The Future of Employment Law – Q&A with Darwin Gray
At our Future of Work Conference on 14th May 2025, a panel of employment law specialists from Darwin Gray spoke to attendees about their predictions for the future of employment law in the UKover the coming years.
Partners Fflur Jones, Damian Phillips, Owen John and Rachel Ford-Evans answered Sian Lloyd’s questions about the Employment Rights Bill and other expected changes in the short-, medium- and long-terms.
We’ve summarised our experts’ predictions from the Q&A below. Watch this space to see whether they’re right!
Short-term predictions
Q. With the Employment Rights Bill on the horizon, we know that there are big changes to employment law on the way. Can you tell us about this?
A. The Employment Rights Bill (ERB) is set to be one of the most important pieces of employment legislation in UK legal history. There have been several fundamentally important Acts over the centuries in the UK, covering issues from the abolition to slavery, to the decriminalisation of trade unions, to the right to equal pay for men and women.
The ERB is the next major piece of legislation, and will fundamentally change employment lawin areas ranging from unfair dismissal rights to zero-hour contracts.
Q. How will the Bill affect unfair dismissal rights?
A. What the ERB will do is give all employees the right to be protected from unfair dismissal on day 1 of their employment. At the moment, there is a2-year threshold for employees to get this protection, meaning that in most cases, employers can safely dismiss employees who aren’t working out within the first 2 years. Over the years, this threshold has ranged in duration – for example, before it was 2 years, it was 1 year and was increased in 2012. It hasnever been a day 1 right though, so this is a huge change.
We expect, however, that this is going to be subject to the caveat that a “modified” dismissal procedure will apply during what’s being called an “initial period of employment”. This will be similar to a probationary period, and we currently expect it to be 9 months. This will allow employers to follow a shortened procedure if they need to dismiss employees for poor performance or conduct during that time, reducing the risk of unfair dismissal claims – but this won’t apply in redundancy cases.
Q. Are you able to tell us about what this might mean for Employment Tribunal claims, and how the Tribunal system might cope or struggle with this?
A. We are likely to see a big increase in the number of claims being brought. As well as the change to unfair dismissal rights, something else that’s being taken forward in the ERB is the increase in limitation periods for most types of employment claims from 3 months to 6 months. We often receive enquiries from employees who have been dismissed or discriminated against but who have waited longer than 3 months to seek advice. Those people will now have more time.
In terms of the effect on the Tribunal system, the system is already struggling to cope with a large volume of claims. We expect the ERB to lead to a big spike in claims, at least in the short-term. It might also mean that more claims are settled, as parties won’t necessarily want a dispute to be hanging over them for months or even years.
Q. What other workers’ rights are expected to be affected by the Bill?
A. We’ve already seen some changes to workers’ rights introduced in the last couple of years and we expect these to be developed and expanded upon. For example, there is a new legal duty on employers to take “reasonable steps” to address sexual harassment in the workplace, which came into force in October2024. The UK Government is proposing to make this duty wider in the ERB, and also to introduce more protections for workers against all types of harassment by third parties.
There are many other areas covered by the ERB, but as another example of new rights we’re likely to see, there are new family-friendly rights being introduced. We’ve recently seen the introduction of parental bereavement leave, carers’ leave and neonatal care leave. We’re also expecting to see the expansion of the rights topaternity and parental leave so that they apply from day 1, and a new statutory right to compassionate leave for bereavements, which is a long-overdue change.
Medium-term predictions
Q. Moving onto think about the next 5 years or so. One area employers will need to get to grips with is their longer-term policies on home and hybrid working. Many employers are still grappling with bringing people back to the office. What are the employment law implications?
A. Many employers are still trying to work out what they are able to do, as well as what they want to do. From a legal perspective, whether they can impose office working or any other working pattern on their staff will depend on what the contract of employment says. Some contracts haven’t been updated since before Covid, but might have been amended through custom and practice.
There are also legal considerations around disability discrimination and sex discrimination when it comes to employees who need to remain at home for family reasons. Employers need to be very careful in this area and proper consultation with their staff is going to be key.
Q. What do employers need to do to support the health and safety and mental health of their home-working employees?
A. The duty on employers to protect the health and safety of their employees and workers applies in exactly the same way to mental health as it does to physical health. That means that employers need to put safeguards in place to make sure that those people who work remotely on a permanent basis are supported – including health and safety risk assessments, monitoring of working hours, having systems for mentoring and training, and good communication channels.
Q. What are the different considerations for employers when it comes to neurodivergent employees?
A. For some workers who are neurodivergent, the home working environment will suit them much better than the office environment as it can reduce factors like sensory overload, stresses around commuting, and give them more flexibility to work in a way that suits them. However, this will depend on each individual – some neurodivergent people could benefit from a more structured working environment and in-person support. We are seeing much more recognition of the existence and effects of neurodiversity in the workforce and expect this to continue, and increase, in the next 10 years.
Employers should remember that many people who are neurodivergent could benefit from disability protection under the Equality Act, so they may have legal duties to put reasonable adjustments in place. This shouldn’t be a one-size-fits-all approach but is something employers need to educate themselves on.
Long-term predictions
Q. Finally, some quick thoughts on your long-term predictions, for the next 10 years and more. We’re seeing conversations at the moment about the UK’s ageing workforce. What are your thoughts?
A. The UK definitely does have an ageing workforce and this trend is likely to continue over the coming decades – that’s linked to the declining birth rate but also the needs of many people to work longer before retirement. We also have a new generation coming into the workforce which has a very different outlook on some issues – for example, what the working day looks like, what the workplace looks like, and what they want their career to look like.
Some employers will see conflicts developing between those different generations and will need to devise ways of bridging the gaps and encouraging cross-generation collaboration.
Q. Issues around AI are also still currently a ‘hot topic’. What are those issues in relation to employment law?
A. AI is an area which could hugely change the UK’s employment environment in the coming years and longer. It’s not necessarily going to be the case that AI itself will put us all out of our jobs, but that’s going to depend on us knowing how to use those AI tools – those who don’t keep up may be left behind.
We could therefore see a big divide developing between businesses which embrace the technology and those which don’t.
Q. Lastly, are we likely to see a shift towards apprenticeships and skills-based training?
A. The advent of AI feeds into this issue too. Sectors which traditionally rely on university graduates to provide the knowledge and expertise they need might well see some big changes. If that knowledge can be instantly generated by AI, there may be less need for a knowledge-based university degree and instead, a greater focus on practical skills.
We’ve seen various government policies come and go in the last few years in relation to apprenticeships, but are likely to see a renewed focus on this in the years to come.
If you would like to speak to Darwin Gray’s employment law team about any of the above, or any related employment law or HR queries, please get in touch with the team on02920 829 100 or via the Darwin Gray website.
