UK Employment Law:
Your 2026 Compliance Guide

Unfair Dismissal Protection from Day One

The Employment Rights Bill proposes removing the current 2-year qualifying period for unfair dismissal protection. Employees will be protected from day one of employment. Employers will retain the ability to dismiss during a statutory initial period (probation), but this will need to follow a fair procedure. This is the most significant change to unfair dismissal law since 1999.

Right to Guaranteed Hours for Irregular Workers

Workers on zero-hours and irregular-hours contracts will have the right to request a contract reflecting their average hours over a reference period. Employers must offer guaranteed hours to eligible workers and cannot require them to remain on zero-hours arrangements if they do not wish to. This does not ban zero-hours contracts but gives workers significantly stronger rights.

Flexible Working Rights Enhanced

The Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 already made flexible working a day-one right. The Employment Rights Bill goes further, requiring employers to accept flexible working requests unless they can demonstrate genuine business reasons for refusal, shifting the burden from the employee to justify the request to the employer to justify the refusal.

Bereavement Leave and Enhanced Family Rights

The Bill introduces a statutory right to bereavement leave for all employees, not just those who lose a child (who already had rights under the Parental Bereavement Leave Act 2018). Details of the entitlement are being consulted on. Additional provisions strengthen rights for carers, those undergoing fertility treatment, and those experiencing domestic abuse.

Strengthened Trade Union and Collective Bargaining Rights

The Bill significantly strengthens trade union rights: simplifying the recognition process, providing unions with access rights to workplaces (including digital access), reducing thresholds for industrial action ballots, and repealing provisions introduced by the Trade Union Act 2016 and Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023. Employers with recognised unions should review their collective agreements.

• New National Living/Minimum Wage rates (if revised by Low Pay Commission)
• New SSP, SMP, SPP and other statutory payment rates take effect
• Employment Rights Bill: monitor commencement orders for day-one rights

• Gender pay gap reporting deadline for private sector employers with 250+ employees
• Submit report to government gender pay gap service and publish on company website

• Right to work checks: update processes for any new document verification rules
• Monitor Employment Rights Bill implementation dates and prepare policy updates
• Review zero-hours and irregular-hours contracts ahead of guaranteed-hours provisions

• Review employment contracts and handbooks for Employment Rights Bill compliance
• Train managers on updated day-one unfair dismissal rights and fair probation management
• Assess collective bargaining exposure ahead of strengthened union recognition provisions

Leave and absence management

Track annual leave, SSP, SMP and SPP entitlements automatically. BambooHR calculates pro-rata entitlements, manages carry-over rules and flags when employees are approaching statutory limits.

Gender pay gap reporting

Pull pay, bonus and quartile data directly from BambooHR for your annual gender pay gap report. Reduce the time spent gathering data from disparate systems to minutes.

Right to work document storage

Store right to work documents securely with expiry alerts. BambooHR notifies HR and managers before visa or documentation expiry, giving time to take action before legal exposure arises.

Written statement and contract management

Issue day-one written statements and employment contracts via BambooHR's e-signature feature. All documents are stored in each employee's secure record with a complete audit trail.

Probation and performance tracking

With day-one unfair dismissal rights incoming, fair probation management becomes essential. BambooHR lets you set probation milestones, document reviews and record decisions against a clear timeline.

Payroll integration for statutory pay

BambooHR integrates with Sage Payroll, ADP, Moorepay and other UK payroll providers. Statutory pay calculations feed directly into payroll, reducing manual errors on SSP, SMP and redundancy pay.