Plans for implementing the Employment Rights Act 2025 (ERA 2025) continue apace, with the government publishing new guidance on equality action plans. Despite existing reporting requirements, the gender pay gap among full-time employees in the UK was 6.9% in 2025. The government has also launched two further consultations, which could significantly increase employers’ obligations in relation to collective redundancies and industrial action.
New guidance on equality action plans
Employers with more than 250 employees need to start preparing ahead of the requirement to publish an equality action plan alongside their gender pay gap reporting from April 2027. The government is encouraging companies to submit a voluntary action plan ahead of the system becoming mandatory.
The plan must cover two key areas, reducing the gender pay gap and supporting employees experiencing the menopause. Employers must identify at least one step in each area they are taking to improve gender equality. The guidance includes a list of possible actions, such as increased pay transparency and access to occupational health advice for employees experiencing the menopause.
For many employers, this represents a shift from reporting to accountability. Preparing early will help test internal processes, inform and engage stakeholders, and manage potential reputational scrutiny.
Consultation: trigger for collective redundancy consultation
At present, employers need only consult collectively when they propose 20 or more redundancies at one establishment. This allows employers to conduct large redundancy exercises, without consultation, if redundancies are split across multiple sites.
The ERA 2025 enables the government to change the trigger for collective consultation by adding an additional trigger event alongside the existing test where, across the employer’s organisation, it proposes to dismiss as redundant at least the threshold number of employees. The ERA 2025 stipulates that the threshold number must not be lower than 20 employees, irrespective of the calculation method.
The consultation seeks views on whether the threshold should be set using a single fixed number in the range of 250 to 1,000, or a tiered threshold based on the number of employees within the organisation.
This change will significantly increase the number of redundancy processes that require collective consultation. Employers with operations across several sites should consider how they will ensure there is central oversight of redundancy exercises in different parts of the business to monitor whether they are triggering the new threshold. It also makes sense to review what, if any, forums currently exist for consulting employees and consider introducing standing employee bodies with a suitable remit to cover collective redundancy consultation.
The consultation is open until 21 May 2026 and the change to the trigger will take effect at some point in 2027.
Consultation: protection for employees taking industrial action
The government is also consulting on expanding protection for employees who take part in industrial action. Whilst employees are currently protected from dismissal for participating in lawful industrial action, recent case law established that there was a gap in the law in relation to protection from other forms of detriment.
The ERA 2025 will therefore provide protection from prescribed detriments on grounds of protected industrial action. The government is consulting on two options for what will constitute prescribed detriments.
The government’s preferred approach is to prohibit any detriment linked to industrial action. The government favours this broad approach to reduce the risk of gaps in protection.
The second option is to provide a defined list of prohibited detriments. This could include specific actions (such as the refusal of a promotion), categories of detriment (such as career progression opportunities) or detriments above a certain severity threshold. The consultation notes that this approach may be susceptible to employers acting in bad faith seeking novel workarounds.
This is an important development for employers with unionised workforces. Routine management decisions, such as performance assessments or promotion processes, may be more vulnerable to challenge by employees arguing they were linked to strike participation.
Employers should consider revisiting their internal policies and manager training to ensure employees who strike lawfully are not treated in a way that they could characterise as detrimental.
The consultation is open until 23 April 2026 and the new protection will come into force in October 2026.
Key takeaways
These developments reflect a broader shift towards increased employee protection and greater employer accountability. While some of the detail is still under consultation, the changes expand obligations in areas that already carry significant legal and reputational risk.
Organisations with multi-site operations or unionised workforces should begin reviewing how they manage redundancy exercises and industrial relations in practice. Large employers should also start considering how they will evidence meaningful progress on gender equality ahead of mandatory equality action plans.
Acting early will be key to staying compliant and avoiding unnecessary risk.
