Employment Rights Act 2025

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The Employment Rights Act 2025 is the biggest overhaul of UK employment law in a generation — and its whistleblowing implications are significant.

What is the Employment Rights Act 2025?

The Employment Rights Act 2025 (ERA 2025) received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025. It is the centrepiece of the UK Labour government’s ‘Make Work Pay’ agenda and introduces sweeping reforms across unfair dismissal, zero-hours contracts, trade union rights, family leave, sick pay, harassment, and whistleblowing.

The Act amends and extends a wide range of existing legislation, including the Employment Rights Act 1996, the Equality Act 2010, and the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (PIDA). Its changes will come into force in phases throughout 2026 and 2027. Most provisions have not yet taken effect, but employers need to be preparing now.

For organisations focused on workplace compliance, speak-up culture, and the prevention of harassment and misconduct, ERA 2025 contains changes that cannot be overlooked.

What does ERA 2025 mean for whistleblowing?

This is the area of most direct relevance to whistleblowing professionals, HR leaders, and compliance teams.

Sexual harassment becomes a qualifying disclosure — from 6 April 2026

Currently, an employee who witnesses or experiences sexual harassment and wants whistleblowing protection must frame their concern as falling within an existing prescribed category under PIDA — most commonly, a failure to comply with a legal obligation. This is unnecessarily technical and creates a barrier to protection.

From 6 April 2026, ERA 2025 removes that barrier. Disclosures relating to sexual harassment — that it has occurred, is occurring, or is likely to occur — will explicitly qualify as protected disclosures under PIDA, provided the worker holds a reasonable belief and the disclosure is made in the public interest.

This means employees who report sexual harassment will be entitled to full whistleblower protections: protection from detriment and protection from dismissal. Any dismissal as a result of such a disclosure will be automatically unfair. Compensation for automatically unfair whistleblowing dismissals is uncapped.

What this means in practice: Employers need to review both their whistleblowing policy and their sexual harassment policy to ensure they are aligned. Employees need to understand that reporting sexual harassment can now explicitly be a whistleblowing act. Your reporting channel must be equipped to receive and process these disclosures correctly.

Non-disclosure agreements — harassment and discrimination clauses will be void

ERA 2025 introduces a prohibition on NDAs being used to silence workers about harassment or discrimination. Any clause in an agreement that seeks to prevent a worker from alleging or disclosing work-related harassment or discrimination will be unenforceable. The precise implementation date is yet to be confirmed but the provision is in the Act.

This has direct implications for settlement agreements and compromise clauses currently in use. Legal teams should review standard NDA templates now.

Unfair dismissal qualifying period reduced to six months — from January 2027

Currently, employees must have two years’ continuous service to bring an unfair dismissal claim (unless the dismissal is automatically unfair, as in whistleblowing cases, where no qualifying period applies). ERA 2025 reduces the general qualifying period to six months, effective from January 2027.

The government estimates this will extend unfair dismissal protection to a further 6.3 million employees. The compensatory award cap for unfair dismissal has also been removed entirely, aligning general unfair dismissal awards with the currently uncapped position for discrimination and whistleblowing claims.

This substantially increases the risk profile for employers in respect of all dismissals — including those that might be perceived, or argued, to have a retaliatory element.

What does ERA 2025 mean for sexual harassment prevention?

‘All reasonable steps’ replaces ‘reasonable steps’ — from October 2026

The Worker Protection Act 2023 introduced a duty on employers to take ‘reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment. ERA 2025 upgrades this duty significantly. From October 2026, the standard rises to ‘all reasonable steps’ — a materially higher bar.

In addition, employers will be required to take all reasonable steps to prevent third-party harassment — covering harassment by customers, clients, contractors, suppliers, and other non-employees. Critically, this will apply to all protected characteristics, not just sexual harassment. The government will have powers to set out in regulations what specific steps will be regarded as ‘reasonable’, with those regulations expected in 2027.

The combined effect is significant. Organisations that satisfy the current ‘reasonable steps’ standard will not automatically satisfy the upgraded ‘all reasonable steps’ standard. A fresh assessment will be required.

What ‘all reasonable steps’ is likely to require

While the specific regulations are still to come, the direction is clear. Employers should expect to demonstrate:

• Regular, documented risk assessments specific to their workplace and sector
• Anti-harassment policies that explicitly cover third-party conduct
• Training at all levels, including the board, refreshed regularly and with attendance records maintained
• An independently operated, confidential reporting channel accessible to all employees
• A demonstrably impartial process for investigating complaints
• Evidence of follow-through — not just policy, but action

The key difference from ‘reasonable steps’ is that ‘all reasonable steps’ leaves very little room for gaps. If a step could reasonably have been taken and wasn’t, the defence will not hold.

What are the other key changes employers need to prepare for?

ERA 2025 is wide-ranging. Beyond whistleblowing and harassment, the main changes are:

From April 2026: Day-one rights to statutory sick pay, paternity leave, and unpaid parental leave come into force. The Fair Work Agency — a new enforcement body consolidating existing labour market enforcement functions — is established on 7 April 2026, with powers to investigate employers, require information, enter premises, issue financial penalties, and bring claims on behalf of workers. Equality Action Plans (covering gender pay gap and menopause) become voluntary from April 2026 and mandatory from 2027.

From October 2026: The duty to prevent sexual harassment is upgraded to ‘all reasonable steps’, including third-party liability. Fire and rehire — dismissing employees and re-engaging them on worse terms — will be automatically unfair dismissal unless the employer faces severe financial difficulty. Extended employment tribunal time limits come into force. Strengthened trade union rights take effect.

From January 2027: The unfair dismissal qualifying period reduces to six months. The compensatory award cap is removed. Collective redundancy obligations are extended to require consideration of redundancies across the whole organisation, not just individual establishments. Flexible working law is strengthened.

Date to be confirmed: NDAs containing clauses preventing disclosure of harassment or discrimination will be void.

How can organisations prepare?

The scale of ERA 2025 means preparation cannot be left until individual provisions come into force. The organisations best placed to meet the ‘all reasonable steps’ standard from October 2026 are those building robust processes now.

Review and update your whistleblowing policy

Your whistleblowing policy needs to reflect the April 2026 change explicitly. It should state clearly that reporting sexual harassment is a qualifying disclosure carrying full whistleblower protections. Where your policy currently refers to the prescribed categories under PIDA, it needs to be updated.

Implement an independent whistleblowing hotline

An independently operated reporting channel is one of the clearest demonstrations of ‘all reasonable steps’. An internal-only route — a line manager, HR inbox, or internal portal — will not carry the same evidential weight, particularly where the concern involves a manager or senior figure.

Safecall’s independent whistleblowing service provides a secure, confidential, multi-channel reporting platform — available 24/7, in 175+ languages, handled by experienced former UK police officers. Every report is treated with the seriousness it deserves.

Find out more about Safecall’s whistleblowing solutions

Ensure investigations are impartial

Where a disclosure is made — whether about sexual harassment, third-party harassment, or any other form of misconduct — how it is investigated is scrutinised as closely as how it was received. An impartial, competent investigation is not optional.

Safecall’s investigation services provide fully outsourced workplace investigations conducted by former senior UK police officers. We also offer critical friend case analysis, impartial witness interviewing, and desktop reviews for organisations managing investigations internally.

Find out more about Safecall’s investigation services

Train employees, managers, and the board

Training is a visible, documentable component of a ‘reasonable steps’ — and ‘all reasonable steps’ — defence. It should be specific to your workplace, delivered at all levels, regularly refreshed, and evidenced by attendance records.

Safecall offers CPD-accredited training covering tackling sexual harassment, whistleblowing for managers, and workplace investigation skills — available online and on-site.

Find out more about Safecall’s training services

Frequently asked questions about the Employment Rights Act 2025

When does the Employment Rights Act 2025 come into force? The Act received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025. Its provisions come into force in phases: the first significant wave is April 2026, followed by October 2026, and then January 2027, with some provisions subject to further secondary legislation.

When does sexual harassment become a qualifying disclosure under PIDA? From 6 April 2026. From that date, disclosures relating to sexual harassment will explicitly qualify for whistleblower protections under PIDA, provided the worker holds a reasonable belief and the disclosure is made in the public interest.

When does the ‘all reasonable steps’ duty take effect? From October 2026. The current duty — ‘reasonable steps’ under the Worker Protection Act 2023 — will be upgraded to ‘all reasonable steps’, and third-party harassment liability will be introduced for all protected characteristics.

Does the unfair dismissal qualifying period change affect whistleblowing claims? Whistleblowing dismissals are already automatically unfair and have never required a qualifying period. However, the reduction of the general qualifying period to six months from January 2027 significantly expands the pool of employees who can bring unfair dismissal claims — which increases exposure for any dismissal that could be characterised as having a retaliatory element.

What should we do about our existing NDAs? Review any settlement agreements or compromise clauses that include confidentiality provisions relating to harassment or discrimination. ERA 2025 will render such clauses void. The implementation date has not yet been confirmed — take legal advice now rather than waiting.

Does ERA 2025 apply to all employers? Most provisions apply to all employers in England, Wales, and Scotland. Some obligations — such as Equality Action Plans — apply only to employers with 250 or more employees. The ‘failure to prevent fraud’ offence (under ECCTA, not ERA 2025) applies to large organisations meeting specific size thresholds. Always take specific legal advice on how individual provisions apply to your organisation.

What is the Fair Work Agency? A new public enforcement body established from 7 April 2026, bringing together HMRC’s national minimum wage enforcement, the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate, and the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority. It will have broad enforcement powers, including the ability to investigate employers, enter premises, issue financial penalties, and bring claims on behalf of workers.