With Employment Rights Act 2025 changes taking effect from April 2026, employment lawyer Rachel Ford‑Evans of Darwin Gray LLP discusses the Act’s impact on the voluntary sector and how organisations should prepare.
WHAT DOES THE ERA MEAN FOR EMPLOYERS
Introduced as a flagship policy of the UK Labour Government and brought into force at the end of 2025, the Employment Rights Act (ERA) is a huge piece of legislation which brings in some of the biggest changes to employment law in decades.
Failing to comply with these legal changes will give rise to costly and lengthy disputes, so it’s crucial for employers to understand what reforms are coming and how they will change the landscape of employment law in some key areas.
With changes starting to come into force throughout 2026 and 2027, there are some key steps employers should take now to get ready and minimise the cost and disruption to their organisations.
THE KEY CHANGES
The ERA introduces major reforms, including earlier access to unfair dismissal rights, limits on ‘fire‑and‑rehire,’ and increased dismissal protection for new parents.
Zero‑hour workers will gain the right to guaranteed hours and pay for cancelled shifts, while employers will face tougher duties to prevent workplace harassment.
The ERA also expands family leave, tightens up flexible working rules, improves statutory sick pay, and enhances trade union access and protections.
WHAT THESE CHANGES MEAN FOR THE VOLUNTARY SECTOR
There are already changes starting to come into force which will have practical implications for the voluntary sector and require immediate steps to comply with them. The changes most likely to affect the sector in 2026 and 2027 include:
April 2026:
- Paternity and parental leave: Employees will now be entitled to paternity and parental leave from day 1 of their employment, down from the previous threshold of 6 months – this will require policies to be updated.
- Statutory sick pay (SSP): Eligibility for SSP is being widened, meaning more lower-paid staff are being brought into scope and SSP will be payable from the first day of absence, rather than having a 3-day waiting period. This is likely to increase employers’ sick pay bills, and organisations will need to work with their payroll providers to implement this.
- Equality action plans: Organisations with 250+ staff will be asked to produce annual voluntary ‘action plans’ in relation to gender equality, supporting employees through menopause, and the gender pay gap. It’s likely that this will become non-voluntary for bigger employers from 2027.
October 2026:
- Protections against harassment: From October, employers will have a duty to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment. This will be an onerous duty, and many voluntary sector organisations aren’t fully prepared for this yet. This will require a regular programme of training, risk assessments, robust policies and communicating with any third parties which your employees may come across in the course of their work.
- Third-party harassment: Employers will be liable if their staff are harassed by third parties in the workplace (not just sexual harassment). For voluntary sector organisations this might include service users, clients, contractors, suppliers or agency workers. Contractual wording should be put in place with those parties to enable organisations to take steps if these rules are breached.
- Trade union rights: Employers will be obliged to inform employees in writing of their right to join a trade union – this should be written into contracts of employment and re-communicated regularly. There will also be increased rights of access of trade unions to workplaces and employees will get extra protections against detriment for taking industrial action. We’re still waiting to see how many of these reforms will work in practice, but this is an area voluntary sector employers should keep a close eye on.
We also expect to see the below in 2027:
- Zero-hour contracts: Casual and relief workers will be given the right to be offered guaranteed hours of work after 12 weeks’ employment, and to be compensated for shifts that are cancelled or moved on late notice. This will have huge implications for many voluntary sector organisations, particularly those which rely heavily on casual or relief staff such as in the care sector. This change will require significant planning and budgeting.
- Unfair dismissal reforms: Several major changes will be introduced to unfair dismissal law – in particular, all employees will gain the right to bring unfair dismissal claims after 6 months of employment, down from the current 2 years. This will require a lot of preparation, including changes to probation policies, much tighter performance management for shorter-serving employees, and training for managers. Many voluntary sector organisations currently have probation periods of longer than 6 months, and these should be looked at carefully.
- The practice of ‘fire-and-rehire’ will be outlawed, which will make it harder for employers to change their terms of employment for affordability or logistical reasons, and will require a change of approach to consultation processes.
- Enhanced dismissal protections will be given to new parents during or after pregnancy or family leave. It will be unlawful in most situations to dismiss pregnant employees or new parents who have given birth for 6 months after they return to work. Employees who have taken other types of family leave (e.g. adoption leave) are also likely to gain similar protections.
- Flexible working: The rules on flexible working requests will be tightened up, including a requirement to show that refusing a request would be reasonable in the circumstances. We expect to see more information on this in due course.
Speaking on the how these changes will impact the sector, Carys Hedd Paschalis, Assistant Director of People and Culture at WCVA said ‘A common misconception is that charities and non-profits operate in a softer regulatory environment. They don’t. Employment law applies equally regardless of an organisation’s purpose or charitable status. With many voluntary sector organisations running on lean staffing structures, even one employment tribunal claim can have a serious financial and reputational impact’.
HOW CAN CHARITIES PREPARE?
The top priority for organisations should be to check your contracts of employment, policies and procedures are up to date with the latest legal developments and fully compliant with employment law.
Longer-term, it’s also going to be important to train up your people managers on these changes. This will be especially important for the unfair dismissal reforms (which will make proper performance management even more important than it is now) and the duty to prevent sexual harassment – on which training of your managers and workforce will be absolutely key.
SUPPORT AVAILABLE FROM DARWIN GRAY
We are supporting lots of our clients with reviewing and updating contracts and policies. We are also offering a ‘Get Employment Rights Act Ready’ fixed price package for employers.
We also offer training to employers, HR teams, and boards of trustees, to help comply with the changes and getting HR practices right.
Our Managing Partner, Fflur Jones will also be delivering a session at Gofod3 on 17 June: ‘The Employment Rights Act 2025 is coming – what every charity needs to know’. This session has been designed exclusively for charities and will share practical tips on how charities should navigate the changes coming in, including policy reviews, training and futureproofing your workforce.
If you need assistance with the ERA and upcoming employment law changes, get in touch with Rachel at rford-evans@darwingray.com or on 02920 829 100.