Employment Rights Act – lessons for policy

6 April marked more than the new tax year – it saw the roll out of the first major employment law changes in the Employment Rights Act 2025.

But bringing new laws into force is just the first step. At Acas, we're working on how these reforms can be successful in practice.

Here are some of my reflections from working on the development and implementation of changes to employment law.

What's changed?

The changes include:

• Statutory sick pay is paid from the first day of absence, instead of the fourth day. The lower earnings limit has also been removed.
• Parental leave is more readily available – including paternity leave and ordinary parental leave, or unpaid parental leave, which became a day one right, and bereaved partner's paternity leave.
• Disclosure of sexual harassment has become a 'qualifying disclosure', giving protections from dismissal and detriment.
• Fines for employers who do not consult in collective redundancy situations have doubled to 180 days' pay for each employee affected.
• Trade unions can use a simplified statutory recognition process to gain the right to negotiate with employers over pay and conditions.
• Employers must keep records of annual leave and holiday pay.

Find out more about the Employment Rights Act 2025 changes

Balancing the interests of employers and workers

I have taken 3 crucial learnings from working on policy development:

• the importance of balancing interests and seeing other perspectives
• really thinking about how to deal with conflict well
• the importance of preparation

Balancing the interests of employers and workers is essential. Acas is impartial, so we work with both sides to find practical solutions.

In discussion with the Acas Council over some of these reforms, I've heard very different and robust views. However, through dialogue, we've been able to find common ground on Acas's responses to consultations on:

• trade union access to workplaces
• the statutory recognition Code of Practice
• the employer duty to inform workers of their right to join a union
   

These were all topics that social partners could take legitimately different positions on, but where productive answers to practical questions could also be found.

As the first set of Employment Rights Act 2025 reforms are put into practice, balancing the interests of both sides will help avoid unnecessary conflict. Employers, workers and their representatives can use Acas services to build their skills and knowledge.

Dealing with conflict well

Dealing with conflict well is a core Acas principle.  We know that conflict exists in every workplace: we dealt with 124,000 early conciliation notifications and 522 collective disputes in 2024 to 2025. What varies is how well that conflict is managed.

In our policy development, we recognised that conflict came from the legitimately different interests and views of trade unions and employers. Finding a way forward was not about dissolving those differences, but enabling frank conversations about where we could agree.

In workplaces, employers and unions may be faced with new conversations as they negotiate for the first time. Any one situation might not leave everyone happy. But over time better outcomes can be reached as joint problem solving builds trust.

CIPD research showed that employers with union representation are much more positive about unions – with 70% describing their workplace relations as positive or very positive, and only 5% viewing them as negative.

We encourage parties to use our online advice and training to help prevent conflict escalating unnecessarily.

Find out more about Acas training in conflict management

Good preparation cannot be understated

In policy terms, it's been hugely valuable to work with Acas operational colleagues. For instance, our collective conciliators presented a treasure trove of insights on trade union recognition, and running electronic and workplace ballots. Likewise, we've learnt from teams who produce our online advice about how legislation might be received in practice. We've also worked with our training teams to produce learning 'ready to go' as the reforms launched.

All this has put our policy commentary in a stronger position when working with central government, or talking to trade unions and employers.

If you're taking the time to read this, you probably know that April is only the first round of changes to the law. So active preparation will help employers stay on top of the changes.

As well as training managers and communicating with staff about individual rights, Acas encourages employers to take a proactive approach to dealings with trade unions. Our collective conciliation service is on hand to assist with emerging disputes. It will be employers and unions who are ready to work well together who see the most benefits from the changes in April and beyond.

In future, these policy lessons will inform our work updating Acas's vital Codes of Practice.

We will:

• balance the interests of employers and workers
• support parties to manage conflict well
• prepare through wide consultation and research

As employers and trade unions navigate the changing industrial relations framework driven by the Employment Rights Act 2025, these principles may help them too.

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