ERA 2025: Key Dates and Implementation Timeline

The Employment Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025 but does not come into force all at once. The Government is staggering implementation across 2026 and 2027, with different provisions taking effect at different points. Understanding the timeline matters because your compliance obligations depend on which provisions are already live.

The genuine day-one rights and the changes to Statutory Sick Pay are among the earliest provisions to take effect — SSP from the first day of absence with no waiting days and no lower earnings limit applies from 6 April 2026. Unfair dismissal is different: there is no day-one unfair dismissal right (it was dropped before the Act passed). The qualifying period stays at two years for now and is planned to reduce to six months for dismissals on or after 1 January 2027. The fire-and-rehire automatic-unfair rule also takes effect on 1 January 2027, and the zero-hours guaranteed-hours right is being introduced during 2027 (exact date not yet set). Collective redundancy threshold changes and equality action plans follow on their own implementation dates, with some provisions awaiting further secondary legislation.

Mellow's ERA 2025 compliance hub tracks the implementation schedule and flags which provisions are currently in force. When a new provision activates, the relevant policy module is updated and HR administrators receive an in-app notification. You do not need to track the Government's statutory instruments manually. The practical advice: do not wait for full implementation before preparing. Get your probation and dismissal processes fair now, ahead of the 2027 qualifying-period change.