Employment Rights Act 2025

No, while the Employment Rights Act 2025 removes the qualifying period for statutory paternity leave from 6 April 2026, the qualifying requirements for statutory paternity pay remain the same.

Employees will be entitled to statutory paternity pay only if they have 26 weeks’ service ending with the relevant week. They would be entitled to statutory paternity leave on an unpaid basis if they do not have the required service.

The relevant week is the 15th week before the expected week of birth, or the week they are notified of the match for adoption.

Yes, eligible employees can take both paternity leave and shared parental leave. 

Before 6 April 2026, employees are required to take paternity leave first. They cannot take a period of paternity leave if they have already taken a period of shared parental leave in relation to the same child.

The Employment Rights Act 2025 removes this restriction for paternity leave where the expected week of childbirth is on or after 5 April 2026; the child is born on or after 6 April 2026; or the child is expected to be placed for adoption on or after 6 April 2026.

Employers can be held vicariously liable for discriminatory acts by employees – even if the event is held off site and out of normal working hours. Under the Equality Act 2010, protection from harassment covers sexual harassment as well as unwanted conduct on the grounds of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, and sexual orientation.

Employers should ensure that their policy on harassment is up to date, and has been brought to the attention of all employees. The employer will have a defence to a claim of harassment if it can show that it took all reasonable steps to prevent the employee from performing the act. Ensuring that employees are aware of the policy on harassment is a key first step to establishing this defence.

Employers are not currently liable for harassment of employees by third parties, but this is due to change in October 2026. The Employment Rights Act 2025 provides for employers to be liable for third-party harassment of employees in the course of their employment, where the employer has failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent this.

Employers currently have a duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees in the course of their employment. This includes prevention of harassment by third parties. This duty will be strengthened by the Employment Rights Act 2025, which will require employers to take all reasonable steps. Employers should ensure that they take steps to prevent any harassment of employees, for example when choosing a venue for a social event. 

If someone is dismissed for taking lawful industrial action, the dismissal will be automatically unfair.

For industrial action that began before 18 February 2026, automatic protection from unfair dismissal applies only to the first 12 weeks of industrial action, or if the employee strikes for more than 12 weeks where the employer has not taken reasonable procedural steps to resolve the dispute. Even where the employer has taken reasonable steps, employees taking official industrial action can claim unfair dismissal unless all employees taking part are dismissed and none are offered re-engagement, so the employer is more exposed to claims if it dismisses only some employees.

The 12-week protected period is removed by the Employment Rights Act 2025, so dismissal for taking lawful industrial action is automatically unfair regardless of the length of the strike.