GOVERNMENT POLICY
The New Employment Rights Act (2025)
A mini guide for Employers
By and large, employment law treats migrant workers in the same way as British workers; for example, key rights like minimum wage protection and anti-discrimination protection apply to all workers.
Sometimes the practicalities of mobility and the contexts in which migrant workers are employed raise some barriers to the realisation of the ideas behind employment law.
For example minimum service requirements for some rights make it harder for workers who move between employers to access them. Some ways of organising work relations can place people outside of the scope of some protections, for example use of self-employment. Migrant workers may be overrepresented in these forms of relationship.
The Employment Rights Act 2025 makes a series of changes to employment law that reach far and wide across the existing legal landscape. This guide picks up on some of the changes that stand out to us as pertinent to the contexts where migrant workers are found.
What this guide offers
This short guide is a non-comprehensive summary of some of key changes in UK employment law that are relevant for employers and workers. The core statutory rights and obligations set out by the new Employment Right Act 2025 broadly speaking apply to workers independently from their nationality, although immigration/citizenship status bring with them some visa restrictions that may influence the exercise of those rights (see FLEX-Focus on Labour Exploitation 2026). The new obligations cover areas as diverse as statutory sick pay, zero-hour contracts, parental leave, unfair dismissal and union recognition. “Equality action plans”, also included in recent legislation outside of the Employment Right Act will be particularly relevant in diverse workplace with high percentage of BAME and migrant workers.
Key Employment Rights Changes Affecting Employers of Migrant and Refugee Workers
This guide summarises these key provisions, indicates the timeline when each set of rights becomes enforceable and provides links to further and more comprehensive resources drawing from existing official guidance – see links below.
Authors
This guide was produced by Professor Gabriella Alberti with contribution from Dr Mattia Dessi at the University of Leeds as part of the IAA project “ Bridging the gap between employers and marginalised migrants: co-creating the Y&H Employer Engagement Platform”. Please contact g.alberti@leeds.ac.uk for any questions about this guide.
What this guide does NOT offer:
This is not a guide to what the law is or how it is changing in any detailed sense. It is a ‘heads up’ on some of the changes that have been communicated by the Government and stand out to us as potentially relevant for employers of migrants and refugees. We do not claim to offer legal advice, and we stress that employers should seek out specialist advice of their own if they need it. The guide does not focus on changes to trade unions, industrial action and collective bargaining rights included in the new Employment Act, more information on this topic can be found here.
Disclaimer: The authors are not qualified legal practitioners, and this document is not legal advice and should not be treated as such.
List of websites used for this guide
ACAS Employment Rights Act 2025
TUC: What will the Employment Rights Act mean for workers’ rights in the UK?