Wednesday 22 July | The Employment Rights Act reshaped workplace rights in the UK, with some of the biggest changes focused on leave, sexual harassment and dismissal. Certain sick pay and family-friendly leave became day-one rights, including paternity, parental and new bereavement leave, alongside existing neonatal care leave provisions. At the same time, employers faced a tougher framework on sexual harassment and whistleblowing, and a new six-month qualifying period for unfair dismissal from 1 January 2027, with the cap on compensation set to be lifted.
In this webinar, we focused on what HR, legal and compliance teams needed to do to get ready. We broke down the different leave provisions, including new day-one rights to bereavement leave and extended protections around pregnancy loss, explained how the Act built on the Worker Protection Act and Equality Act to strengthen sexual harassment duties, and set out the latest position on unfair dismissal qualifying periods and automatic unfair dismissal risks.
What this webinar covered
- Day-one rights for sick pay, paternity leave, unpaid parental leave and bereavement leave, and how they interacted with existing entitlements
- New and proposed bereavement and pregnancy loss provisions
- Neonatal care leave and pay, and how it connected with other family-friendly rights and redundancy protections
- Sexual harassment provisions under the Act, including the duty to take all reasonable steps, third-party harassment and protected disclosures
- The new unfair dismissal framework, including the six-month qualifying period, automatic unfair dismissal risks and the removal of the compensation cap
- Strengthened protections for pregnant workers and new mothers, including proposals on dismissal protections and redeployment duties
- Practical steps for employers, including updating contracts, leave and absence policies, grievance and harassment procedures, and manager training plans
