Skip to content

Your Guide to the Employment Rights Act

Category

Union updates

Date

17 feb 2026

Author

Imperial College Union

Read Time

2 min

Beit Quad on a sunny day

The new Employment Rights Act 2025 sets out significant changes to workers’ rights.

Many of these changes may affect you as a student working alongside your studies. It is important you understand these changes and what they mean for you.

What are the changes and when will they come into place?

Statutory Sick Pay – April 2026

From April 2026, all workers regardless of how much they earn will be entitled to sick pay from the first day of the illness.

Paternity leave and unpaid parental leave will also become rights from the first day of employment.

Strengthening prevention of sexual harassment – October 2026

From October 2026, employers will have to take ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment and cannot permit harassment of their employees by third parties. The government are currently consulting on what ‘reasonable steps’ should look like.

Reforms to zero-hour contracts – 2027

In 2027, significant changes to zero-hour contracts will come into effect meaning:

  • An end to “exploitative” zero-hour contracts
  • If you are on a zero-hour contract, your employer should offer you a set contract of guaranteed hours after a certain amount of time working for them (the government are currently consulting on what exactly this will look like)
  • You can choose to decline this offer and continue with a zero-hour contract if you prefer

Additional changes coming in 2027 include:

  • Protection from unfair dismissal from day 1 of employment
  • Gender pay gap action plans required for some employers

Many of these changes will take time to come into effect, however some like statutory sick pay will become your right as a student worker in April. The reforms to zero-hour contracts represent a significant change that seeks to improve job security and stability through regular hours and guaranteed pay. While this is positive, we know some students may appreciate the flexibility of a zero-hour contract and if this is the case you can choose to decline contracted hours.

If you are concerned about exploitation or your rights at your place of work, you can find more information through the following resources: