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The Employment Rights Act is important for nursing staff and their rights at work. Like any set of laws, some of the terminology can be confusing. This simple Q&A will help you understand it.

What's the latest development?

The Employment Rights Bill became the Employment Rights Act when it met on 18 December 2025. That’s the formal process where King Charles formally agrees to make a bill an Act of Parliament (law).

What is the Employment Rights Act?

°Õ³ó±ð  advances workers’ rights. Its aim is to enhance employment protections and transform workplace environments.

It was introduced in parliament by the Labour government on 10 October 2024, as part of promises the party made before the general election in July 2024 – what it called its “Plan to Make Work Pay”.

How does the Employment Rights Act affect me?

These once-in-a-generation changes to employment law will significantly improve your individual and collective employment rights and protections.

The reversal of many of the anti-trade union laws passed in 2016 will mean you will have far more protections and rights at work, and it will be much easier for the ¹úÄÚ¾«Æ·ÒÁÈ˾þþþø¾ to recruit and organise in your workplaces.

Are these laws in place now?

Not quite. We'll see changes happen in phases between now and 2027 (more on that below), but some of those changes will be in place soon, including:

Protection from dismissal for taking industrial action

• Dismissal for taking part in industrial action is expected to become "automatically unfair”. The current 12-week limit for claiming unfair dismissal will be removed.

Trade union activity

• The time needed to give notice of industrial action will reduce to 10 days (was previously 14 days).
• The 50% legal strike mandate threshold is being reduced. This will mean that we don’t need to reach an arbitrary turnout figure to take industrial action.
• Picket supervisors will be no longer be required.
• Industrial action mandates are being increased to 12 months (up from 6). This means we can spend less time and resources balloting and more time focusing on building effective industrial action.
• Electronic balloting. This means we won’t have to rely on the postal system for your vote to be counted, which will make it easier for you to have your say.

Is that everything?

More changes are expected in April 2026, October 2026 and in 2027, on issues including parental leave, sick pay, more trade union rights, the gender pay gap, and rights for pregnant workers. The Westminster government has published .

What happens now?

The government will now be turning the provisions in the act into legislation, guidance, and codes of practice that will be applied to your workplace.

As part of this, an extensive consultation exercise is under way, and the ¹úÄÚ¾«Æ·ÒÁÈ˾þþþø¾ will be directly involved, to ensure the voice of the nursing workforce is at the heart of the act’s implementation phase.

The government will be consulting on:

• fire and rehire practices
• e-balloting
• bereavement leave
• zero-hours contracts
• flexible working
• collective redundancy
• dismissal protection for taking industrial action
• blacklisting.

One of the most significant changes is the creation of a new negotiating body in the adult social care sector. This groundbreaking development, which the ¹úÄÚ¾«Æ·ÒÁÈ˾þþþø¾ has long been calling for, will bring together unions and employers to improve pay and terms and conditions across the sector.

These radical changes to employment law will significantly increase your power in the workplace as well as our rights as a trade union.

The job is not yet done and that’s why during this implementation phase and beyond, the ¹úÄÚ¾«Æ·ÒÁÈ˾þþþø¾ will speak up for you to ensure your rights at work are as strong as they can be.

How did the ¹úÄÚ¾«Æ·ÒÁÈ˾þþþø¾ influence the bill/act?

The ¹úÄÚ¾«Æ·ÒÁÈ˾þþþø¾ has played a crucial role in making sure the act is as strong and effective as it can be for the nursing workforce, as the bill made its way through parliament. We have achieved various wins for you.

• Parental bereavement rights. The ¹úÄÚ¾«Æ·ÒÁÈ˾þþþø¾ worked with various officials and organisations to expand the rights of people who experience pregnancy loss. Currently,  is available to people whose children die under the age of 18, or are stillborn after 24 weeks of pregnancy. These parents get two weeks of paid leave. In July 2025, an amendment was made to the proposed law to give these same rights to people who experience pregnancy loss before 24 weeks. This would help people who have had a miscarriage or an abortion.

• Increased rights for workers on zero-hours contracts. We pushed on this issue, helping to secure an amendment to the bill that ensures that workers with at least 26 weeks of service can request a contract with more predictable working patterns, and employers must consider such requests, only rejecting them on justifiable grounds.

• A fair pay agreement in social care, built around sectoral collective bargaining (more on that term below). In the UK, there are more than 30,000 organisations providing social care. They are crucial to the health and care system but staff are often faced with low pay, insecure employment and inferior terms and conditions. The ¹úÄÚ¾«Æ·ÒÁÈ˾þþþø¾ was concerned this bill only addressed England. However, following consultation with the devolved administrations and representations made by the ¹úÄÚ¾«Æ·ÒÁÈ˾þþþø¾, the government has agreed to further scope to include Scotland and Wales.

• Restoration of trade union rights, giving you greater power to organise, demand fairer pay and negotiate better working conditions. You should have a voice at work and trade unions are essential for tackling insecurity, inequality and low pay. We lobbied the Westminster government to repeal the 2016 Trade Union Act and are pleased to see key parts of that legislation undone.

• Improved women’s rights in the workplace. We pushed for better workplace protections, including around menopause, equal pay and harassment. These are crucial for ensuring fair conditions in a female-dominated workforce. We also asked for protections for pregnant workers to be expanded, and the government formally agreed to this. An amendment means employers will face stricter obligations around redundancy protections for pregnant workers and new parents.

Some of these terms are confusing. 'Sectoral collective bargaining', 'enshrined'. What do they mean?

There’s a lot of confusing terminology.

Sectoral collective bargaining is when trade unions and employers negotiate agreements that cover all workers in a specific sector, for example, everyone working in adult social care. This sets minimum standards in terms of pay, terms and conditions, which is crucial in stamping out exploitation and individual employer bad practice.

When something is “enshrined in law” it means it has legal standing. In this case, it means a future government in five or 10 years couldn’t easily decide to undo these improvements to workers’ rights.

We’ve called for sectoral collective bargaining to be enshrined in law, and for our members working in adult social care this is one step closer, thanks to the social care fair pay agreement.

There will most likely be lots of confusing terms throughout this process, but the ¹úÄÚ¾«Æ·ÒÁÈ˾þþþø¾ is here to help you make sense of everything.

Does this affect all nations of the UK?

The Employment Rights Bill affects workers in England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland has its own, separate employment laws, and a separate process to improve these is ongoing.

The ¹úÄÚ¾«Æ·ÒÁÈ˾þþþø¾ in Northern Ireland made a submission to the consultation on the Good Jobs Employment Rights Bill to the Department for the Economy in September 2024. It is planned this will be brought to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2026. We continue to engage with the Department and relevant stakeholders.