The Employment Rights Act 2025 and hospitality: what's changed, what's coming

The Employment Rights Act 2025 is the biggest change to UK employment law in a generation, and hospitality is the sector it touches most. Lots of zero-hours and variable-hours staff, short-notice rotas, tips and high turnover. Some of it already applies to your team. The parts most people worry about, the zero-hours reforms, aren't in force yet and the detail hasn't been decided.

This guide splits it into three: what's already law, what's dated for the next few months, and what's planned for 2027. Dates are taken from Acas (page updated 20 October 2026) and the government's implementation roadmap. Anything with a future date can move, so check gov.uk for the latest before you act on it.

Most of the Act applies in England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland has its own employment law.

What's already in force

Statutory sick pay from day one (since 6 April 2026)

This is the change that has hit hospitality payrolls hardest so far.

• No waiting days. SSP is now paid from the first day of sickness, not the fourth.
• No lower earnings limit. Employees no longer need to earn a minimum amount each week to qualify. Your part-timers and low-hours staff now get SSP.
• The rate. £123.25 a week or 80% of the employee's average weekly earnings, whichever is lower, for up to 28 weeks.

A kitchen porter on two short shifts a week who used to get nothing now gets SSP from the first day off. Budget for it. Our guide to managing staff sickness covers the day-to-day side.

Day-one paternity leave and unpaid parental leave (since 6 April 2026)

Both are now available from the first day of employment. There's no longer a qualifying period.

Holiday records kept for six years (since 6 April 2026)

Acas confirms employers must now keep records of holiday for at least six years. That matters in hospitality because holiday pay for irregular-hours staff is easy to get wrong, and a written record is how you show you got it right. See our holiday pay guide.

The Fair Work Agency (since 7 April 2026)

A new state body that brings existing enforcement bodies together. Right now it covers the minimum wage (HMRC still does the enforcement on its behalf). The government plans for it to take on holiday pay and statutory sick pay later; holiday pay enforcement won't start before April 2027. Check gov.uk for the latest.

Six months to bring a tribunal claim (since 1 October 2026)

The deadline for most employment tribunal claims went up from three months to six. Problems that started before 1 October 2026 may still fall under the old three-month limit. In practice: a disgruntled ex-employee now has twice as long to bring a claim, so your records need to last.

Other changes already made

• Collective redundancy protective awards doubled to a maximum of 180 days' pay (6 April 2026).
• Sexual harassment became a qualifying disclosure for whistleblowing (6 April 2026).
• Several trade union rules changed in late 2025 and early 2026, including dismissal for taking part in lawful industrial action becoming automatically unfair from 18 February 2026.
• The Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Act 2023, which would have let staff request a predictable working pattern, was repealed on 6 January 2026 before it ever came into force. The zero-hours measures below replace it.

What's dated for the next few months

Preventing sexual harassment: "all reasonable steps" (30 October 2026)

Since 26 October 2024 employers have had a duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their staff. From 30 October 2026 (commencement regulations already made) that becomes "all reasonable steps", and you become liable for harassment by third parties, such as customers, unless you've taken all reasonable steps to prevent it.

For bars and late-night venues this is real. Think about what you do when a customer harasses a member of the bar team: is there a clear policy, do staff know how to report it, does a manager act, and is it written down? Our incident log guide has a simple way to record what happened and what you did.

Tipping: consult staff on your tips policy (expected late 2026)

You've had to pass on all tips without deductions, and have a written tipping policy, since 1 October 2024. The Act adds a duty to consult workers (or their union or representatives) before you write or review your policy, share an anonymised summary of their views, and review the policy at least every three years. Acas lists this as expected by the end of 2026; the government consulted on a revised code of practice in August and September 2026. Check gov.uk for the start date. Our tips and tronc guide covers the rules in force now.

What's planned for 2027

Unfair dismissal after six months (1 January 2027)

Right now employees generally need two years' service to claim ordinary unfair dismissal. From 1 January 2027 that drops to six months, and the cap on compensation is removed. The government originally planned day-one protection and changed course. In hospitality, where many leavers go in the first year, that's a big shift. Use probation properly, keep notes of conversations about performance, and follow a fair process.

Telling staff about the right to join a union (1 January 2027)

Employers will have to tell workers about their right to join a trade union.

"Fire and rehire" (expected January 2027)

Dismissing staff to rehire them on worse terms will become automatically unfair in most cases.

The zero-hours reforms (2027, date not yet set)

This is the part hospitality operators ask about most, and it's the least settled. The Act creates three new rights for zero-hours workers and those on low guaranteed hours:

1. Guaranteed hours. Employers will have to offer guaranteed hours that reflect what the worker has regularly worked over a reference period. The worker can say no and stay as they are.
2. Reasonable notice of shifts. Workers will be entitled to reasonable notice of shifts and of changes to shifts you make.
3. Pay for short-notice cancellations. If you cancel, cut short or move a shift at short notice, you'll owe the worker a payment.

The detail (how many hours counts as "low hours", how long the reference period is, how much notice is presumed reasonable, what counts as short notice and how much you pay) will be set in regulations. The government consulted from 2 June to 25 August 2026. Its stated preferences included an hours threshold somewhere between 8 and 20 hours a week and a 12-week initial reference period. Options on presumed reasonable notice ran from one to four weeks. No response has been published yet. These rights will cover agency workers too.

Worker-initiated changes won't count. If two staff swap a shift between themselves, or someone calls in and can't make it, that's not an employer cancellation.

We cover this in depth in our zero-hours contracts guide and our rota notice guide.

Other 2027 changes

Acas lists these for 2027 without dates: flexible working refusals having to be reasonable and based on a set list of business reasons, unpaid statutory bereavement leave, stronger protections for pregnant workers and new mothers, and mandatory gender pay gap and menopause action plans for larger employers.

At a glance

Future dates can change. Check gov.uk and acas.org.uk for the latest.

What a pub, restaurant or café should do now

1. Check your sick pay set-up. Make sure payroll pays SSP from day one and includes low-earners. If you run a company sick pay scheme, check it still beats SSP.
2. Keep holiday records properly, for every worker, for six years.
3. Tighten your harassment policy before 30 October 2026. Include customers, make reporting easy, train managers, and write down what you do.
4. Get your tipping policy ready for a staff consultation.
5. Look hard at probation. Six-month unfair dismissal rights are coming in January 2027. Hold reviews and keep notes.
6. Start building rotas earlier. You don't know the exact notice rule yet, but it will reward venues that publish rotas well ahead and rarely cancel shifts. Track how much notice you give now so you know where you stand.
7. Look at your zero-hours team. Who works regular hours week in, week out? Those are the people likely to qualify for a guaranteed hours offer.

Where ShiftComplete helps

ShiftComplete won't make you compliant on its own, and the operator stays responsible. But it does make the habits the new rules reward much easier. Staff set their availability on their phone weeks ahead, you add the busy events (the Friday match that needs two more on the bar), and ShiftComplete builds a draft rota in seconds, fair across the team. Publish it and it lands on everyone's phone and can be emailed, so it's easy to get rotas out early. Labour cost shows while you build, so you're not cancelling shifts on the day because the week came in over budget. Holidays are recorded so you don't rota someone who's off. Switch on clocking in and out and you get a record of hours actually worked against the rota, downloadable as a spreadsheet with a total per person, which is useful evidence of who works regular hours ahead of the zero-hours changes. Team announcements mean policy updates (like a new harassment or tipping policy) don't get lost in a WhatsApp group.

It's £1.49 per staff member per month with every feature included, and free for 60 days with no card needed.

This guide is general information, not legal advice: for a specific case, speak to Acas (0300 123 1100) or an employment law adviser.