Current statistics show that in the UK almost two-thirds (62 percent) of employment tribunal claims are resolved before the final hearing. Considering the expected changes concerning the Employment Rights Bill, the United Kingdom is expected to take considerable steps regarding employment by 2025.
These changes are intended to support employers and workers across different sectors.
Key Legislative Changes Anticipated in 2025
Employment Rights Bill
The Employment Rights Bill was taken to Parliament in October 2024 to change and expand workers’ rights. Among other matters, its most important provisions are as follows:
- Unfair Dismissal Protection: Employees will be protected against unlawful termination of their services on the very first day of work. This greatly improves on previous regulations that attempted to set a qualifying period for these rights.
- Flexible Working: The Bill provides for the right to request flexible work from the first day of employment.
- Prohibition of “Fire and Rehire” Practices: The legislation puts an end to the problematic practice of firing employees and then rehiring them under relocations and changes of benefits.
- Improved Parental Leave: Standard paternity leave is granted along with a new right to protection of women during pregnancy and after childbirth.
- Creation of Fair Work Agency: A new organisation tasked with enforcement of compliance with labor standards and protection of employees is to be constituted.
Specialist firms such as Gordon Turner employment lawyers can support with settlement agreements. These are particularly important to businesses in enabling them to comply with the legislative changes as they provide smoother workplace dispute resolutions and other legal safeguards.
National Living Wage Increase
Currently set at £11.44, the NLW is set to increase on April 1 2025 to £12.21, a rise of £0.77. The NLW also increases for 18 to 20-year-olds from £8.60 to £10 while for 16 to 17-year-olds, the increase will be from £6.40 to £7.55. New requirement wage levels will have to be met by all employers.
Employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs)
Come April 6, 2025, the lower Secondary Class 1 NIC threshold will be reduced from £9,100 to £5,000. The prevailing rate of Secondary Class 1 NICs has increased from 13.8% to 15%. To cushion these increases, the government is broadening the scope of the employment allowance and now making it available to all employers and increasing maximum savings from £5,000 to £10,500.
Data (Use and Access) Bill
This bill was first proposed in 2024 with the intent of altering and improving data protection provisions in the United Kingdom post-Brexit. It seeks to guarantee that there are not only policies with the capability to protect modern technologies but policies that will also guarantee their safe development and usage.
Equality (Race and Disability) Bill
A second reading is scheduled for the last parliamentary session of 2024 and 2025. The legislation proposes new inclusions into the scope of race and disability pay gap reporting that need to be reported.
Additional Legislative Developments in 2025
Further to previously stated changes, there are additional new changes that are set to be brought to the United Kingdom employment in the year 2025:
- Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023: Starting from April 2025, the Act will grant 12 weeks of paid leave for parents of children deemed ill with a medical professional physiatrists have coined this allowance as non-essential for maternity and paternity leave.
- Anticipated Changes in Employment Rights: The laws about the Royal Family must be enacted by the year 2025, fully removing the lawful provisions under ‘Onboarding Oppressive Laws’ that granted expulsion without cause on day one of employment, as they have. Within The Employment Rights Bill, there is a mention of restricting the ability to file for a recess in 2025.
- New Offense: Failure to Prevent Fraud: While the act has been in use since September of 2023, the enforcement of fail cases for did not genuinely attempt to prevent fraud for large corporations came into effect from September 2025, necessitating large firms to have reasonable fraud protection policies and procedures.
- Trade Union Reforms: Even though a majority are planned for 2026 and later periods, some changes regarding trade unions will come into effect when the bill is signed into law in 2025.
Non-Legislative Changes
Along with these legislative developments, the government intends to pursue non-legislative changes using its existing powers and through routes like codes of practice and other administrative mechanisms. This encompasses a code of practice on the right to clock out of work, which aims to mitigate issues related to work-life integration in an ever-growing digital economy.
Consequences For Employers And Employees
Employers’ responses to these amendments would require policy and procedural changes to be implemented. As a result, additional management training, alterations in employment documents, and increased measures for safeguarding information may be required.
The increment in protections and rights makes the workers, as well as employees, more beneficial as they will now have better job security, flexible working options, and additional support concerning parental responsibilities.
Final Thoughts
With severe changes around modernisation, more focus seems to be put on empowering the workers ensuring fairness and transparency in the workplace. For 2025, it aims to repeal the entire employment law as we know it – and facilitate compliance with existing structures equally for both employees and employers.