Employment Rights Act: Preparing for change: Are your line managers ready for the challenge?

27 May 2026 4 min read

By Rachel Chapman

At a glance

The Employment Rights Act (ERA) introduces wide-ranging reforms that significantly expand employee protections, increase trade union rights and raise risks for employers, marking a fundamental shift in employment law.
A key development is the reduction of the unfair dismissal qualifying period to six months and the removal of the compensation cap, placing greater pressure on employers to make sound recruitment and probation decisions.
Line managers will play a critical role in implementing these changes, but many may not yet be equipped to manage recruitment, performance, absence and workplace issues in a consistent and legally robust way.
The ERA also introduces day-one rights for statutory sick pay (from April) and expands family leave rights, requiring managers to handle attendance and leave requests more effectively.
New duties to prevent sexual harassment, including third party harassment (expected October 2026), will further increase the importance of proactive and well-informed line management.

The ERA represents the biggest change to the employment law landscape in a generation, significantly increasing protections for employees, opportunities for trade unions and risks for businesses. Most employers will already have seen extensive commentary on the ERA aimed at HR and legal teams; there is no shortage of guidance on the reforms ahead and already in force. The more difficult question is whether line managers are ready for the practical consequences. A key implementation challenge will be whether line managers are equipped to handle recruitment, probation, performance concerns and sensitive workplace issues in a consistent and legally robust way. If not, the result may be increased tribunal risk, worsening employee relations and avoidable cost.

Priority areas for employers

Employers should now be considering whether line managers are ready for the challenges in the following areas:

Recruitment

Where line managers are involved in recruitment, employers should review how decisions are made and whether managers are clear on their role in the process.

When the unfair dismissal qualifying period is reduced to six months and the compensation cap is removed, rushed hiring decisions, or decisions driven mainly by the pressure to fill a vacancy, may become much more costly. If employers only have six months to assess performance, conduct and ‘fit’ for the role, getting recruitment right at the outset becomes even more important.

Refresher training for hiring managers would be a sensible step, particularly where managers have significant input into selection decisions.

Performance management during probation

Most employers would accept that active performance management during probation is important, but in practice it is often handled inconsistently. The ERA will make that a higher-risk approach.

Employers will need managers to assess performance early, review it regularly and be ready to make decisions within a much shorter timeframe.

That is likely to require:

Regular review points from an early stage.
Clear expectations being set from day one.
Diary prompts for key decision dates.
A clear understanding of the risk of allowing issues to drift beyond the six-month point.

Managers may lack experience in running structured reviews, addressing underperformance early, recording concerns clearly, offering support and making timely decisions. Employers will have significantly less time to identify concerns and act, while the financial consequences of poor decision-making will increase materially. In many organisations, line managers are not yet ready for that shift.

However, unfair dismissal risks are only one part of the picture. Other ERA reforms will also affect how managers deal with day-to-day people issues.

Absence management

Absence management is another area to review. Since April, statutory sick pay (SSP) is payable from day one of absence rather than day four. Employees earning below the lower earnings limit also qualify for SSP.

For employers that do not currently enhance SSP, this may have a noticeable cost impact. At the same time, some businesses may expect absence levels to rise. That makes this a good point to check whether managers are equipped to:

Monitor attendance actively.
Carry out effective return-to-work meetings.
Spot patterns at an earlier stage.
Escalate concerns promptly and appropriately.

Harassment prevention

Line managers will be on the front line when it comes to implementation of the duty to take all reasonable steps to prevent workplace sexual harassment, and the duty to prevent third party harassment which are expected to come into force in October 2026. Managers will play a key role in recognising risks and warning signs, investigating allegations, escalating concerns appropriately, role modelling good behaviour and calling out bad behaviour. Ineffective management will undermine any attempts to tackle these issues at the organisational level. It is crucial that managers understand what the new duties entail and their role in protecting the organisation.

Expanded family leave rights

The ERA also expands certain family leave rights. Paternity leave, although not paternity pay, is now a day-one right, as is the right to take unpaid parental leave.

Employers should make sure line managers understand these changes, which took effect from April, and are familiar with any related policy updates. Managers will need to deal with requests appropriately and know where to direct employees for further information.