Employment Rights Bill: new consultations published

In July 2025, the government published a roadmap for the implementation of the Employment Rights Bill (ERB) which set out some planned consultations on some of the key changes. Under this plan, we expected the following consultations to take place:

In summer/autumn 2025: changes to the unfair dismissal regime including the dismissal process in the statutory probation period

In autumn 2025:

• Trade union changes including electronic balloting and workplace balloting, simplifying trade union recognition processes, the duty to inform workers of their right to join a trade union and right of access
• Fire and rehire
• Regulation of umbrella companies
• Bereavement leave
• Rights for pregnant workers
• Zero Hours Contracts

In winter/early 2026:

• Trade union measures including protection against detriments for taking industrial action and, blacklisting
• Tipping law
• Collective redundancy
• Flexible working

Four of these consultations have now been launched by the government – on the topics of bereavement leave, trade union right of access, enhanced protection for pregnant woman and new mothers and duty to inform worker of right to join a union.

Bereavement leave

The ERB includes a new day-one right to unpaid bereavement leave for employees who experience the loss of a loved one, including pregnancy loss before 24 weeks. This is an extension of the current right to Parental Bereavement Leave which entitles employees to up to two weeks’ leave with pay if they or their partner lose a child up to the age of 18 or have a stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy. The ERB sets out that new right will be a minimum leave period of one week. The consultation considers the eligibility criteria (e.g. should it cover loss of extended family and close friends), the types of pregnancy loss in scope, when and how bereavement leave can be taken (including the duration of the leave) and notice and evidence requirements.

Trade union right to access

The Employment Rights Bill introduces a significant new right for trade unions to access workplaces physically, and to communicate with workers in person or digitally. The consultation notes that ‘digital’ access could include, for example, meeting workers through an IT platform or providing hard copy information to workers via the employer. Under this new right, where a trade union wants access, they must first make a request for access which the employer must then respond to. Where the employer rejects all or part of the request, there is then a negotiation period. Where agreement is not possible, either party can refer the case to the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) for a determination on whether access should take place. The current consultation suggests that employers should respond within 5 working days of any request, with a further 15 working days for negotiation and a referral to the CAC being possible within 25 working days of the request. The consultation looks at the factors that the CAC will take into account when determining whether access should be granted including the key principle that “a trade union should be granted access for any of the access purposes in a manner that does not unreasonably interfere with the employer’s business” but that “access should be refused entirely only where it is reasonable to do so”. Other interesting points in the consultation include the following proposals:

• to exempt employers with fewer than 21 workers;
• that employers should have 5 working days to prepare for access if the CAC decides in favour of access;
• that access agreements should have an expiry date of two years;
• that employers should not have to allocate more resources than necessary for access – specifically that they should not be required to construct new meeting places or implement new IT systems;
• that weekly access (physical, digital or both) is a reasonable requirement for employers to facilitate; and
• the unions should provide at least two working days’ notice to the employer before access takes place.

The consultation also considers how the CAC is to come to decisions on the values of fines issued for breaches of access agreements. The maximum value of the fine is proposed to be £75,000, with a possible cap of £150,000 for repeated breaches.

The consultation notes that the government wants these changes to come into effect by October 2026 and that there will be a new statutory Code of Practice in the spring with practical guidance for both unions and employers.

Enhanced protection of pregnant women and new mothers

In this consultation, the government confirms that regulations will make it unlawful to dismiss pregnant women, mothers on maternity leave, and mothers who return to work for at least a 6-month period after they return – except in specific circumstances. The consultation is seeking views on enhancing dismissal protections for pregnant women and new mothers by either:

• narrowing the scope of the existing five fair reasons for dismissal/removing some of the fair reasons (such as only permitting redundancy of pregnant woman and new mothers where the employer is experiencing financial difficulties so severe that the dismissal cannot reasonably be avoided); or
• replacing the current ‘range of reasonable responses’ test for fairness with a new stricter standard that employers must meet (such as “continuing the employment of the pregnant woman or new mother would have a significantly detrimental effect on the business”), alongside proving a fair reason.

The consultation considers the specific circumstances in which the dismissal of pregnant women and new mothers should still be allowed, when the protections should start and end and whether other new parents should be covered by the protections (such as those on adoption leave, shared parental leave or neonatal care leave.)

Duty to inform workers of right to join a union

The REB introduces a new duty on employers to give a written statement to their workers, informing them of their right to join a trade union at the start of their employment and at other times. This consultation seeks views on:

• what form the statement should take (the government makes it clear that it would prefer it to be a standard statement issued by the government with minimal workplace specific details added);
• what content should be included (the government considers it should cover a factual overview of the functions of trade unions, a summary of statutory rights in relation to union membership, a list of all trade unions that the employer recognises and a signpost to a GOV.UK page with a list of current trade unions);
• the manner in which the statement must be delivered (the government preference would be for it to be delivered directly to new workers alongside the statement of employment particulars and to existing workers directly or indirectly); and
• the frequency with which the statement must be reissued after the beginning of employment (the government proposes that this be annual).

Again, the consultation notes that the government wants these changes to come into effect by October 2026.

We are yet to see the projected consultations on the flagship unfair dismissal changes (due in Summer/ autumn 2025) or the consultations on the very significant changes to fire and rehire and Zero Hours. Watch this space as these are bound to be an interesting read.