement leave research 2024.

New trade union rights and reform of industrial action legislation

The Employment Rights Bill will give trade union officials a wider right to access workplaces for recruitment, organising and collective bargaining purposes, though not to organise industrial action. It will also require employers to give workers a written statement that they have the right to join a trade union.

In relation to industrial action, the Bill will repeal the minimum service level provisions and most of the changes to industrial action ballots that were introduced under the previous Government.

For more detail, see our Employment law guide on Trade unions and industrial action.

Requirement to publish gender pay gap and menopause action plan

The Employment Rights Bill proposes a requirement for employers with 250+ employees to publish action plans as part of their annual gender pay gap reports indicating: (a) how they are addressing the pay gap and (b) how they are supporting employees going through the menopause.

New entitlements for zero and low hours workers

The Employment Rights Bill proposes fresh rights for workers in the gig economy. The Bill makes provision for zero and low hours workers to be given the right to a guaranteed number of hours if they work regular hours over a defined period. It will also result in a new right to reasonable notice of a shift, and reasonable notice of cancellation of, or change to, a shift, as well as a right to payment for cancelled, moved or curtailed shifts.

For more detail, see our Employment law guide on Types of contract.

Statutory sick pay (SSP) changes

The Employment Rights Bill introduces important entitlement and procedural changes to SSP. The Bill removes the requirement for earnings to be at the lower earnings limit for eight weeks prior to going off sick, and abolishes the three-day “waiting period” at the beginning of a period of incapacity.

The Government consultation on the percentage replacement rate for those earning below the current SSP rate runs until 4 December 2024.

For more detail, see our Employment law guide on Sick pay.

Redundancy consultation reforms

At the moment, the duty to collectively consult arises where an employer is proposing to dismiss as redundant 20 or more employees at one establishment within a period of 90 days. The Employment Rights Bill proposes to remove the words “one establishment” from current legislation, which in practical terms means that collective consultation will be triggered where 20 or more redundancies are proposed across the whole business.

For more detail, see our Employment law guide on Collective redundancy consultation.

Extra protection against dismissal for pregnant employees

The Employment Rights Bill will prohibit employers from dismissing an employee during pregnancy, while on maternity leave, and during the six months after their return to work period, except in specific circumstances. This additional protection also applies to employees during, and on return from, adoption leave and shared parental leave.

For more detail, see our Employment law guide on Pregnancy and maternity discrimination.

What might be happening

What was left out of the Employment Rights Bill?

Below, we explain what has happened to some of the other measures trailed by the Government that have not been included in the Employment Rights Bill.

What isn’t happening

The right to disconnect

Though widely anticipated, the right to disconnect was not mentioned in the Employment Rights Bill and plans to introduce it appear to have been shelved.

The banning of zero hours contracts

Though much trailed in the media, this policy is not part of the Employment Rights Bill. However, the Government has set out proposals to increase the regulation of the gig economy.

The four-day, 32-hour working week

“Four-day week” is an ambiguous term that is currently being used to mean two quite different things. We understand that the Government is not planning to implement the proposals by the campaign to give workers 100% of their current pay in return for working a four-day, 32-hour week, although it is permitting a local authority to proceed with its four-day working week arrangements despite a Tory minister in 2023 claiming it breached its legal obligations.

However, employees remain entitled to request to work compressed hours—that is, working their contracted number of hours but across a reduced number of days—under the current right to request flexible working and its extended form in the Employment Rights Bill.

For more information, listen to our four-day week podcast.

And finally, a media myth

Constructive dismissal claims are commonly misunderstood and misrepresented, as typified by the headlines attracted by the recent employment tribunal judgment in Walker v Robsons (Rickmansworth) Ltd ET/3311699/2023, where a typical headline ran “Workers can sue if given ‘low status’ desk”.

An estate agent branch manager who resigned after he was transferred to another branch – where his desk would be in the middle of the office (instead of at the back) – won his constructive dismissal case. Is that the whole story? No, of course not.

The claimant was “unsettled” and had “mixed feelings” when the company director told him that he was being moved to a quieter, less successful branch. Unbeknownst to him, he would be sharing the branch manager role with a more junior colleague who had taken it upon himself to move to the branch’s back desk before the claimant arrived.

The employment tribunal accepted that the back desk has “both a symbolic and a practical significance”. The practical significance is that this is where the books and ledgers are kept. The symbolic significance is that this is where the branch manager traditionally sits.

Had this been the whole story, the claimant’s constructive dismissal claim would have been unlikely to succeed. However, the tribunal case exposed other facts that clarify why he succeeded in his claim. These included:

• Evidence of poor communications: The tribunal found that the claimant was not told in advance of the relocation that he would in effect be moving to a job share with a more junior colleague, which was an unusual arrangement. He should have been told in advance, either in a meeting or in person. At the very least, he should have been provided with a job description.
• An ugly confrontation: The tribunal heard evidence that, when the claimant challenged the new arrangement (albeit “not in the politest terms”), the response from the company director was something along the lines of “I can’t believe a f**king 53-year-old man is making a fuss over a desk”. The claimant also alleged that the company director threatened him with disciplinary action if he did not sit at the middle desk.
• Goading the claimant into resigning: The tribunal found that there was an element of the company director “goading” the claimant into resigning. It was alleged that, when the claimant threatened to resign, the company director responded “go on then” because he suspected that the claimant had already found another job.

In upholding the constructive dismissal claim, the employment tribunal concluded that this series of events breached the implied term of trust and confidence, destroying or seriously damaging the employer/employee relationship.

The tribunal ordered a remedy hearing to decide the level of the claimant’s compensation. Notably, the tribunal directed that there should be no reduction for contributory fault on the claimant’s part.