Employment & Pensions Blog: A Week of Government Announcements

The last week or so has seen a series of important employment law announcements from the Government.

Ban on Using Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) in Harassment and Discrimination Cases

It is very common for settlement agreements and COT3s to contain NDAs/confidentiality clauses, or clauses that prevent the employee from saying anything derogatory about the employer or its workers. 

A Government backed amendment to the Employment Rights Bill will make clauses like this void if they prevent an employee from making allegations or disclosures about harassment or discrimination. Although strangely, the ban won't apply to a failure to make reasonable adjustments, which NDAs can still be used to prevent disclosure of. 

The protection applies whether the alleged discrimination is by the employer or by another worker, and whether the victim is the complainant or another worker. 

Many will see this as a victory for the victims of discrimination and harassment, others might argue that this will actually disincentivise employers from entering into settlements in the first place - forcing those who make allegations to take their cases all the way to a final hearing.  

Softening the ‘Ban on Fire and Rehire’

Originally the Employment Rights Bill proposed to ban the use of dismissal and re-engagement (otherwise known as ‘fire and rehire’) as a method to vary a contract of employment,  with the only very narrow exception being where the reason for the variation was to save the company from financial collapse.

Published amendments now seek to soften this somewhat. Rather than a complete ban on any type of variation, the ban on ‘fire and rehire’ will now only cover ‘restricted variations’ which will include changes to pay, pension, hours of work, and holiday entitlement. 

A New ‘Miscarriage Leave’

As it stands, bereavement leave is only available to parents who lose an unborn child after 24 weeks of pregnancy. 

The Government is set to amend the Employment Rights Bill to give parents the legal right to take time off work to grieve if they experience pregnancy loss at any stage. The proposed extended right to leave would be unpaid and last for at least one week, though the exact length is still being consulted on. Further details including who will be eligible and whether a doctor's note would be required will also be decided following Government consultations.

A Review of the Parental Leave System

From 1 July 2025, the Government launched an 18‑month review into the current parental leave and pay system. This forms part of the Government’s plan to make work pay, and the review will look at the whole system - maternity, paternity and adoption leave; parental leave; and shared parental leave.

Employment Rights Bill – Road Map to Implementation 

On 1 July 2025 the Government published a comprehensive roadmap detailing how and when key reforms within the Employment Rights Bill will be implemented:

• Summer–Autumn 2025: 
  • Consultations on unfair dismissal (“Day 1” rights), trade union reforms, fire-and-rehire codes, umbrella company regulation, collective redundancy thresholds, workplace sexual harassment prevention duties.
     
• April 2026:
  • Day 1 rights to paternity leave and unpaid parental leave come into force.
  • The new Fair Work Agency launches, and the waiting periods for Statutory Sick Pay are removed.
  • Time limits for bringing most employment tribunal claims are extended from 3 to 6 months.  
• October 2026:
  • Introduction of fire-and-rehire restrictions, although the Government has announced that the restrictions will be softened from what was originally announced.  
  • Employers must implement “all reasonable steps” to prevent harassment in the workplace (including from third parties).
  • Gender pay gap and menopause action plans become mandatory.
     
• 2027: The most significant changes arrive:
  • Day‑1 protection from unfair dismissal.
  • Stronger rights to flexible working, with any refusal from the employer needing to be ‘reasonable’. 
  • Changes to the use of zero-hours contracts.
  • New right to statutory bereavement leave.
  • Extended dismissal protections for pregnant/new mothers

Comment

When reviewing the announcements it is important to look at whether they are Government backed or not. If they aren’t, the reality is that they are very unlikely to become law. There are a number of amendments to the Employment Rights Bill that are not Government backed. For instance, in whistleblowing, expanding what constitutes a protected disclosure to include abuse of authority and mismanagement of public funds, and amendments which proposed to soften the changes to guaranteed hours contracts.  

The implementation roadmap is a very welcome announcement for businesses, it enables them to plan for what will mean significant changes for how they manage the people side of their businesses. The fact that very few changes will come into force in 2025 will also be welcome, because it means no immediate changes for businesses which will give them some breathing room to plan. 

If you require further guidance on the Employment Rights Bill, please contact a member of our Employment Team.