Employment Rights Act 2025: What UK Hospitality Employers Must Do Now
Quick answer:
The Employment Rights Act 2025 arrives in waves. Day-one sick pay, day-one paternity leave and the Fair Work Agency took effect in April 2026.
Harassment duties land on 30 October 2026. Six-month unfair dismissal rights begin January 2027.
No sector feels this Act like hospitality. High turnover. Variable hours. Tips. Young teams. Customer contact all day. Almost every clause touches a restaurant, pub or hotel somewhere. Here is the full timeline, and what to do at each stage.
What is already in force in 2026?
Since 6 April 2026, five changes apply to every venue. Statutory Sick Pay is now payable from day one of sickness, with no waiting days and no lower earnings limit. Staff receive the lower of £123.25 a week or 80% of their average weekly earnings. Paternity leave and unpaid parental leave became day-one rights. Whistleblowing protection now expressly covers disclosures about sexual harassment. Employers must keep adequate records proving holiday and holiday pay compliance. And the maximum protective award for collective redundancy failures doubled from 90 to 180 days' pay.
The Fair Work Agency opened on 7 April 2026 as the single enforcement body. One inspector. One door. Minimum wage, sick pay and more. Hospitality is openly on its priority list.
If your sickness policy still mentions waiting days, or your rota system cannot evidence holiday records, you are already behind. That is not preparing. That is catching up.
What changes on 30 October 2026 for hospitality?
Two duties that reach the heart of hospitality. From 30 October 2026, employers must take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their staff. That is a higher bar than the current "reasonable steps". And the duty extends to harassment by third parties. Customers. Guests. Suppliers. Contractors.
Read that again as an operator. The drunk regular. The abusive guest. The supplier who "banters" with your bar team. Their behaviour becomes your legal responsibility to prevent. Hospitality, with its late nights and alcohol on premises, is exactly the sector this clause was written for.
Reasonable steps means evidence. A specific harassment prevention policy. Risk assessments covering customer-facing work. Trained managers. Visible reporting routes. Records that you acted. A line in an old handbook will not survive a tribunal.
Also from 1 October 2026, employees get six months instead of three to bring most tribunal claims. Cases you thought had expired will now still be live.
When does day-one unfair dismissal protection start?
From 1 January 2027, the qualifying period for unfair dismissal drops from two years to six months. The cap on compensatory awards is removed. The government has signalled further reform toward day-one rights, but six months is what is confirmed and coming.
For hospitality, this rewrites probation. The casual "let's see how they go" approach dies the day a six-month employee can claim unfair dismissal. Every dismissal will need a fair reason and a fair process, evidenced. That means structured probation reviews, documented performance conversations and clean paperwork from the first shift.
Later in 2027, consultations continue on restricting fire-and-rehire and on guaranteed-hours rules for zero-hours workers. If you rely on zero-hours contracts, the direction of travel is already clear. Our guide to zero-hours contracts in UK hospitality covers what to change now.
What about tips?
The strengthened tipping rules have slipped to the end of 2026 while the Code of Practice is consulted on. The Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023 still applies in full. All tips passed to staff. Allocated fairly. Paid by the end of the following month, with a written policy and records. The new Act tightens the regime. It does not replace it. Get the current rules right and the update becomes an edit, not a rebuild.
Employment Rights Act 2025 checklist for hospitality venues
1. Rewrite your sickness policy for day-one SSP. Remove waiting days and lower-earnings-limit wording, and brief whoever runs payroll.
2. Update family leave policies to show day-one paternity and parental leave.
3. Start a holiday evidence file. Records of entitlement, requests and pay for every worker, including casuals.
4. Build your harassment prevention pack before 30 October. Policy, customer-behaviour risk assessment, manager training, reporting route, incident log.
5. Fix probation now. Six-month reviews, documented check-ins, fair-process dismissal paperwork, ready for January 2027.
6. Audit your tips against the 2023 Act so the end-of-year strengthening is a small step, not a scramble.
Every document in that list already exists in the WINC HR kits. Policies, letters, checklists, review forms, written for hospitality and updated as each wave lands. The legally required HR policies for 2026 are the floor. The Act keeps raising it.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Employment Rights Act 2025 in force yet?
Partly. The Act became law in 2025 and is being implemented in phases. Day-one sick pay, day-one paternity leave, holiday record-keeping duties and the Fair Work Agency took effect in April 2026. Harassment prevention duties arrive on 30 October 2026. The six-month unfair dismissal qualifying period starts on 1 January 2027.
Is Statutory Sick Pay now paid from day one?
Yes. Since 6 April 2026 SSP is payable from the first day of sickness, with no waiting days and no lower earnings limit. Staff receive the lower of the flat weekly rate of £123.25 in 2026/27 or 80% of their average weekly earnings. Even low-hours casual staff qualify.
Are employers responsible for harassment by customers?
From 30 October 2026, yes. Employers must take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment and to protect staff from third-party harassment, including by customers and guests. For hospitality this means risk assessments, clear house rules on customer behaviour, trained managers and evidenced action when incidents happen.
When does unfair dismissal become a day-one right?
The confirmed change is six months, not day one. From 1 January 2027 employees can claim unfair dismissal after six months' service, and the compensation cap is removed. Broader day-one proposals remain under consultation, so treat six months as the planning baseline.
What is the Fair Work Agency?
The Fair Work Agency is the single labour-market enforcement body launched on 7 April 2026. It combines minimum wage, sick pay and other enforcement under one roof, with hospitality among its stated priority sectors. It can inspect records, order back-pay and escalate persistent breaches.
Do zero-hours contracts change under the Act?
Not yet. Guaranteed-hours rules are being consulted on for 2027, requiring employers to offer hours reflecting what people actually work. If your model depends on zero-hours flexibility, start measuring real average hours now so the change does not ambush your rota.
