The Employment Rights Bill (ERB) is set to implement some of the most significant transformations in workplace rights in decades.
To support its implementation, the government has recently published an ERB Roadmap detailing when key measures will take effect. Below, we explore some of the changes outlined in this Roadmap, focusing specifically on reforms designed to support families and promote family-friendly working environments.
Parental and Paternity Leave
Parental leave is set to become a day one right for employees which is a change from the previous position, where employees must be employed for at least one year in order to take parental leave.
There’s some good news for fathers too, with length of service requirements for statutory paternity leave being removed. Under the current framework, in order to obtain statutory paternity leave – and the associated statutory paternity pay – employees must be employed for 26 weeks. Instead, the government have now promised this will also become a day one right.
A further adjustment in the ERB resolves a peculiarity between paternity leave and shared parental leave. Under the current framework, employees lose access to paternity leave and pay if they start a form of shared parental leave before using their paternity entitlement. The ERB seeks to change this, by permitting employees to take paternity leave and pay, even if they have already begun shared parental leave.
The Roadmap confirms the changes outlined above will come into force in April 2026.
Bereavement Leave
At present, employees are only entitled to bereavement leave in cases where a child under 18 passes away or in the event of a stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy. The ERB proposes to introduce a day one right to bereavement leave, whereby employees could receive at least one week off in the event of the death of a family member. We can expect further clarity in the regulations regarding the specific family relationship required to use this leave. Notably, however, this form of bereavement leave will not be paid.
The government has over the last couple of weeks published some new amendments to the ERB which includes a new ‘miscarriage leave’, by extending bereavement leave to a stillbirth or loss of a child in the first 24 weeks of pregnancy.
The Roadmap states that there will be a period of consultation on bereavement leave in Autumn of this year and we can expect the full measure to be introduced in 2027.
Maternity Leave
Last year, the government implemented new changes requiring that, in redundancy situations, pregnant women and new mothers should have a priority right to be offered suitable employment. Previously, this only covered women on their return from maternity leave.
The ERB will go further, giving the government the power to create regulations that would provide protection for dismissals beyond redundancy situations. We expect that there will be a blanket ban of dismissals of women during pregnancy, maternity leave and in the six months following a return to work, except in a narrowly defined set of circumstances.
In terms of next steps, the Roadmap informs us there will be further consultation regarding pregnant workers rights in Autumn 2025 and the measures themselves are expected to take effect in 2027.
Flexible Working
Currently, employees can request flexible working arrangements from day one of their employment, but their employer can refuse this request using one (or more) of eight defined reasons. The ERB will require any refusal based on these eight reasons to be reasonable. An employee will also be due a written explanation explaining why the refusal is considered reasonable.
There will be no change to the penalty for the employer for breaching this flexible working framework, which is currently placed at eight weeks’ pay, capped at an amount of £5,600.
The Roadmap states that we can expect consultation on flexible working in Winter 2025 / early 2026, with the changes expected to be introduced in 2027. Interestingly, this is one of the areas where the government have watered down their initial proposals, but the fact that it is subject to further consultation could indicate that additional changes may be forthcoming.
How We can Help
If you require any advice in relation to how to prepare for the implementation of the ERB, please contact a member of our team employment@wslaw.co.uk