May Newsletter

The first changes of the Employment Rights Act (ERA) kicked in at the start of April and the next 18 months will see a stream of changes to employment rights and employer responsibilities.

In this issue of the newsletter I cover:

ERA Update - what do we know about the next set of changes

Some free briefings on the ERA

Is your Probation process up to scratch?

I love you to email your comments and feedback on topics you'd like me to cover in future newsletters

The Employment Rights Act 2025 - what’s next?

Changes to statutory sick pay, paternity leave and other rights came into force in April. Whilst we are still waiting for the detail on many of the changes ahead, there is a fundamental change that will kick in on 1 January 2027 which we must start preparing for now. And bear with me, there is some context to this one …

Currently, employees can only take a case to Employment Tribunal when they have two years of service with their employer, unless their case relates to discrimination under one of the 9 protected characteristics (age, race, gender, disability etc..).

From 1 January the timeframe to take a case to Tribunal is reducing to 6 months, which means that from that point employers MUST follow a legal procedure to dismiss an employee. This means that the dismissal must clearly relate to one of the 5 fair reasons for dismissal allowed in law (redundancy, capability, conduct, frustration of contract and some other substantial reason) and to be legally compliant employers will need to:

• Notify their employee, in writing, that they are required to attend a meeting at which a potential outcome is their dismissal, providing reasonable advance notice;

• Inform the employee of their legal right to be accompanied by a trade union representative or a work colleague;

• Provide a report, or at least clear information and evidence about the potential reason for dismissal that will be considered at the meeting;

• Provide the right of appeal against the outcome.

Employers often use a low risk “light touch” process to dismiss, not completing all the steps above, at an early stage in employment. From January this will be illegal once an employee has more than 6 months service and not following all the steps will not be defensible in an unfair dismissal claim.

This places more emphasis on having a robust framework during probation - see below, and for ensuring that your recruitment and selection processes are effective.  

You can watch my video on this for more information (5 minutes), and I will also cover this in my free ERA briefing!

Statutory Pay Rates and Allowances

National Living (NLW) Wage Rates by hourly rate at April 26

• For workers aged 21 and above £12.71

• For workers aged 18 to 20 years: £10.85

• For workers aged 16 and 17 who are above school age and workers in an Apprenticeship scheme who are aged under 19, or who are aged 19 whilst they are in the first year of their Apprenticeship: £8.00

The Real Living Wage Campaign sets a living wage rate based on the cost of living. The campaign encourages companies to pay voluntarily, and is subscribed to by over 14,000 UK employers.  The hourly rate is currently £13.45 an hour and £14.80 in London.

Statutory Sick Pay is paid at the rate of £123.25 or 80% of average weekly earnings if below this amount from the first day of absence.

Maternity, Paternity, Adoption, Shared Parental leave and Statutory Bereavement leave are paid at the rate of £194.32 per week where employees meet the qualifying criteria. 90% of average earnings is paid for the first 6 weeks of Maternity and Adoption leave.

Do you have a probation period in place for new starters?

Probation provides a fantastic framework to review how things are going, on both sides, at an early stage in the employment relationship.

It gives the opportunity to give positive and developmental / negative feedback on job performance and also to iron out any difficulties, often highlighting a need to provide more clarity on the role and responsibilities, identity training, development and support needs.

I recommend that a Probation review form is used to provide an agenda for meetings and a framework to review how the new employee understands the role, the wider business and company culture, how they have built client and internal relationships, whether they follow company processes, their time keeping and attendance. Done correctly, Probation provides a good base for your new employee to settle into the role and the company.  The form is used to document conversations and provide an audit trail if the employee is not suitable for the business.

From 1 January it will be even more important that employers operate a structured probation framework and will provide clear justification for managing out employees who are not suitable after they have achieved 6 months service.

I have developed some guidance on Probation, as well as template documents, so please get in touch if you would like a quote to use these for your business.