Employment Rights Act 2025: What Training Do Managers Actually Need?
The ERA 2025 changes hit in April 2026. Managers who get dismissals, grievances, or flexible working wrong now face bigger consequences. Here's what training should cover.
The Employment Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent in December 2025. Its provisions are being implemented in phases throughout 2026 and 2027, with the first major changes taking effect from 6 April 2026.
These are not minor adjustments. The Act represents the most significant reform of UK employment rights in a generation. Day-one unfair dismissal rights, expanded protections for flexible working, stronger whistleblowing safeguards, enhanced trade union access, and increased tribunal compensation — the landscape managers operate in has fundamentally changed.
The organisations that will navigate this well are the ones that train their managers before the first tribunal claim lands. The ones that will struggle are the ones that send a policy update email and assume the job is done.
What Changed in April 2026
Several provisions came into effect on 6 April 2026.
Statutory sick pay from day one. The three waiting days before SSP begins have been removed. Employees are now entitled to statutory sick pay from the first day of absence. Managers who previously applied a waiting period need to know this has changed — and HR processes need to reflect it.
Expanded parental and bereavement leave. Paternity leave is now available from day one of employment, and bereavement leave protections have been expanded. Managers making decisions about leave requests need to understand the new entitlements.
Changes to zero-hours contracts. New provisions give zero-hours and low-hours workers the right to a guaranteed hours contract reflecting their regular working pattern, after a reference period. The right to reasonable notice of shifts has also been strengthened.
These April 2026 changes are the first wave. The provisions with the biggest impact on day-to-day management are scheduled for later in 2026 and into 2027.
What Is Coming Next
Day-one unfair dismissal rights. Currently, employees need two years of continuous service before they can claim ordinary unfair dismissal. The ERA 2025 removes this qualifying period. Once implemented — expected in late 2026 or early 2027 — every employee will have protection from unfair dismissal from their first day of employment.
This is the single most consequential change for managers. It means that every dismissal decision, from probation failures to performance management to conduct issues, will be subject to scrutiny from day one. The margin for error in dismissal processes shrinks significantly.
Stronger flexible working protections. The right to request flexible working already exists from day one. The ERA 2025 goes further — employers will need to demonstrate that a refusal is based on one of the statutory grounds and that they have genuinely considered the request. Tribunal awards for unreasonable refusals are increasing.
Enhanced whistleblowing protections. The scope of whistleblowing protections is expanding. Managers who react badly to a protected disclosure — or who fail to recognise that a complaint constitutes a protected disclosure — create significant legal exposure for the organisation.
Increased tribunal compensation. Compensation limits for certain claims are being raised. The financial consequences of getting employment decisions wrong are going up.
Why Policy Updates Are Not Enough
The standard organisational response to legislative change is to update policies and distribute them. This approach has two problems.
First, managers do not read policy documents in the way that lawyers do. A policy that accurately reflects the new legal position does not ensure that the manager conducting a probation review or responding to a flexible working request understands the practical implications. The gap between what a policy says and what a manager does in practice is where tribunal claims are born.
Second, the ERA 2025 changes are not primarily about rules — they are about judgment. Day-one unfair dismissal rights do not mean organisations cannot dismiss employees during probation. They mean the process must be fair from day one. What constitutes a fair process involves judgment calls that depend on context: the nature of the role, the severity of the issue, the support provided, the alternatives considered.
Judgment cannot be taught through a policy document. It requires practice — working through realistic scenarios where managers face the actual pressures and ambiguities of employment decisions and learn to apply the right framework.
What Manager Training Should Cover
A proportionate training programme for the ERA 2025 changes should address the areas where managers make decisions with legal consequences.
Dismissals during probation. With day-one unfair dismissal rights, probation is no longer a risk-free zone. Managers need to understand what a fair probation process looks like: clear objectives, documented feedback, reasonable time to improve, and a structured decision at the end. Training should include scenarios where the performance issue is ambiguous — because those are the cases that reach tribunals.
Performance management. The higher stakes make robust performance management more important, not less. Managers need to understand the capability procedure, the distinction between capability and conduct, and the documentation trail that supports a defensible process.
Handling grievances. Grievances that are handled poorly often escalate into tribunal claims — particularly when the grievance relates to discrimination, whistleblowing, or flexible working. Managers need practice in responding to grievances fairly and recognising when the subject matter triggers additional legal protections.
Flexible working requests. Managers must understand the statutory grounds for refusal and the process for considering requests. Training should address the grey areas: what happens when a request is partially accommodable, when business needs genuinely conflict with the request, and when a refusal might constitute indirect discrimination.
Recognising whistleblowing. Many managers do not recognise that a complaint or concern raised by an employee constitutes a protected disclosure under whistleblowing legislation. Training should cover what qualifies as a protected disclosure, why the motivation of the whistleblower is irrelevant, and what managers must not do in response.
Harassment and the preventative duty. The ERA 2025 strengthens the duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment. Managers are on the front line of this obligation. Training should cover recognising harassment, responding to complaints, and understanding the employer's proactive duty — not just reactive obligations.
The Case for Scenario-Based Training
Employment decisions are contextual. A textbook answer about unfair dismissal procedures does not prepare a manager for the actual situation: an underperforming employee who is also a union representative, or a probation failure where the employee disclosed a disability during the probation period, or a team member raising a concern that might be a whistleblowing disclosure.
Scenario-based training puts managers in these situations and requires them to make decisions. The consequences of each decision — fair process, legal exposure, employee impact, organisational risk — are made explicit. This builds the applied judgment that policy documents cannot develop.
It also generates stronger evidence for tribunal purposes. If an organisation can demonstrate that the manager involved in a disputed decision completed scenario-based training covering that exact type of situation, the evidence of a fair and reasonable approach is substantially stronger than a completion certificate from a generic employment law e-learning module.
Our Employment Rights Act training is designed for this purpose — putting managers through realistic employment decisions where the ERA 2025 changes directly affect the right course of action. Five minutes is enough to see the approach.
When to Train
The phased implementation of the ERA 2025 creates a window that many organisations are wasting.
The April 2026 changes are already in effect. Day-one unfair dismissal rights are expected later in 2026 or early 2027. Organisations that train managers now — before the most consequential changes take effect — give those managers time to adjust their approach before the stakes increase.
Organisations that wait until day-one rights are confirmed will be training reactively, under pressure, probably with a hastily assembled slide deck. Their managers will be making high-stakes dismissal decisions before they have internalised the new framework.
The recommendation is straightforward: train managers in Q2 2026 on the changes already in effect, and schedule a second round of training for when the day-one dismissal provisions are confirmed. Annual refresher training should become standard.
For a structured assessment of your current management training, the compliance training diagnostic provides a starting point.