The Employment Rights Act 2025 (ERA) represents the most significant overhaul of UK employment law in decades. With reforms now firmly underway, the clock is ticking for employers to prepare for its wide‑ranging changes, which aim to strengthen employee protections and update workplace practices.
Our employment lawyers can help you turn those changes into clear, compliant practice.
The ERA is being rolled out in multiple phases already underway, with the first set of reforms already in force from April 2026 and further significant employer‑facing reforms arriving in October 2026 and into 2027, bringing substantial changes that will directly affect how workforce decisions must be made.
Employers may face significant challenges in putting the reforms into practice due to the breadth of the changes, new statutory duties and the operational and budgetary impact. Throughout 2026 and into 2027, organisations across all sectors will need to undertake major operational and policy updates. The ERA forms part of a wider Government policy programme aimed at fairness, transparency, and enhanced worker protections.
How will the Employment Rights Act affect the rural / agricultural sector?
Rural and agricultural businesses often rely on seasonal, casual and flexible working arrangements linked to livestock cycles, harvest demands and weather conditions. Many also operate across dispersed sites with small management teams and long‑established working practices. As a result, the ERA reforms are likely to have a more immediate and practical impact on farming and land‑based employers than on many other sectors. In this article we highlight six key changes which rural and agricultural employers should be aware of.
For agricultural and rural employers, the most immediately impactful changes are those affecting seasonal workers, casual labour, zero‑ or low‑hours contracts and dismissal risk during busy periods such as lambing, calving and harvest.
Looking ahead to 2027, unfair dismissal protection will apply after just six months with the cap on compensatory awards removed. Fire and rehire practices and flexible working refusals will be more tightly regulated. This represents a move away from the flexibility many farms and rural businesses have traditionally relied on at peak points in the agricultural calendar.
But first – make sure you’re up to date with the April 2026 changes
In early April, several important developments came into force. Those most likely to immediately impact employers in the rural sector are:
- New day one rights to paternity and unpaid parental leave
- Statutory sick pay (SSP) rules have changed so more individuals qualify and qualify sooner. This is particularly relevant where farms rely on short‑term, casual or seasonal workers who may previously not have qualified for SSP.
- The introduction of the Fair Work Agency, an enforcement body designed to support and uphold employment rights including the national minimum wage, holiday pay and statutory sick pay. Not keeping adequate holiday entitlement and pay records is now a criminal offence.
Rural and agricultural employers should expect closer scrutiny of pay practices, working time records, accommodation deductions and holiday entitlement for farm workers, including seasonal and migrant labour.
Extended employee protection from sexual harassment
One of the most significant developments is the strengthened duties to prevent work-related harassment. The law will move from requiring employers to take “reasonable steps” to requiring them to show they took “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment of their employees. In addition, employers will become liable for harassment carried out by third parties, such as customers, clients, suppliers. For farms, estates and rural businesses, employees may have regular interactions with contractors, livestock hauliers and veterinarians and may be more likely to have one-on-one contact with third parties than employees in some other sectors. These changes will require employers to review their policies, training, and reporting processes to ensure they can meet the higher standards.
Trade union access
Although union activity has historically been limited in parts of the agricultural sector, the reforms around trade union access apply regardless of workforce size or location. Rural employers should not assume they are outside scope simply because their workforce is small or long‑standing.
From October, unions will gain a statutory right to access workplaces, physically and digitally, for recruitment, organising and collective bargaining, including in workplaces where they are not currently recognised. Employers will also have a new duty to inform new workers in a written statement at the start of their employment (and at other times during employment to be confirmed) that they have the right to join a trade union.
Reduced qualifying period of employment for unfair dismissal claims
From 1 January 2027, unfair dismissal protection will reduce from a qualifying period of two years down to six months’ service instead. At the same time, the cap on the compensatory award will be removed. The financial limit of £123,543 (from 6 April 2026) or 52 weeks’ gross pay will fall away, meaning compensation will reflect an employee’s actual financial loss and could potentially be much higher.
Restricted fire-and-rehire practices
Fire-and-rehire is a practice sometimes used where an employer cannot get agreement to a proposed change of terms and conditions and instead dismisses employees, offering them re-employment on the new terms.
Significant restrictions on these practices will take effect in January 2027. Dismissals used to impose changes to key terms such as pay, hours, pensions, shift patterns and time‑off rights, will be automatically unfair if an employee is dismissed for not agreeing a change or the employer wished to employ another person on the varied terms, but for substantially the same job. The new restrictions will also cover the practice of “fire and replace”, i.e. where employees are dismissed and replaced with self-employed contractors, agency workers or other non‑employees on less favourable terms and conditions of engagement. The new fire and rehire protections will be subject to limited exceptions for genuine financial distress.
This reform is particularly relevant where farms and estates seek to adjust working hours, duties, pay structures or accommodation arrangements in response to seasonal demand, weather conditions or changes in staffing.
Reforms for zero and low hours workers
Other changes that will take effect during 2027 include working‑pattern reforms for zero and low hours contracts. Employers must offer qualifying workers a contract that reflects the actual hours they regularly work over a reference period, which is likely to be 12 weeks. Workers will gain the right to reasonable notice of shifts, and compensation will be required for short‑notice changes or cancellations.
Employers relying on harvest crews, relief milkers, poultry or livestock workers, estate staff or rural hospitality workers will need to plan carefully to ensure contracts reflect actual working patterns and that shift cancellations are managed lawfully.
What steps should you be taking now?
1. Review your sick pay and sick leave processes
With SSP now applying from day one of absence, with no waiting days and no lower earnings limit, payroll systems must be configured to apply SSP automatically from the first day of absence and must calculate SSP correctly for lower‑earning staff using the new approach. Sickness policies, self‑certification forms and reporting processes should be revised to reflect these rules and to support consistent decision‑making. Employers should also ensure managers are prepared to handle questions about eligibility and a potential rise in short‑notice absences. Given the earlier application of SSP, effective sickness-absence reporting is critical. Clear and workable absence‑reporting processes are especially important where work is safety‑critical, physically demanding or carried out in isolated rural settings.
2. Review your family leave policies
Paternity leave and unpaid parental leave are now day one rights, so policies and procedures should be updated to remove old service thresholds and must make clear that new starters can exercise these family leave rights immediately.
3. Check your pay and holiday pay record keeping
The introduction of the Fair Work Agency means employers must maintain well organised records reflecting compliance including with the national minimum wage, statutory sick pay and holiday pay.
4. Ensure equality, anti-harassment, and whistleblowing policies are aligned with upcoming reforms.
5. Plan for the shorter qualifying period for unfair dismissal
Employers should review the length of probationary periods and consider reducing them. Three months is advisable because it gives scope to extend and provides scope if managers act late. If probationary periods are reduced, template contracts, offer letters and manager guidance will need updating.
6. Address underperformance
Employees with less than two years’ service who will have at least six months by 1 January should be managed proactively during 2026.
7. Review if you are likely to need to make any changes to terms and conditions and if you can, implement that before the fire and rehire restrictions come into force.
8. Plan how you will provide the required information on trade unions to employees.
9. Plan what training your managers might need to ensure compliance
In rural settings, short, practical training for farm managers, foremen and supervisors is likely to be most effective, supported by checklists, guidance notes and consistent record‑keeping.
Are there other changes coming as well?
This is a snapshot of changes most likely to impact rural and agricultural employers. There are many other changes including in relation to:
- Collective redundancies
- Menopause and equality action plans
- The extension of time limits for bringing a claim
- Simplifying trade union recognition
- Enhanced dismissal protections for pregnant employees and new mothers
The ERA reforms mark a shift away from informal, flexible workforce management towards a more structured and evidence‑based approach. Rural and agricultural employers who act early, adapt systems to the realities of farm work and train managers appropriately will be best placed to remain compliant without losing operational flexibility.
If you wish to discuss this further, please get in contact with Ellie Hibberd in our Employment team or call us on 0345 540 5558.