From fire and rehire to pregnancy protection: the further employment law changes anticipated to shape 2027

The Government’s programme of employment law reform continues to develop, with more information now available on enhanced dismissal protections during pregnancy and family leave, bereavement leave and dismissal and re-engagement. Alongside this, the Government has updated its timeline for implementing measures under the Employment Rights Act 2025.

While employers now have greater certainty on when some reforms will take effect, the timing of other significant changes, including those affecting zero hours contracts, remains uncertain. Future implementation dates remain subject to parliamentary processes and may yet change again. 

Below, we cover the latest developments. For a detailed overview of the ERA 2025 related employment law reform, see our ERA 2025 tracker. 

Enhanced dismissal protection during pregnancy and family leave 

The Government has confirmed its intended approach to enhanced dismissal protections for pregnant employees, new mothers and those returning from family leave in its response to the consultation which closed earlier this year. There will now be a much higher burden on employers to justify dismissal of this protected class of individuals.

The existing five potentially fair reasons for dismissal (capability, conduct, redundancy, statutory prohibition and some other substantial reason) will remain. However, during the protected period the current “band of reasonable responses” test for unfair dismissal will be replaced with a proportionality test. Under this test, an employer will need to identify the legitimate business objective underlying the dismissal and demonstrate that dismissal is a proportionate means of achieving that legitimate business objective. This will ordinarily require the employer to be satisfied that less severe alternatives were not reasonably available. 

The enhanced dismissal protection will be a day one right, with no qualifying period. In the case of pregnancy, protection will apply once an employee informs their employer that they are pregnant. It will continue throughout maternity leave and for six months following the end of that leave. 

Enhanced protection will also extend to adoption leave, shared parental leave, neonatal care leave and bereaved partner’s paternity leave. 

The Government anticipates that these enhanced dismissal protections will take effect in October 2027. 

Bereavement leave, including pregnancy loss leave 

Further details are now available on the new statutory right to bereavement leave, including pregnancy loss. The Government's implementation timetable provides for this new right – which is distinct from the existing right to parental bereavement leave – to take effect in April 2027. 

The Government confirmed in its response to the consultation which closed in January 2026 that it intends eligibility to extend to a broad range of immediate family relationships, including biological, adoptive and step relationships, and equivalent parental relationships arising through kinship and foster care arrangements.

The Government also confirmed that the right will cover all types of pregnancy loss before 24 weeks, specifically: (i) miscarriage; (ii) termination of a pregnancy; and (iii) IVF embryo transfer loss, although not embryo loss before transfer.

Depending on the circumstances, entitlement following pregnancy loss will extend beyond the person who was pregnant to include spouses and civil partners, co-parents, and intended parents in surrogacy arrangements.

During the first eight weeks of bereavement, employees will be able to notify their employer before starting work on the day on which they intend to take leave or as soon as is reasonably possible afterwards. For leave taken after that eight-week period, one week’s notice will be required. Notice may be given in any form, and employees will not be required to provide evidence of the loss.

Dismissal and re-engagement: revised Code of Practice 

On 22 October 2026, the Government launched a consultation on a revised Code of Practice on Dismissal and Re-engagement. Consultation closes on 17 December 2026. The revised Code is intended to reflect the new dismissal and re-engagement provisions introduced by the Employment Rights Act 2025 and to provide practical guidance for employers considering dismissal and re-engagement. Importantly, these new provisions don’t simply apply to “fire and rehire” scenarios, but also to wider proposals to vary workforce terms and conditions, whether individually or on a larger scale.

Under the new regime, dismissing an employee to change certain core contractual terms will be automatically unfair unless the employer can satisfy a narrow financial difficulties exception. The restricted changes include reductions in pay, changes to total hours, reductions in leave entitlement, changes to pensions and specified changes to shift patterns. 

The revised Code emphasises that dismissal and re-engagement should be a last resort, with employers expected to engage in reasonable information-sharing and meaningful consultation aimed at reaching agreement on contractual changes. 

The Government also published its response to the consultation on fire and rehire: changes to expenses, benefits and shift patterns which closed in April 2026. The response confirmed that certain types of travel expenses (including mileage), accommodation expenses and accommodation as a benefit in kind will be in scope of the restricted variations along with certain shift changes, including a change to night time working where that was not previously required. Changes to share schemes will not be in scope. 

The new statutory protections on dismissal and re-engagement are due to take effect in March 2027 (having been delayed from January 2027). The Government intends the revised Code to come into force in summer 2027.

Employment status: significant reform under consultation

Employment status could now be another significant area of reform. The Government opened a consultation on 14 October 2026, which closes on 8 January 2027, seeking views on targeted reform of employment status to tackle “bogus self-employment” and the use of substitution clauses, which it considers can enable exploitation at work. 

The Government makes clear that, although creating a single status of worker is a longer-term goal, the three main employment status types (employee, worker and self-employed) will be retained for now. However, reform in this area could have a significant impact on businesses that deploy flexible workforces, including freelancers and consultants.

The Government is consulting on placing less emphasis on personal service when determining worker status so that a right of substitution does not outweigh other relevant factors. It is also consulting on a presumption of worker status, which would shift the burden of proof away from individuals seeking to establish their employment rights and onto an employer to demonstrate that an individual is genuinely self-employed. Further proposals envisage a role for the Fair Work Agency in challenging employment status determinations and enforcing worker rights. 

The consultation also considers strengthened protections for the self-employed, including a new right to a written statement, blacklisting protections and extending health and safety protections. 

Key changes to the Employment Rights Act 2025 timeline 

The Government published further updates to its implementation timeline on 22 October 2026. The timeline includes delays to previously anticipated implementation dates for a number of key reforms. 

Collective redundancy consultation 

The Government's reforms will introduce an additional threshold, under which collective consultation will be triggered where a specified number of redundancies is proposed across the business as a whole, regardless of individual establishments. The Government’s updated timeline indicates this change will now take effect in April 2027. However, details of the precise numbers for this additional threshold for triggering collective consultation are not yet known. The Government’s response to its consultation on this issue, which is awaited, will confirm these details.

Non-disclosure agreements 

The Government is also progressing reforms addressing the use of non-disclosure agreements in cases involving workplace harassment or discrimination.

The Government’s updated timeline provides for regulations preventing the misuse of non-disclosure agreements in cases of workplace harassment or discrimination to take effect in September 2027. 

Zero-hours contracts: implementation date remains outstanding 

The Employment Rights Act 2025 contains three measures giving employees rights to:

• guaranteed hours, reflecting hours worked by a qualifying worker during a reference period;
• reasonable notice of shifts and changes to shifts; and
• payment for shifts cancelled, curtailed or moved at short notice. 

The Government consulted on the detail of the new regime between June and August 2026 and is currently analysing the feedback received. The measures have not yet taken effect. 

The Government’s previous timeline indicated that these changes would take effect in 2027. However, the latest timeline does not give these reforms an implementation date. Instead, it states that timings will be updated following the consultation process. 

For further information about any of the issues covered in this legal update, or to discuss your business’ approach to any aspect of employment reform under the Employment Rights Act 2025, please get in touch with your usual CMS employment team contact and take a look at our ERA 2025 tracker. 

This legal update was co-authored by Candace Ford, a trainee solicitor in the CMS UK Employment team.