Black Mountain HR Newsletter: December 2025
Black Mountain UK HR Newsletter: December 2025
Welcome to our final newsletter of 2025 and what a whirlwind of a year it has been. The team here has worked hard this year to support all of our clients, and we have really enjoyed engaging with you all throughout 2025. Although I am sure most of our clients would prefer not to have to talk to HR at times.
As you are all aware the Employment Rights Bill has now made its way through the many hoops that it needed to and received Royal Assent on 18th December 2025, marking a significant overhaul of workers’ rights in the UK.
A reminder of the Key Changes Introduced by the Employment Rights Act 2025 are outlined below:
Feb 2026: Strikes & union rights
Apr 2026: Day-one SSP & paternity leave, Fair Work Agency
Oct 2026: Harassment prevention, fire-and-rehire restrictions, union access.
2027: Six-month unfair dismissal, zero hours rights, flexible working upgrades.
Unfair Dismissal Protections:
The Act removes the cap on unfair dismissal compensation and introduces a six-month qualifying period for new employees, effective from January 2027. This is a reduction from the previous two-year requirement, aiming to enhance job security for millions.
Non-Disclosure Agreements:
New restrictions on non-disclosure agreements have been implemented, aiming to protect workers from being silenced about workplace issues.
Collective Redundancy Rules:
The Act tightens rules around collective redundancies, increasing protective awards and introducing new threshold tests.
Fire and Rehire Restrictions:
Measures have been introduced to limit the controversial practice of “fire and rehire,” which has been criticized for undermining job security.
Guaranteed Hours and Bereavement Leave:
The Act includes provisions for guaranteed hours for workers and introduces bereavement leave following pregnancy loss, reflecting a more compassionate approach to employment rights.
So, what will you as our clients need to consider and what will we be doing to support you:
- Probation periods – when the law comes in you have 6 months to make decisions about whether to exit or keep new starters. We will be reviewing all our clients’ probationary processes to ensure that they are fit for purpose and meet the requirements of the employment rights bill. It will be important that all your managers are trained and up to date on the importance of maintaining good records during the probationary period to ensure that any employees who are not successful during their probationary period are dealt with in line with the changes. If you want to book in your managers for a hot topic session on probation, please do let us know.
- Contracts and policies updated to cover entitlements and processes. A full review of all contracts, policies and handbooks will be undertaken by us to ensure they are fit for purpose moving forward. Our HR Advisors will also be working with all clients to ensure that any additional policies outside of legal requirements are discussed.
- Implement tight absence management processes – Statutory sick pay and parental leave will become a day 1 right so you need to ensure employees taking high levels of absence are managed. Our team will work with you to identify any changes to absence levels, proactively manage those employees with high absence levels and ensure that the well-being and support mechanisms are in place.
- Training for your managers so they can implement these new ways of working consistently and confidently. We will be offering more hot topic training sessions (short drop-in sessions) to our clients so please do reach out to arrange these with your HR advisors and the admin team.
- A review of your workers taking into account those on zero hours/casual agreements, fixed term and self-employed contracts to ensure all remain fit for purpose and meet the need of the individual as well as the business and its legislative responsibilities.
The Government has set out its proposed new statutory rates for statutory sick pay and family leave pay to apply from 6th April 2026.
| Old Rate | New Rate | |
| Statutory maternity pay | £187.18 per week | £194.32 per week |
| Statutory paternity pay | £187.18 per week | £194.32 per week |
| Statutory shared parental pay | £187.18 per week | £194.32 per week |
| Statutory adoption pay | £187.18 per week | £194.32 per week |
| Statutory parental bereavement pay | £187.18 per week | £194.32 per week |
| Statutory neonatal care leave pay | £187.18 per week | £194.32 per week |
| Statutory sick pay | £118.75 per week | £123.25 per week |
The average gross weekly earnings required to qualify for the various forms of family leave pay is proposed to increase from £125.00 or more per week, to £129.00 or more per week from 6th April 2026.
If you are interested in receiving regular HR, Payroll or Employee Benefits update, then you can subscribe by following this link on our website – https://www.blackmountainhr.com/subscribe.
Alternatively if you would like to enquire about our outsourcing service offering regarding HR Advice, HR Administration, etc, you can reach out using the below options. We look forward to assisting you with your query.
Phone: 01432 272787
Email: enquiries@blackmountainhr.com
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