by Ronelle Barreto and Ro Carracedo Lopez, Brightmine International Editors
This promises to be a busy year for HR teams in the UK as they prepare to implement the initial measures in the Employment Rights Act. Likewise in the US, more than 145 compliance changes kicked in on 1 January 2026, including over 70 minimum wage increases affecting more than 15 states and dozens of localities.
For global employers, HR calendars will be similarly demanding. All EU member states have until 7 June 2026 to transpose the provisions of the EU Pay Transparency Directive into national law. Across the world, there are proposals to make changes to parental leave, pension schemes, working time rules and dismissal laws.
Each country has its own distinct political and legal framework, making it difficult yet essential for organisations operating internationally to stay up to date with changing laws and regulations. This is necessary to remain compliant, reduce risks and foster strong cross-border relationships. The following table highlights key legislative updates introduced or anticipated in 18 countries in 2026.
Legislative processes differ considerably depending on the specific country, so it is not always possible to predict the “expected date” (ie when the legislation may come into effect) with the same degree of accuracy in all jurisdictions. Further details may be found in the relevant Brightmine country guide.
| Country | Proposed change to legislation | Introduced/expected date |
| Australia | The maximum entitlement to parental leave pay will gradually increase by two weeks each year from 1 July 2024 to 1 July 2026, up to a maximum of 26 weeks. At present, it stands at 24 weeks. | 1 July 2026. |
| Austria | Changes to the General Pension Insurance Act introduce partial retirement. Under specific conditions, employees have the opportunity to work part time while receiving part of their pension. | 1 January 2026. |
| Belgium | Access to the end-of-career time credits scheme, which reduces working time in the period running up to retirement, has been further restricted. There are several new qualifying criteria and the changes will be gradually introduced. | 1 January 2026. |
| Bulgaria | Bulgaria adopted the Euro as its currency. | 1 January 2026. |
| Canada | The Canada Labour Code will be amended to restrict federally regulated businesses’ use of non-competition agreements in employment contracts. | Unknown. |
| Czech Republic | Employers are now required to submit a single Unified Monthly Employer Report (JMHZ), which consolidates approximately 25 reports into one, thereby simplifying the administrative duties for employers. | 1 January 2026. |
| Denmark | Parental leave for parents of hospitalised newborns and those undertaking early homestay care (where medical treatment is provided at home instead of in hospital) has been extended to up to 12 months per parent. | 1 January 2026. |
| Finland | Significant changes to dismissal laws which lower the threshold for dismissal on personal grounds, specify clearer dismissal criteria and prohibited grounds, reduce employers’ obligations to offer alternative work and clarify the protection for employee representatives. | 1 January 2026. |
| Hong Kong | There will be changes to the definition of a continuous contract. The proposed changes will lower the continuous contract threshold to 17 hours per week or 68 aggregate hours over four weeks, enabling more short-hours employees to qualify for statutory benefits. | 18 January 2026. |
| Ireland | New auto-enrol pension obligations require employers to enrol certain employees who do not already have a workplace pension in a new centrally administered auto-enrolment pension scheme, with contributions from employees, employers and the Government (increasing in stages). | 1 January 2026. |
| Luxembourg | A new Bill seeks to protect staff representatives who have been suspended. | Unknown. |
| Malaysia | A new 1:3 internship policy on expatriate hiring and local talent development has been introduced. Employers approved to hire expatriates must provide three internship or work-based learning placements to local students for each expatriate hired, with possible adjustments based on company and workforce size. | 1 January 2026. |
| Mexico | Numerous new Bills propose reforming the Constitution to provide for a 40-hour work week by 2030. | 1 May 2026, with the gradual reduction of the work week starting on 1 January 2027. |
| Norway | Employers are no longer able to set a company-specific retirement age below 72, as the Working Environment Act requires employment protection until this statutory age limit. | 1 January 2026. |
| Singapore | The Government paid shared parental leave entitlement will increase from six to 10 weeks. | 1 April 2026. |
| South Korea | Amendments to the “Yellow Envelope Act” expand the definitions of employer, union membership and labour dispute, and broaden union immunity from damages, resulting in significant changes to the labour union-employer landscape. | 10 March 2026. |
| Spain | A draft Bill on the governance of artificial intelligence (AI) will bring Spanish legislation in line with the European AI regulation (known as the EU AI Act) already in force. | Unknown. |
| UK | The Employment Rights Act introduces enhanced protections for employees and trade union members, including day-one rights for paternity and ordinary (unpaid) parental leave and sick pay, a new right to guaranteed hours for zero hours and low hours workers, reforms to the flexible working requests procedure, changes to collective redundancy consultation laws, extended anti-harassment measures, a new right to statutory bereavement leave, and reforms to union recognition and industrial action procedures. | Expected to be brought into force during 2026 and 2027. |
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About the authors
Ronelle (Elle) Barreto
International Legal Editor, Brightmine
Elle focuses on editing the International country guides, collaborating with local lawyers to provide updates and insights into the legislation for different jurisdictions.
Elle is a former practicing employment law attorney with over 20 years’ experience in the public, corporate and political sectors in both South Africa and the UK. Before joining Brightmine, she served as a litigation attorney, senior manager for KPMG’s employment law advisory practice, parliamentary researcher (labour and public enterprises) and HR manager. In addition to a legal career, Elle has more than five years’ experience in academic research focusing on trends in the legal framework around precarious forms of work.
Elle holds a PhD in Business and Law (UK), Masters in Research in Business Management (UK), Masters in Employment Law (South Africa), Bachelor of Laws (LLB) (South Africa), and BA in Law and Industrial Psychology (South Africa).
Rocio Carracedo Lopez
International Legal Editor, Brightmine
Ro has 10 years’ experience as a researcher, writer and editor in multi-jurisdictional employment law. In her role as an International legal editor at Brightmine she manages, edits and publishes a large portfolio of international guides and leads the rolling out of new initiatives to enhance the guides.
Prior to joining Brightmine, Ro held a number of roles writing content on HR and employment law including country comparative reports, eBooks, whitepapers, top tips, case analysis, news reports and FAQs. Ro has a law degree (LLB) from the University of Exeter. As part of her degree, she studied at the University of Deusto, Bilbao. She also has an MA (LLM) in European legal studies from the University of Bristol.
Ro speaks fluent Spanish and conversational French.
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